The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1918-11-22

! other men would close up and thi
} kept the line even, with the center sti
opposite the barracks door. Finall
, almost all of the men would be In tn
barracks and by the time the roll wa
. over not one remained outside. Thi
seemed to peeve the German officer
a great deal, but they did not punisl
!, us for it until we had been doing |
for some time.
For several days had noticed tina
someone else answered for two meI
who had disappeared at least / hat
not seen them for some time. / die
not think much about it, or ask any
questions, and 1 did not hear anyone
else talk about it, but l was pretty
sure the two men, Russian and q
Britisher, had escaped. But they were
marked present at roll call and all
accounted for. Everything went along
very well until one day when the name
'Fontaine" got by without being an
swered. Fontaine was a French fire.
man from the Cambrian Range and
that was the first time he had not been
| present. We saw what was coming
| and we began to get pretty sore at
Fontaine for not telling us. so we could
answer for him and keep the escape
covered.
The minute they found our count
one short they blew the whistles and
a squad of sentries came up as an
extra guard. They counted us again,
but by sneaking back of the line and
closing up again we made the count
all right except for one man-Fon-
taine. We would have tried to cover
up for him, except that they had al
ready discovered his absence. Now,
we thought, they will nab Fontaine
but will not discover the escape of the
others.
But evidently they suspected some
thing, for soon they brought over a
petty officer from H. NJ S. Nomad,
who had not been with us before, and
forced him to call the roll from the
mastering papers, while they watched
the men as they answered. Then they
discovered that two more besides Fon-
taine were missing and began to search
for them.
The other two spoke German and
had been missing for at least three
days and, think, had escaped by this
time. They We're not returned while
] was at Brandenburg.
This was about a. m. They drilled
us down to the little lake, where the
cold was much greater, and kept US |
there until p. M, without food or |
drink. AT about eight that morning |
they found FOntaine in French bar
racks and kicked him all the way to |
the lake where we were.
All day long we stood there, falling |
one by one and getting kicked or beat
en- each time until we dragged our
selves up again. Two or three died
do not know the exact number. But
We had enough strength, when ordered
pack to the barracks, to kick Fon-
-aine ahead of US all the way. We
lid not get anything to eat until seven
he next mOrning-twenty-fO hours
Without food and water, ten of which
we're spent in the snow without any
from the cold and wind.
10 wonder we kicked Fontaine for
ringing this punishment on us and en-
the two who had escaped
lie had simply strolled over to the
french barracks and forgot to return.
Now, the food received w3s just
bout enough to keep us alive. / sup
ose, with true kultur, the Huns had
CURED out just how much it would
axe to keep a man on this side OF
he starvation line and gave us that
luch and no more. So we were always
amished-always hungrier than you
ever have been. But some
mes when we were ravenouSly hum
~ and could not hold out any longer
e would trade rations.
One man would trade his whole ra-
on for the next day for half ration
)day. That is, if you were so hungry
rat you thought you could not last =
ut the day on your regular share, you !,
ould tell someone else that If he gave !,
)u half his share today you would :,
We him all of yours tomorrow. II he
as gambler he would take you up
hat is, he would gamble on his being
i've tomorrow, not on your keeping I
,ur word. He knew you would come
ross with your ration the next day,
I'd like as not, if you tried to keep 1t
ON him, he would kill you, and no
,dy would blame him. c
(TO BE CONTINUED