~ OUTWITTIN
THE FEN =
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(Concluded from last week.)
SYNOPSIS.
CHAPTER I-—Introductory. Pat O’Brien
tells of his purpose in writing the story
of his adventures.
CHAPTER II—Tells of his enlistment in
the Royal Flying corps, his training in
Canada and hig transfer to France for ac-
tive duty.
CHAPTER II1I—Describes fights in which
he brought down two German airplanes
and his fnal fight in_ which he was
brought down wounded within the Ger-
man lines and was made a prisoner of
war.
CHAPTER 1V—Discovers that German
hospital staff barbarously neglected the
fatally wounded and devoted their ener
gies to restoring those who might be
returned to the rring lines. Witnesses
death in fight of his best chum, Lieut.
Paul Rainey.
CHAPTER V—He is taken to the of-
ficers’ prison camp at Courtrai. There he
began planning lis escape. By great sac-
rifice he manages to save and hide away
two daily rations of bread.
Every other morning, the weather
allowing, we were taken to a large
swimming pool and were allowed to
have a bath. There were two pools,
one for the German officers and one
for the men. Although we were offi-
cers, we had to use the pool occupied
by the men. While we were in swim-
ming a German guard with a rifle
across his knees sat at each corner of
the pool and watched us closely as
we dressed and undressed. English
interpreters accompanied us on all of
these trips, so at no time could we
talk without their knowing what was
going on.
Whenever we were taken out of the
prison for any purpose they dlways
paraded us through the most crowded
streets—evidently to give the popu-
lace an idea that they were getting
lots of prisoners. The German sol-
diers we passed on these occasions
made no effort to hide their smiles
and sneers.
The Belgian people were apparent-
ly very curious to see US, ard they
used to turn out in large numbers
whenever the word was passed that
we were out. At times the German
guards would strike the women and
fy LIEUTENANT
PAT DBRIEN
©1518, by FAT ALVA OBRIEN
. from the day before, and we used it
. to fry our potatoes. By bribing one !
i Lieut.”
children who crowded too close to us.
One day I smiled and spoke to a |
pretty girl, and when she replied, a
she stepped into the house before he
reached her, or I am afraid my salu- |
N
of sugar, which, with some apples that
we were allowed to purchase, we eas-
ily converte into a sort of jam.
We now had potatoes and jam, but
no bread. It happened that the Hun
who had charge of the potatoes was
a great musician. It was not very
difficult to prevail upon him to play
us some music, and while he went out
to get his zither I went into the bread
pantry and stole a loaf of bread.
Most of us had saved some butter
of the guards, he bought some eggs for
us. They cost 25 cents apiece, but we
were determined to make this banquet
a success, no matter what it cost.
The cooking was done by the prison
cook, whom, of course, we had to
bribe.
When the meal was ready to serve
it consisted of scrambled eggs, fried
potatoes, bread and jam, and a pitcher
of beer which we were allowed to buy.
That was the 29th of August. Had
I known that it was to be the last
real meal that I was to eat for many
weeks, I might have enjoyed it even |
more than I di but it was certainly |
very good. |
We had cooked enough for eight, but |
while we were still eating, another |
joined us. He was an English officer !
who had just been brought in on a |
stretcher. For seven days, he told us,
he had lain in a shell hole, wounded,
and he was almost famished, and we i
were mighty glad to share our ban-
quet with him.
We called on each man for a speech, :
and one might have thought that we
were at a first-class club meeting. A
few days after that our party was |
broken up and some of the men, I sup-
pose, 1 shall never see again. i
One of the souvenirs of my adven-
ture is a check given me during this |
“panquet” by Lieut. James Henry |
Dickson of the Tenth Royal Irish Fu- !
sileers, a fellow prisoner. It was for |
20 francs and was made payable to:
the order of “Mr. Pat O’Brien, 2nd |
Poor Jim forgot to scratch
out the “London” and substitute
«Courtrai” on the date line, but its
. value as a souvenir is just as great.
German made a run for her. Luckily |
tation would have resulted seriously |
for her and I would have been power-
fess to have assisted her.
home or other building which had
When he gave it to me he had no idea
that I would have an opportunity so
soon afterward to cash it in person, i
although I am quite sure that what- |
ever financial reverses I may be des- |
. tined to meet, my want will never be |
Whenever we passed a Belgian
been wrecked by bombs by our airmen
our guards made us stop a moment |
or two while they passed sneering
remarks among themselves.
