August 19, 2025 • 25 mins
Delve into the gripping true story of M. C. Simmons, a Canadian soldier who found himself at the mercy of the German Army during the tumultuous early days of World War I. This narrative chronicles his harrowing sixteen months as a prisoner of war, detailing his interactions with fellow captives from Allied forces, as well as his insightful observations of his captors and their homeland. Most strikingly, we follow Simmons through his daring escape attempts—each more audacious than the last—his subsequent recaptures and punishments, and the perilous journey through enemy territory that defined his relentless spirit. As McClung notes, Private Simmons is a close and accurate observer who sees clearly and talks well. He tells a straightforward, unadorned tale, every sentence of which is true, and convincing. Prepare to be captivated by a story of resilience and courage.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section nineteen of Three Times and Out by Nellie mc lung.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, Chapter twenty one,
Travelers of the Night. The country we traveled over in
the first hours of the night was poor and evidently
waste land, for we saw no cultivation until near morning,
(00:25):
when we crossed through a heavy oat field, soaking wet
with the night's rain. When we came out, we were
as wet as if we had fallen into the ocean.
We took some of the oats with us to nibble at.
As we went along. We came to a wide stream
with wooded banks, which looked deep and dangerous, so we
(00:48):
made a pack of our clothes and cautiously descended into it,
expecting to have to swim over. However, we found we
could easily wait it, for we had made our crossing
a ford. On the other side, we found ourselves stumbling
over a turnip field, and very gladly helped ourselves and
(01:08):
carried away two of them for provisions for the next day.
When morning came, we took cover in a thin wood.
On the other attempts, we had been able to carry
something to eat and an extra pair of socks this
time we had nothing but what we had on. I
had selected from the stockings I had appear in it
(01:29):
by miss Edna Mackay of Vancouver, which were the first
pair she had knit, but were very fine and well made.
We removed our socks the first thing each morning and
rubbed our feet and put the socks in a tree
to dry, being careful not to have them so high
they would be seen. We were trying to take every
(01:50):
precaution this time. The first day we were near some
farm buildings, and as we lay in the woods, pretty
chilly and wet, we could hear the hens scolding and cackling.
Cackling hens always bring me back to the pleasant days
of childhood. And I was just enjoying a real heartsome
(02:10):
visit to the old home at Delmer, and was chasing
Willie Fuster to around a strawstack when the farmer's dog,
an interfering, vicious looking brute, came peering through the woods
and gave us heart spasms, barking at us for a
few minutes, but we did not move a muscle, and
(02:31):
seeing that he couldn't start a row with us, he
went away, muttering to himself about suspicious characters being around.
A woman passed through the wood too, going over to
one of the neighbors, I think to borrow something, for
she carried a plate, but she did not see us
as we lay low in the scrub. We certainly found
(02:54):
plenty of unsettled country to travel through in the first
days of our journey, for we seemed to go through
one marsh after another covered with coarse, long hay, which
would have been cut, no doubt, but for the soft
bottoms which make it impossible to use a mower to drain.
This land would furnish more work for the Russian prisoners.
(03:17):
In one place, we suddenly stepped down a couple of
feet into a bog filled with water but with grass
on the top. We discovered that it was a place
from which the peat had been removed, and it was
the only sign of human activity that we saw all night.
On the evening of August twenty third, when we started
(03:37):
out after a fairly good day in a spruce thicket,
we could see the lights of Bremen reflected in the sky.
The lights of a city, with its homes, its stores,
its eating places, its baths, should be a welcome sight
to wayfaring men. Who have been living on oats and turnips,
but not for us, to whom a city meant only capture.
(04:02):
So when we noticed the rosy glow in the southern sky,
we steered our course farther west, but still taking care
to avoid the city, which we intended to pass on
the south and east side. Our troubles were many that night.
A good sized river got in our way and had
to be crossed. There was no bridge in sight, and
(04:25):
we had determined to waste no time looking for one,
so we undressed on the marshy bank and made bundles
of our clothes, pinning our tunics about everything with the
safety pins which we carried. We also used the cord
around the bundles. Ted was doubtful about swimming and carrying
his clothes, so I said I would try it first
(04:47):
with mine. I went down through the coarse grass, which
was harsh and prickly to my feet and full of
nettles or something which stung me at every step, and
was glad to reach the open water. The moon was
in the last quarter and clouded over, so the night
was of the blackest. I made the shore without much
(05:09):
trouble and threw my bundle on a grassy bank. I
called over to Ted that the going was fine and
that I would come back for his clothes. At that
he started in to meet me, swimming on his back
and holding his clothes with both hands, using only his feet.
(05:29):
But when he got into the current it turned him
down stream. I swam toward him as fast as I could,
but by the time I reached him, he had lost
the grip of his clothes, and when I got them
they were wet through. As we were nearer to the
bank from which we had started, we went back to it,
(05:49):
for we were both pretty well blown. However, in a
few minutes we were able to strike out again and
reach the other bank in safety. Poor Ted was very
cold and miserable, but put on his soaking garments without
a word, and our journey continued. This was another ditch country,
(06:11):
ditches both wide and deep, and many of them treacherous things,
for their sides were steep and hard to climb. The
darkness made it doubly hard, and sometimes we were pretty
well frightened as we let ourselves down a greasy clay
bank into the muddy water. Later on we found some
corduroy bridges that the haymakers had put over the ditches
(06:36):
all night. We had not found anything to eat, and
when we arrived at a wood near morning, we decided
to stay, for we could see we were coming into
a settlement and the German farmers rise early in harvest time.
