The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-13

woods. III the
! At last night came, and With
ladder in hand l made for thu my a my
In front OF it there was ~,
space of about one hundred ware
which mad been prepared to r,oi s"ias
work OF the guards easier in ms the
ing it. "a'ea'
waited in the neighborhood r,.,
heard the sentry pass the spot who.a
was i'll hiding and then 7 hns'
across the clearing, slowed nv LAW
under the barbrd wire and epda as'
ored to follow it. Ny clothing cona,
il the wire, but / wrenched mrsa,.
clear ANA craWled to the electric SCI
rier. 0af
My plan was to place the ,os,
against one Of the posts, climb nv
the top and then jump. There wau, .l
be fail Of n5ne or ten feet, and Il
h'Shr pcs & slrain an ankle al
break my leg, but if that was al, tbo.
STOOD between me and freedom ri
wasn't going to stop to consider If
L put my ear to the ground IN l;Ston
Tor the coming Of the sentry. There
was not a sound. Eagerly but care,
1uily L placed the ladder against the
post and started up. Only few feet
separated me from liberty, and nv
heart beat fast.
had climbed perhaps three rungs
or my ladder when | became aware
OF an unlocked fer difficulty.
The ladder was slipping.
Just as | took the next rung. the
ladder slipped, came in contact with
the live wire, and the current nassea
through the wet sticks and into nv
BODY. There WAS blue flash, nv
hold on the ladder relaxed and I fell.
heavily to the ground unconscious.
Of course, | had not received the
full force of the current or I would
not now be here. l must have ra.
manned unconscious for a few mo-
ments, but | came to just in time to
near the German guard coming. and
the thought came to ME if | didn't get
that ladder concealed at once he would
see 1t even though, fortunately for me,
it was an unusually dark night.
l pulled the ladder out of his path
and lay down fiat on the ground not
seven feet away from his feet, He
passed so close that I could have
pushed the ladder out and tripped
him up.
1t occurred to me that I could have
climbed back under the barbed wire
fence and waited for the sentry to re-
turn and then felled him with blow
on the head, as he had no idea, Of
course, that there was anyone in the
vicinity. l wouldn't have hesitated
to take life, because my only thought
was to get into Holland, but l thought
that as long as he didn't bother me
perhaps the safest thing to do was not
to bother him, but to continue my ct.
forts during his periodic absence.
His beat at this point was apparent.
ly fairly long and allowed me more
time to work than I had hoped for.
My miShap with the ladder had con-
WINGED me that my escape in that way
was not feasible. The shock that /
had received had unnerved NE and |
was afraid to risk it again, particu.
larry as l realized that | had Jared
more fortunately than l could hope
to again if l met with q similar mis-
hap. There wGs no way of making
that ladder hold md I gave up the idea
of using it.
/ was now right in front of this
electric barrier and rs / studied it
saw another way of getting by. II l.
couldn't get over it, what was the
matter with getting under it?
The bottom wire was only two
inches from the ground and, of course,
couldn't touch it, but my plan was
to dig underneath it and then crawl
through the hole in the ground.
| had only my hands to dig with,
but / went at it with a will and f0rtu-
nately the ground was not very hard.
When l had dug about six inches,
making a distance in all Of eight
inches from the lowest electric wire.
came to an underground wire. !
knew enough about electricity to real
re that this wire could not be charged,
IS it was in contact with the ground,
put still there was not room between
the live wire and this underground
wire for me to crawl through, and ]
.ther had to go back or dig deep
enough under this wire to crawl under
t or else pull it up.
This underground wire was aboutts
as big around as lead pencil ana r
here was no chance of breaking ft.g
The jack-knife / had had at the start
If my travels / had long since iostI
and even if l had had something to
hammer with, the noise would navel
made the method impracticable.
/ went on digging. When the totail
distance between the live wire ana theI
bottom of the hole | had dug was
thirty inches, took hold of the grouhd
wire and pulled on it with all NY
strength.
1t wouldn't bulge. 1t was streteheu
aut across the narrow ditch | hau
lug-about fourteen inches VIDE
md all. the Juggling didn't serve F"
aaGny1