One of the most interesting souve-
pnirs I have of my imprisonment at |
Courtrai is a photograph of a group
of us taken in the prison courtyard. |
The picture was made by one of the
guards,
of us who were able to pay his
price—one mark apiece.
As we faced the camera I suppose
we all tried to look our happiest, but
the majority of us, I am afraid, were
too sick at heart to raise a smilie,
even for this occasion. One of our
Hun guards is shown in the picture
seated at the table. I am standing
directly behind him, attired in my fly-
who sold copies of it to those |
ing tunic, which they allowed me to
wear all the time I was in prison, as
is the usual custom with prisoners of
war. Three of the British officers
shown in the picture, in the fore-
goound, sre clad in “shorts.”
i Through all my subsequent adven-
tures I was able to retain a print of
this interesting picture, and although
when I gaze at it now it only serves
to increase my gratification at my ulti-
mate escape, it fills me with regret to
think that my fellow prisoners were
not so fortunate. All of them by this
time are undoubtedly eating théir
hearts up in the prison camps of in-
terior Germany. Poor fellows!
* Despite the scanty fare and the re-
strictions we were under in this prison,
we did manage on one occasion to ar-
range a regular banquet. The plan-
ping which was necessary helped to
pass the time.
At this time there were eight of us.
We decided that the principal thing
we needed to make the affair a suc-
cess was potatoes, and I conceived a
plan to get them. Every other after-
noon they took us for a walk in the
country, and it occurred to me that
it would be a comparatively simple
matter for us to pretend to be tired
and sit down when we came to the
first potato patch.
it worked out nicely. When we
came to the first potato patch that
afternoon, we told our guards that we
wanted to rest a bit and we were
allowed to sit down. In the course
of the next five minutes each of us
managed to get a potato or two. Be-
ing Irish, I got six.
When we got back to the prison, I
managed to steal a handkerchief full
great enough to induce me to realize
on that check.
There was one subject that wes
talked about in this prison whenever
conversation lagsed, and I suppose it |
is the same in other prisons too. What
were the chances of escape :
Every man seemed to have a differ-
ent idea and one way, I suppose, was
about as impracticable as another.
None of us ever expected to get a |
chance to put our ideas into execution,
but it was interesting speculation, and
anyway one can never tell what op- .
portunities might present themselves. i
One suggestion was that we disguise :
ourselves as women. “O’Beien would
stand a better chance disguised as a
worse!” declared another, referring to |
the fact that my height (I am six feet |
two inches) would make me more con- |
spicuous as a woman than as a man. |
Another suggested that we steal a |
German Gotha—a type of airplane !
used for long-distance bombing. It is |
these machines which are used for
bombing London. They are manned |
by three men, one sitting in front with |
a machine gun, the pilot sitting behind |
him and an observer sitting in the rear |
with another machine gun. -We fig- |
ured that, at a pinch, perhaps, seven |
or eight of us could make our escape |
in a single machine, They have two |
motors of very high horse power, fly i
very high and make wonderful speed.
But we had no chance to put this idea |
to the test.
I worked out another plan by which |
I thought I might have a chance fl!
could ever get into one of the German
airdromes. 1 would conceal myself in
one of the hangars, wait until one of
the German machines started out, and
as he taxied along the ground I would
rush out, shout at the top of my voice
and point excitedly at his wheels. This,
1 figured, would cause the pilot to stop
and get out to see what was wrong.
By that time I would be up to him, and
as he stooped over to inspect the ma-
chine, I could knock him senseless,
jump into the machine and be over the
lines before the Huns could make up
their minds just what had happened.
It was a fine dream, but my
chance was not to come that way.
There were dozens of other ways
which we considered. One man would
ge for endeavoring to make his way
sight through the lines. Another
thought the safest plan would be to
ewim some river that crossed the lines.
The idea of making one’s way to
Holland, a neutral country, occurred
to everyone, but the one great obstacle
: hand, to settle it.
in that direction, we all realized, was
the great barrier of barbed and elec-
trically charged wire which guards ev-
ery foot of the frontier between Bel-
gium and Holland, and which is closely
watched by the German. sentries.
