The Daily Alaska empire., 1929-04-11
CURLY HEAD
By DeWITT MACKENZIE

the Germans were retreaJlng peIOre 5he irresistible tide which threat ened to engulf them. Daily, cities md towns and hamlets were being released from an enemy occupation which has extended for four long years.
 We were motoring in our British general headquarters car along the highway leading to the recently freed city of Domain, in Flanders. A French officer, who was standing beside the road, hailed us for a tide, which was gladly accorded. Quite apart from our personal de- sire to be helpful, we were obeying
 he unwritten but immutable law of the fighting forces that every man ;hould lend a helping hand when ,ver he could.
 As soon as the car resumed the journey towards Domain our French comrade leaned out and began in- specting his surroundings eagerly Occasionally he would wave with suppressed excitement to civilians along the way and shout greet ing. It looked like a home coming to us, and we asked if he lived in the vicinity.
 Yes, his home was in Domain, where four years before he had left his wife to join the colors. Just after his departure daughter was born to them, his first child. Then came the German occupation so quickly that he was cut off from his loved ones. Now he was going back after these interminable years to his wife, and to the baby he had never seen.
 He was visib.y drought up to the highest pitch of nervousness, and well he might be. Domain had been the center of a battle that had cost civilian lives. It was quite possible that he might find his tam- fly dead and his home in ruins. No one of us mentioned this fact, but undoubtedly all of us were thinking it as we trundled over the shell pitted road.
 We entered the city. and he di- rected us toward his home through thoroughfares which showed cruel marks of war. As we turned into his street, the first house we passed was in ruins. He gave a start and clenched his hands, but he said nothing. I never saw a finer exhi- bition of gameness. A few doors further on was his home, and we stopped across the way from it.
 Our passenger climbed out slow ly and with effort, his eyes fixed on the place There were no signs of life. Shutters covered the windows. On the door was a printed sign indicating that German officers had been billeted there.
 The Frenchman crossed the road and with shaking hand pulled the bell. No one answered. Still star ing at the closed shutters he backed away like a man in trance. He backed until he reached our car against which he leaned, pale and trembling.
 Suddenly the door swung open and an aged woman servant ap- peared. She was leading beauti- full baby girl with a wealth of golden curls.
 The officer threw out his arms and took one quick step toward his child, and then he halted. The tot had jumped back behind nurses ample skirts and was peeping out in fright. Mother undoubtedly had told her many times during the German occupation that men in uniform were bad and to be avoid ed. The field blue of France meant nothing to this child who had been all her short life under German rule. Our passenger was strang- CT to his own flesh and blood, and he was under grave suspicion.
 The half blind eyes of the old nurse had by this time recognized the master and she was holding out her hands to him and repeating monsieur, monsieur" over and over in ecstasy. He crossed and grasp ed her hands. But his baby drew back still further behind the pro- tecting skirts.
 The door at the end of the long hall opened and comedy young matron came through to see what was going on. When she was half way along the passage she caught sight of her husband on the side walk. She stopped; her hand flew