Evening star., 1943-08-01

his clothing, in which he packed a razor,
a rough sketch of the surrounding coun-
try and some food.
A little before 10 o'clock he went to
the window AS he stood there the pa
troll came along. Today it was under
the command of sergeant whom the
general knew we'll and who was an
enthusiastic amateur photographer.
The sergeant saluted. Giraud asked
him: You don't have your camera to-
Gay, sergeant? Too bad! You could
have taken an interesting picture of me-"
The German laughed Incompetence
ingly and went on. A moment longer,
and then the general climbed out of the
window, leaped down to the patrol road
and fastened toward the spot he had
chosen in the rampant.
Escaped Without Detection.
He fastened his rope to the battle
ment, then hung about his neck the
parcel which he had prepared, and put
on his thick gloves. He made the descent
methodically, and in just l minute and
48 seconds he had reached the hill,
There was no sign of any movement.
The extraordinary hypothesis had be-
come reality; man had climbed down
the high wall in broad daylight, and no
one had seen him.
He opened his parcel, took out his
razor and shaved off his mustache, and
donned the waterproof coat and the
Tyrolean hat. Then he arose, walked out
to the road took his bearings, and calmly
set out for the station at Sthandau
He walked without haste passing
word of greeting to the farmers whom
he met on the way. Arriving at the meet
ing at half-past twelve, he sat down on
the parapet of the bridge. At exactly l
O'Clock young man appeared The
young man looked at Giraud, came closer
to him, and as he passed him said:
Good morning Heinrich"
Good morning, Francis" replied Gil
raud
Immediately the young man stopped.
Il am at your command general" he
said.
They boarded the train Giraud had
second-class compartment, which was
connected with a first-class compartment
by lavatory He went into the lavatory,
locked himself in there with his valise
and after few moments emerged into
the first-class compartment clad like a
wealthy bourgeois. his eyes concealed
behind gold-rimmed spectacles. In his
pocket he had papers bearing the name
of German businessman who dealt in
hides.
Escape Is Discovered.
At this hour in Koenigstein they dis
covered that the general had escaped
The alarm was given, description of
the fugitive broadcast, and the frontiers
were watched carefully. The net was be-
ing tightened. A reward of 100, 900 marks
was offered to any one who brought about
the arrest of the escaped prisoner.
But the Nazis made mistakes They
described Giraud as large man with
heavy mustache, man who walked with
a limp in his right leg.
Now the general could not change his
figure. But he no longer had a mustache,
and although it was true that he had be-
come accustomed to dragging his wound
ed leg little, he could, by terrible
effort of will, force himself not to limp
for few moments at a time
The second reason for the failure of
the Germans to capture Giraud lay in
the false conclusions drawn by the Ger
man police, who reasoned that since he
was coming from the Elbe Valley he
would try to reach the Swiss frontier,
which is very near. AS a matter of fact,
however, the general and his companion
had boarded a train bound for Berlin.
This entire adventure is almost unbe-
ievable, but it was not miraculous.
Notwithstanding the fact that every
policeman in the Reich was looking for
him. for seven days Giraud and his guide