This barrier was a three-fold affair. i
It consisted first of a barbed wire wall
six feet high. Six feet beyond that
was a nine-foot wall of wire power- ;
fully charged with electricity. To
touch it meant electrocution. Beyond
that, at a distance of six feet, was.
another wall of barbed wire six feet
high.
Beyond the barrier lay Holland and
liberty, but how to get there was a
problem which none of us could solve
di
1 called to a German officer who was
passing our windew.
«You're an officer, aren't you?’ I |
asked, respectfully enough.
“Yes, what of it?” he rejoined.
«Well, in England,” I said, “we let
your officers who are prisoners ride
first class. Can’t you fix it so that we
can be similarly treated, or least be
transferred to second-class compart-
ment?”
“If I had my way,” he replied, “you'd
ride with the hogs!”
Then he turned to the crowd and
told them of my request and how he
had answered me, and they all laughed
' hilariously.
and few of us ever expected to have
a chance to try.
Mine came sooner than I expected,
CHAPTER VIL.
A Leap for Liberty.
I had been in prison at Courtrai
nearly three weeks when, on the morn-
ing of September 9th, I and six other
officers were told that we were to be
many.
One of the guards told me during the
day that we were destined for a re-
prisal camp in Strassburg. They were
sending us there to keep our airmen
from bombing the place.
He explained that the English car-
ried German officers on hospital ships
for a similar purpose and he excused
the German practice of torpedoing
these vessels on the score that they
also carried munitions! hen 1
pointed out to him that France would . of us in that car could jump at a given
hardly be sending munitions to Eng-
land, he lost interest in the argument.
Some days before, I had made up my
mind that it would be a very good
thing to get hold of a map of Germany,
which I knew was in the possession of
one of the German mterpreters, be-
cause I realized that if ever the vp-
portunity came to make my escape,
such a map might be of the greatest
assistance to me.
With the idea of stealing this map,
accordingly, a lieutenant and I got in
: front of this interpreter’s window one
day and engaged in a very hot argu-
ment as to whether Heidelberg was on
the Rhine or not, and we argued back
and forth so vigorously that the Ger-
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TH
1 Confiscated the Map.
tion, he went back into his room and
I watched where he put the map.
When, therefore, I learned that I was
on my way to Germany, I realized that
it was more important than ever for
me to get that map, and with the help
of my friend, we got the interpreter
out of his room on some pretext or
| another, and while he was gone I con-
fiscated the map from the book in
: which he kept it and concealed it in
my sock underneath my legging. AS
I had anticipated, it later proved of
| the utmost value to me.
I got it none too soon, for half an
! hour later we were on our way to
Ghent. Our party consisted of five
British officers and one French officer.
| At Ghent. where we had to wait for
several hours for another train to take
us direct to the prison camp in Ger-
| many, two other prisoners were added
to our party.
In the interval we were locked in a
room at a hotel, a guard sitting at the
door with a rifle on his knee. It would
have done my heart good for the rest
of my life if I could have gotten away
then and fooled that Hun—he was so
I cocksure.
Later we were marched to the train
that was to convey us to Germany. It
consisted of some twelve coaches,
eleven of these containing troops going
home on leave, and the twelfth re-
served for us. We were placed in a
fourth-class compartment with old,
hard, wooden seats, a filthy floor and
no lights save a candle placed there
by a guard. There were eight of us
prisoners and four guards.
As we sat in the coach we were an
object of curiosity to the crowd who
gathered at the station.
“Hope you have a nice trip!” one of
them shouted sarcastically.
“Drop me a line when you get to
Berlin, will you?’ shouted another in
broken English.
«When shall we see you again?’
asked a third.
« Remember me to your friends, will
wou? Youll find plenty where you're
going!” shouted another.
The German officers made no effiort
to repress the crowd, in fact, they
joined in the general laughter which
followed every sally.
>
This got me pretty hot.
“That would be a a ' sight
better than riding with the Germans!”
I yelled after him, but if he consid-
. ered that a good joke, he didn’t pass
it on to the crowd.
Some months later when I had the
honor of telling my story to King
George. he thought this incident was
one of the best jokes he had ever
heard. I don’t believe he ever laughed
transferred to a prison camp in Ger- horder In His hfe.
