The Washington times., 1922-08-23

floor Of the jail We kept watching
that window.
AT the exact hour and minute
mentioned we saw from that window
the flashing of a light.
I'VE answered 1t as we had been
told to answer it-by a beam from
a flashlight which one OF US carried.
I'VE then moved forward, accord
ing to directions, and came to
barbed-wire fence and cut our way
through 1t with pliers and shears, az
directed, and found ourselves in a
little yard, and there we saw what
We had been told we would see
namely, the fire. II De Valera had
not told US that we would see II, we
would at that point perhaps have
turned back. The fire looked fore
boding. 1t seemed as though there
must be somebody there. But no
body was.
Across the yard then we crawled
on a route laid down for US In our
instructions. and We came precisely
to where the instructions said we
would come. We came to q double
door In the prison wall.
There we again settled down and
waited. There was no sound. There
was no guard. At that hour Mr.. De
Valera had seemed to expect that
there would be no guard. There was
none. The yard was all deserted
and all perfectly still.
A Key in the Losk.
Then from inside the prison we
heard a noise. This noise repea ted
itself at closer intervals till we rec.
ognized 1t to be the footballs of a
man approaching the door from the
inside.
The footballs came closer and
loser. We lay listening to them. The
outside door was a grated iron door
The inside was a solid wooden door
We lay and waited for the footballs
to arrive at the wooden door
They arrived. We heard a key
slipping into the keyhole of the inner
wooden door.
patience broke. He had with him a
sent into the Jail. He drew this
specimen duplicate key from his
pocket and put II into the keyhole
Of the outer iron door.
Then two things happened togeth-
er. The key in the inner door turn
ed, and the inner door swung open,
and Mr.. De Valera stood before us.
But at that very instant. Mick Col
Inns turned his key in the outer door.
and II broke in his handsi 1t stuck
in the lock
There we stood Mick Collins
and /, looking at de Nalera-and
he behind the iron. grated door. and
Collins key part OF 1t in collins
hand and the other part sticking
In the lock between us.
Then came the one miracle Of
Iall. Collins broken key in the lock
fell with it's own weight inside the
lock till II lay perfectly parallel TO
the keyhole. II must have done
SO. Because otherwise what then
Immediately happened could not
have happened.
DE Valera put his key from the
inside into the lock Of the iron
door and pushed Collins key out
and turned the lock. and the iron
door swung open and de Valera
came out.
1.-The rest moved like clockwork.
We crawled back across the yard
and out back across the field 20 a
road, and then we walked back along
that road to a motor car.
DE Valera, being held In political
detention. was wearing civilian
clothes.
"Off then across England we went
two British officers, as we seem.
ed, and a civilian-and we went
across many counties that night.
England was then in military areas,
and no motor car could go beyond
the area in which II belonged. We
had a new motor car ready waiting
for us at the boundary of each new
military area. Before morning we
were at Manchester.
Manchester is a port and Mr.. de
Valera was soon in America.
That Is what happened. And
Mick Collins and Mr.. de Valera end
I made that trip together. I'm going
back to Ireland now. Well talk of
that trip together"
He went back to Ireland. He's in
Ireland now. He's on Irish green
sod soil now. And the sod, the en-
blem Of Irish hopes for freedom, will
soon enfold Collins.