Evening star., 1928-11-18

tance stood the nearest sentry tower
and at that date the inner sides of the
walls, now brilliantly lighted, were
shrouded in complete darkness except
when there was a moon. BY removing
the loose boarding In Haynes tent
instant access was to be had to the soft
red loan into which they were to
burrow. Every angle of possible inter-
ference or discovery had been weighed
and provided against. In mid
September. 1923, ground was broken in
the wild engineering feat.
Haynie and Lepper took turns at dig
ging. Part of a broken spade, old
pewter spoons purloined from the mess
hall, rusty trowel miSlaid by the
bricklayers-these were among the tools
with which they bored their painful
way, bit by bit, toward the wall. 1t
was necessary, of course, that dip of
at least five feet be made before
the tunnel was begun SO they might
strike we'll below the foundations Of
the parapet. When the passage final
ly was advanced few yards the one
who then happened to be digging would
ring bell; then the other, always
crouching in the opening of the hole,
would worm his way with a bucket for
the refuse. Space, which meant precious
minutes, was rigidly economical; only
one of the conspirators could work at a
time, the hole being cut just large
enough to admit his sprawled form.
What of the eXcavated earth? Well,
1t was AnderSon's apt idea that this
could be innocently disposed of in the
building of flower beds! So when Haynie
and Lepper knocked off each night at
about 10 o'clock the clay and small
stones were carefully spread out in plots
around the tent. Indeed, the guards in
their days rounds would often compli-
ment Haynie on his gardening artistry!
TT would seem inconceivable that
throughout the long weeks of exca-
waiting there should have been no leak
Especially so to those having a hapless
internal familiarity with any one of the
vast whispering galleries called prisons.
How impossible secrecy In that rout of
multi-pHssioned humans-each furtively
spying on the other in an atmosphere
surcharged with traitorous jealousies
malice and resentment. BY the hated
and feared grapevine route everything
eventually gets known. On top of it
all are the professional tattlers. ready to
knife comrades and keepers alike, often
seeking to curry official favor by their
tale bearing. 1t must. indeed, have been
by a miracle that Dutch Anderson's
tunnei remained immune. He had surely
well selected his aides.
So without a hitch the burrowing
went on: each night the flower beds
waxed fatter as the moist earth came
in bucketfuls from the patient. silent
mole underground. And late In Decem-
Der, 1928. Havnie and Lepper reported
to Anderson that all was ready. They
had pushed the tunnel under and past
the wall; its narrow, raggedlv gaping
mouth-a scant foot beyond that lofty
barrier-they had camoufiaged with
brush and loose stones It had taken
close to three months for the Job. All
was now over but the crawling
The program was that the goingout
party would include Dutch. Haynie and
Lepper and Ludwig Schmitt, figure
familiar throughout the camp and insti-
tuition as "Schmitty." How Anderson,
the only member of the quartet domi-
ciled in cell blocks, could contrive to
crash the tubercular camp and join his
pals made an annoying problem. But
not for long. Shortly after 2 pm. on
the day selected for flight, December 30,
1928, Dutch managed to sneak through
the wire fencing at the unmatched
southern rim Of the carrol on his way
back from the recreation yard and hide
himself in Lepper's tent And at $3.50
o'clock that afternoon, knowing that no
alarm would probably be sounded before
the 5 o'clock count, Anderson, Haynie,
Lepper and Schmitt squeezed and
CROPPED their way along the narrow tube
to liberty.
Liberty? For these hapless souls what
hapless name! Six weeks later Haynie
was picked up In Atlanta. Lepper had
succeeded In reaching Baltimore (his
home town., where he promptly applied
his talents to the Transformation of 81
bills into $40 bills by the incongruous
aid of cigar box stamps Schmitt was
soon netted as the principal in a Buff
falo train robbery, in the course of re-
capture receiving ugly wounds in back