Before our train pulled out, our
guards had to present their arms for
. inspection and their rifles were loaded
| in our presence to let us know that
they meant business.
From the moment the train started
on its way to Germany. the thought
kept coming to my head that unless I
could make my escape before we
reached that reprisal camp I might as
well make up my mind, as far as I
was concerned. the war was over.
It occurred to me that if the eight
, signal and seize those iour Hun guards
. by surprise,
{in our recapture.
we'd have a splendid
chance of besting them and jumping
of: the train when it first slowed down,
but when I passed the idea on to my
comrades they turned it down. Even
if the plan worked out as gloriously
as 3 had pictured, they pointed out,
(he fact that so many of us had es-
caped would almost inevitably result
The Huns would
have scoured Belgium till they had
got us and then we would all be shot.
Perhaps they were right.
Nevertheless, I was determined that,
no matter what the others decided to
do, I was going to make one bid for
. free s y .
man came out of his room, map in | eedom, come what might
After the matter |
was entirely settled to our satisfac- | village in Belgium and I realized that
As we passed through village after
, we were getting nearer and nearer to
| through the window!
i to go through that window while the
that dreaded reprisal camp, I con-
“| Puiled Myself Up, Shoved My Feet
Through the Window; and Let Go.”
RR
hour, and again it seemed to admonish
me as it rattled along over the ties.
«you're a fool if you do—you’re a fool
if you don’t. You're a fool if you don’t
—you're a fool if you do. You're a fool
if you don’t.”
I waited no longer. Standing upon
the bench as if to put the bag on the
rack and taking hold of the rack with
my left hand and a strap that hung
from the top of the car with my right,
1 pulled myself up, shoved my feet and
legs out of the window and let go.
There was a prayer on my lips as 1
went out, and I expected a bullet be- i
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tween my shoulders, but it was all !
over in an instant.
I landed on my left side and face.
burying my face in the rock ballast, |
cutting it open and closing my left |
eye, skinning my hands and shins and
straining my ankle. For a few mo- |
ments I was completely knocked oul, |
and if they shot at me through the |
' window, in the first moments after my :
cluded that my one and only chance of
| getting free before we reached it was '
I would have
train was going full-speed, because if
I waited until it had slowed up or.
| stopped entirely, it would be a simple
' matter for the guards to overtake or
. shoot me.
I opened the window. The guard
| who sat opposite me—so close that
knees occasionally struck my foot—
' made no objection, imagining no doubt
* that I found the car too warm or that
the smoke, with which the compart-
ment was filled, annoyed me.
{
escape, I had no way of knowing. !
Of course, if they could have stopped |
the train right then, they could easily ;
have recaptured me, but at the speed it |
was going and in the confusion which |
must have followed my escape, they
probably didn’t stop within half of a |
mile from the spot where I lay. ;
1 came to within a few minutes and |
when I examined myself and found no
bones broken, I didn’t stop to worry |
about my cuts and bruises, but jumped
: up with the idea of putting as great a
. distance between me and that track as
It seemed to say:
“You're a fool if you do; you're a fool !
, if you don’t—you’re a fool if you do— ;
‘ you're a fool if you don’t”’—and I said
| to myself
“the noes
' closed down the window again.
As soon as the window was closed,
the noise of the train naturally sub-
' sided and its speed seemed to dimin-
i ish, and my plan appealed to me
i
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| stronger than ever.
I knew the guard in front of me
didn’t understand a word of English,
and so, in a quiet tone of voice, I con-
| fided to the English officer who sat
next me what I had planned to do.
“For God's sake, Pat, chuck it!” he
urged. “Don’t be a lunatic! This rail-
road is double-tracked and rock-bal-
lasted and the other track is on your
side. You stand every chance in the
world of knocking your brains out
against the rails, or hitting a bridge or
a whistling post, and if you escape
those you will probably be hit by an-
other train on the other track. You
haven't one chance in a thousand to
make it!”
have it,” and .°
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i
There was a good deal of logic in |
what he said, but I figured that once I
was in that reprisal camp I might
never have even one chance in a thou-
sand to escape, and the idea of re-
maining a prisoner of war indefinitely |
went against my grain. I resolved to
take my chance now at the risk of |
breaking my neck.
