Evening star., 1940-01-22
CHAPTER q,

SIAI LN XOs
Several hundred yards from the
road Cameron suddenly stopped and
listened.
What is it?" Claire whispered
: alarm showing in her face.
1T sounds like small stream,
he said with mock fright. Lets
find it and have breakfast"
They followed the sound and
soon came to a beautiful little
glade, which made an ideal picnic
site. Cameron leaned down and
scooped up handful of the clear
sparkling water, tasted it and pro-
nounced it good.
"You know, in the excitement last
night" he said, II forgot to fill this
army canteen and I've been dying
for a drink for hours"
'You have that little bottle OF
cognac Frau Werber gave you"
That's just for emergencies; it's
not to drink to moisten our throats.'
Bill filled his canteen and offered
Claire the first drink. The icy cold
water tasted good, and she didn't
realize that she, too, had been thirs-
ty for long time.
Look Out for Splinters.
Lets see what we have in the
way of lunch" she suggested. In
the paper bag Frau Weber had
given her were a dozen slices of
dark bread and several cakes of
chocolate.
Look out for splinters," Cameron
joked, as Claire bit into piece of
bread. 'It's made from finely
ground up wood pulp, you know"
The girl nodded. Lii had told
her of some of the substitutes Ger
many had been using for months
before the war.
"It's at least filing" Claire said,
"although I won't guarantee its
nourishing qualities. I don't see
how the people exist on this sort
of thing No wonder Frau Weber
and Lii are as thin as rails"
''It can't go on for very long,
Cameron agreed. UNLESS they get
food supplies from some place the
whole nation is going to collapse
physically. They ruined Poland,
and what the Germans didn't de-
stroy the Poles did"
How about Russia?' Claire
asked.
They have none too much food
themselves. Thousands of people in
Russia almost starve to death every
year, through crop failure and poor
management. Properly organized,
they should raise enough wheat for
all Europe, but they've never had
enough for themselves"
Breakfast Meagerly.
After they had breakfasted mea-
gerly to conserve their supplies,
they retraced their steps to the path
and Claire soon led Bill into the
clearing where Rene had set his
plane down in the dark.
HE must be wizard to get in
and get out of place like this In
the dark" Cameron exclaimed.
"We did hit pretty hard" Claire
confessed. But there was a flash
Of light just before we landed"
II hope if he comes again it will
be by daylight, even if the risk is
greater. 1t would be awful for him
to crack up here-then we all would
be in the soup" He fished about in
the pockets of his German uniform
for a cigarette, but failing to find
any picked up a twig from the
ground and put it in his mouth.
Suddenly it dawned on him what
Claire had said.
you said you saw flash of light
before you landed?" he demanded.
She nodded, eyes, but I didn't
see any light later after I left the
plane"
well, Rene may have some
friends around here after all. The
light might have been landing
signal"
Welcome Find in Hut.
With little hope that Rene Mar
tin would come flying in in broad
daylight, the two of them explored
the edges of the clearing and finally
came to small hut, well concealed
in heavy clump of underbrush.
After making sure it was unoccu-
pied, Cameron finally forced the
door open and stepped inside. It
was one small room, and showed
signs of having been occupied re-
Gently.
There was small oil stove and
rummaging around on a shelf he
found a partially filled tin of imi-
tation coffee.
"It's only ersatz," he said, "but
when we heat some water, it may
not taste bad At least it will be
warm and my system is crying for
something hot after our night in
the open."
Taking pan he went off toward
the creek and returned short time
later with it filled to the brim.
Meanwhile Claire had solved the in
tricacies of the oil stove. It was
lighted and can of soup she had
found was heating in another pan.
Using their reserve supply of
bread sparingly, they made a fairly
good meal and both felt much re-
freshed afterward. After cleaning
NoWS YOUR No1E3