The sun., 1919-04-13

But before the faxed cards were TO
be used Russian officer independently
substituted a card and got away. and
thereafter the Germans required fresh
signature to a list pledge in the pres
ence of a German officer at the start
of a walk. There was no beating
that SYSTEM writes Lieut.. Isaacs. at
was a big disappointment
However, they tried again, now
planning to use their ladder on the
outer fence by night. extinguishing the
lights as before and first getting
through a locked gate, for which the
ingenious Willis made a key. A Rus
sian officer. quartered in a favorable
part of the buildings, let them use his
room in which to store their material,
The key failed to work. Within half
an hour another Russian officer some
how broke through the same gate and
own He was recaptured several days
later and the guards were doubled and
more powerful lights installed.
Just in time the American heard
OF a coming search for escape material.
They had a good deal, and succeeded
in hiding 1t, but the ladder material
was still stored in the Russian Of
ficer's room and was discovered. He
stanchly affected surprise and indig-
nation and got away with it." AS for
Lieut.. Isaacs, he says that for the first
time he was discouraged.
But he and Willis Matched still an
other plan. The attempt had to be
made before October 7, partly to have
the advantage Of the dark of the
moon, but mainly because the Rus
slams were on that day to be shifted to
other prisons. and with the Russians
gone the watch and the searchings
would become much more difficult to
evade. Three teams" of Americans
resolved to try it simultaneously, in
the night of Sunday, October 6.
Gets Away at Last.
Lieut. Isaacs's tram of three ON
GERS succeeded, after an anxious ten
seconds during which the wire chain
swung, making and breaking the short
circuit so that the lights went on and
of. Lieut.. Willis also had escaped.
lsaacs met him beyond their rendez-
vous outside, having given him UP.
; Then began the terrible furtive Jour
ney across Germany by night, the
tuGitves using pepper they had
! boarded to cover their trail against
hounds.
EARLY the fourth night we came 70
the Alb River, tributary OF the
Rhine, the west bank of which we
proposed to follow down to where II
flowed into the Rhine. We were be-
low st. Blasien. a famous summer re-
sort and tried to cross there but wero
on the heights probably 200 feet above
the river and had no way OF gctUng
! Gown. We finally decided to nick o,f>
way down the side of the cliff, and al
though it was slow work and some
what nerve racking. we were success
| full. In looking up from the bottom
| after it was all over, 1t seemed impos
sible that We had been able to cling 10
that vertical wall of rock and lower
ourselves down.
1t was very difficult walking. W.
| would sometimes be lost for hours in a
! gorge and could not find our way out
Instead OF going south we would at
tunes iind ourselves heading north. be-
cause the mountains were passable
only at certain places. and we would
Walk IN circles trying to find the
po-'Scs' Every Few hundred wards
was ~ mountain torrent, and every
torrent meant difficult gorge or ra
vine. The cold was intense, and es-
pecially was this true of the daytime
When we would lie in each Others
arms trying To keep warm. We would
'ut down great quantities of spruce
limbs and make beds for ourselves. but
the cold would find its way in just the
same.
one morning, after an exception
ally hard night, we had fallen where
We stood and were both in a heavy
sleep, ] sat up and to my horror
found that Willis was delirious. He
was babhliug incoherently and seemed
10 nave high fever soothed him az
well as / could, and in few hours he
was almost normal. In that week
however, | watched his hair turn al
most white. Had We not been in on
cellent health neither of us would ever
have survived"