The car was full of smoke. I looked
across at the guard. He was rather an
old man, going home on leave, and he
seemed to be dreaming of what was in
store for him rather than paying any
particular attention to me. Once in a
while I had smiled at him, and I figured
that he hadn’t th slightest idea of
what was going through my mind all
the time we had been traveling.
1 began to cough as though my throat
was badly irritated by the smoke and
then I opened the window again. This
time the guard looked up and showed
his disapproval, but did not say any-
thing.
It was then 4 o'clock in the morn-
ing and would soon be light. I knew I
had to do it right then, or never, as
there would be no chance to escape in
the daytime.
1 had on a trench coat that I had
used as a flying coat and wore my
knapsack, which I had constructed
out of a gas bag brought into Courtrai
oy a British prisoner.
two pieces of bread, a piece of sau-
sage and a pair of flying mittens. All
of them had to go with me through the
window.
The train was now going at a rate of
between thirty and thirty-five miles an
In this I had |
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possible before daylight came. Still be- |
i o |
his feet touched mine and the stock ! ing dazed, I forgot all about the barbed |
| of his gun which he held between his | ‘wire fence along the right of way and |
‘ran full tilt into it. Right there I lost |
one of my two precious pieces of bread,
which fell out of my knapsack, but I
could not stop to look for it then.
The one thing that was uppermost in !
} ” ; Sh 2 |
As I opened the window, the noise | my mind was that for the moment I:
' the train was making as it thundered |
. along grew louder.
was free, and it was up to me now to
make the most of my liberty. |
CHAPTER VIL i
Crawling Through Germany.
The exact spot at which I made my
desperate leap I don’t know. Perhaps, |
‘after the war is over, someone on that
trdin will be good enough to tell me
‘and then I may go back and look for |
‘the dent I must have made in the rock |
‘ballast.
I have said, I didn’t stop very long |
‘that morning after I once regained my
‘senses.
I was bleeding profusely from the |
wounds caused by the fall, but I:
checked it somewhat with handker- |
‘chiefs I held to my face, and I also |
‘held the tail of my coat so as to catch !
‘the blood as it fell and not to leave |
‘tell-tale traces on the ground. i
Before I stopped I had gone about a |
mile. Then I took my course from the |
stars and found that I had been going |
just opposite to the direction I should |
be making, but I could not go back |
/8Cross the track there.
Heading west, therefore, I kept this
‘course for about two and a half hours,
ibut as I was very weak from loss of
‘blood I didn’t cover very much ground
iin that time. Just before daylight, I
‘came to a canal which I knew I had to
lcross, and I swam it with everything
'r had on.
This swim, which proved to be the
first of a series that I was destined to
‘make, taught me several things.
In the first place, I had forgotten to
remove my wrist-watch. This watch
had been broken in my fall from the
air, but I had it repaired at Courtrai.
In the leap from the train, the cnystal
‘had been baoken again, but it was,
still going and would probably have
been of great service to me in my |
f
! subsequent adventures, but the swim |
across the canal ruined it. '
"Then, too, I had not thought to take
my map out of my sock and the water |
damaged that, too.
Thereafter, whenever I had any
swimming to do, I was careful to take
such matters into consideration, and
my ususi practice was to make a |
bundle of all the things that would be
damaged by water and tie it to my |
head. In this way I was able to keep .
them dry. i
It was now daylight and I knew that
it would be suicidal for me to attempt |
¢o travel in the daytime. My British |
uniform would have been fatal to me.’
I decided to hide in the daytime and |
travel only at night. i
Not far from the canal I could sec a
heavily-wooded piece of ground, and I
EE ER SASH,
had discovered that my left ankle had
been strained in my leap from the
train, and when I got to the woods I
was glad to lie down and rest. The
wound in my mouth had been opened,
too, when I jumped, and it wouid have
been difficult for me to have swallowed
had not the piece of bread, which was
to serve for my breakfast, got wet
when I swam the canal. I found a safe
hiding place in which to spend the
day and I tried to dry some of my
clothes, but a slight drizzling rainfall
made that out of the question. I knew
that I ought to sleep, as I planned to
travel at night, but sore as 1 was,
caked with mud and blood, my cloth-
ing soaked through and my hunger not
nearly appeased, sleep was out of the
question. This seemed fo me about
the longest day I had ever spent, but
I was still to learn how long a day can
really be and how much longer a night.
When night came 1 dragged myself
together and headed northeast.
My clothing consisted of my Flying
Corps uniform, two shirts, 20 under-
wear, leather leggings, heavy shoes, a
good pair of wool socks and a German
! cap. I had a wallet containing sev-
i eral hundred, francs in paper money
and various other papirs. I ulso had
a jackknife which I Lad stolen one
day before from the property room at
Courtrai, where all the personal ef:
fects taken from prisoners were kept.
For a day or two I had carried a knap-
sack, but as I had nothing to carry in
it I discarded it.
I traveled rapidly, considering my
difficulties, and swam a couple of
canals that night, covering in all per
haps ten miles before daylight. Ther
I located in some low bushes, lying
there all day in my wet clothes and
finishing my sausage for food. That
was the last of my rations.
That night I made perhaps the sama
distance, but became very hungry and
thirsty before the night was over.
For the next six days I still figured
that I was in Germany, and I was liv-
ing on nothing but cabbage, sugar
beets and an occasional carrot, always
in the raw state just as I got them
out of the fields. The water I drank
was often very rank. One night I lay
in a cabbage patch for an hour lapping
the dew from the leaves with my
tongue!
During this period I realized that I
must avoid meeting anyone at all haz-
ards. I was in the enemy’s country and
my uniform would have been a dead
give-away. Anyone who captured me
or who gave information from which
my capture resulted might have been
sure of a handsome reward. I knew
that it was necessary for me to make
| progress as fast as possible, but the
main consideration was to keep out of
sight, even if it took me a year to get
to Holland, which was my objective.
From my map I estimated that I was
about thirty-five miles from Strassburg
when I made my leap from the train,
and if I could travel in a straight line
I had perhaps one hundred and fifty
miles to travel. As it was, however,
I was compelled to make many detours,
and I figured that two hundred and
fifty miles was nearer the extent of the
journey ahead of me.
In several parts of this country I had
to travel through forests of young pine
| trees about twelve feet high. They
were very close together and looked
almost as if they had been set out.
They proved to be a serious obstacle
to me because, I could not see the stars
through them and I was relying upon
the heaven to guide me to freedom. I
am not much of an astronomer, but I
know the Pole Star when I see it. But
for it I wouldn't be here today!
I believed it rained every night and
day while I was making my way
through Germany and Luxembourg.
My invariable program at this stage
of my journey was to travel steadily
all night until about six in the morn-
ing, when I would commence looking
around for a place wherein to hide
during the day. Low bushes or woods
back from the road, as far as possible
from the traveled pathway, usually
served me for this purpose. Having
i found such a spot I would drop down
and try to sleep. My overcoat was
my only covering, and that was usu-
ally soaked through, either from the
rain or from swimming.
The only sleep I got during those
days was from exhaustion, and it usu-
ally came to me towards dusk when
it was time for me to start again.
It was a mighty fortunate thing for
me that I was not a smoker. Somehow
I have never used tobacco in any form.
I was now fully repaid for whatever
pleasure I had foregone in the past as
a result of my habits in that partic-
ular, because my sufferings would cer-
tainly have been intensified now if, in
addition to lack of food and rest, I
had had to endure a craving for to-
bacco.
About the sixth night I was so
drowsy and exhausted when the time
came for me to be on the move, that
1 was very much tempted to sleep
through the night. I knew, however,
that that would be a bad precedent to
establish and 1 wouldn't give in.
Continued next week) .
er ———————————
“What,” said the lady who does her
own marketing, “is the price of these
chickens?”
«A dollar and a quarter a piece,
ma’am,” replied the market woman.
“Did you raise them yourself 7”
asked the lady.
“Qh, yes, ma'am. They were only
a dollar ten last week,” was the re-
ply.
Mr. Gotham—I see the smallest
cows in the world are found in the
Samoan Islands. The average weight
does not exceed 150 pounds. They
re about the size of the merino sheep.
Mrs. Gotham—Do you suppose,
dear, that is where they get the con-
made my way there. By this time I densed milk?
“-