So hungry, muddy, wet, and tired, we lay down in
(06:57):
the wood and spent a long, uncomfort sfitable day. My
watch stopped that day and never went again. Edward's watch
was a better one, and although it stopped when it
got wet, it went again as soon as it had
dried out. That day we had not a mouthful of anything,
(07:18):
but we comforted ourselves with the thought that in this
settled country there would be cows, and unless the farmer
sat up all night watching them, we promised ourselves a treat.
The next night, at nightfall, we stole out and began
again to get over the distance that separated us from freedom.
The country was drier and more settled, but the cows
(07:42):
we saw were all in farm yards, and we were
afraid to risk going near them. About midnight we almost
stumbled over or heard of them, and a fine old
white face arose at our request and let us milk her.
Ted stood at her head and spoke kind words to
her and rubbed her nose while I filled our tin
(08:03):
again and again. She was a Holstein, I think, though
we could not see if she was black or red.
It was so dark we could only see the white markings.
We were sorry to leave her. She was another of
the bright spots in my memory of Germany. We crossed
a railroad, a double tracked one with rock ballast, which
(08:26):
my map showed to be a line which runs to Bremen,
and a little later we came to the Vaser. This
river brought up pleasant recollections of the pied Piper of Hamlin,
who drowned the rats in the veser by the magic
of his pipe, but there was no romance in it.
As we came upon it in a gray and misty dawn,
(08:48):
it was only another barrier to our freedom. There were
bunches of willows on the water's edge, and some fine
beeches whose leaves were slightly tinged with yellow. Farther back.
We selected a close bunch of willows for our hiding place,
and after spending a short time looking for a boat,
(09:09):
we gave up the quest and took cover. We were
feeling well and were in a cheerful mood, no doubt
the result of our pleasant meeting with the Holstein. And
when we saw some straw in a field not far
from the willows, we went over and got two armfuls
of it and made beds for ourselves. Fresh clean straw,
(09:32):
when dry, makes a good bed, and no ostermoor mattress
was ever more comfortable. We burrowed into it like moles,
and although it rained, we had a good day. Waking
up in the afternoon, we decided on a general clean up, and,
dipping water from the vasor in a rusty tin pail
(09:54):
without a handle, we washed our faces, cleaned our teeth,
shaved and our hair. My socks were in fine shape,
but Tad's began to show signs of dissolution. The heels
were gone, and the toe of one was broken and going.
His feet were sore and blistered, and he sat long
(10:16):
looking at the perfidious socks which had failed him so soon.
Then he had a plan. He would make himself a
pair out of the sleeves of his undershirt. To me
was given the delicate task of cutting off the sleeves
with a rather dull knife, which I managed to do
with some difficulty, and with a thorn for a needle
(10:39):
and wool from the socks for thread, a pair of
socks were constructed. The thorn was too soft and doubled back,
so ted sharpened a piece of hard wood and with
it made the holes for the yarn. From our shelter
in the willows, we could see a ferry boat carrying
people across the river, and sometimes people passed along the
(11:02):
sandy shore quite near to us, but the willows were
thick and we were not discovered. Two big freight steamers
also passed by us. That night. We went cautiously down
the bank looking for a boat. We could swim the river,
but a boat would suit us better, for the night
(11:22):
was chilly and dark. Before we had gone far we
found one tied in the rushes, but the oars were
locked to the bottom of the boat, and we had
to cut them loose with our penknives, which took quite
a while, for the wood was hard. When we got
across the vaser we found plenty of cows. Some of
(11:43):
them were fickle jades who would let us almost touch them,
and would then sniffet us in disapproval and leave us.
Others would not consider our case for a moment. They
were not going to run any danger of giving aid
and comfort to the enemy. But one good old one
with a crooked horn took pity on us, and again
(12:05):
we felt better. The fields were divided by hedges made
of a closely leaved green shrub, somewhat resembling in the
leaf our buckthorn. It was very thick and very green,
and we crawled into one of these on the morning
of the fourth day, glad of such good shelter. However,
(12:26):
there was no room to move or stand up. The
hedge being low, made it necessary to lie down all day. Still,
we were well satisfied with the hot milk and slept
most of the day, waking up. Suddenly I heard a whistle,
and without moving could see a man's legs coming toward us.
(12:49):
Then a dog, white with black markings, darted past him,
and to my horror, stood not six feet from me.
We stopped breathing. We shut our eyes for fear we
might wink. We effaced ourselves. We ceased to be I mean,
we wished we could. The dog came nearer. I could
(13:13):
hear his soft footfalls. I knew the brute was stepping
high as they do when they see something. I knew
his tail was going straight out behind he was pointing.
The man walked by, whistling, but the dog stayed. Then
(13:34):
I heard the man call him, insisting that he come,
making remarks about his lack of sense. It sounded like,
come here, you fool. The dog, with a yelp of disapproval,
did as he was told, but I could hear him
barking as he ran along in a hurt tone. His
(13:56):
professional pride had been touched. That afternoon, as we lay
in the hedge, we saw a company of school children
running toward us. I think it was the afternoon recess,
and they came running and shouting, straight for the hedge.
I could only see their feet from where I lay,
but it seemed to me that there were a large number.
(14:20):
They stopped in the field on the right of where
we lay and played some game. I was too excited
to notice what it was. Sometimes it brought them close
to the hedge, and then they ran away again. It
may have been a ball game. We were cold and
hot by turns, watching the feet that advanced and receded
(14:42):
and were coming at us again, racing this time as
if to see who would reach the hedge first. When
a sudden downpour of rain came on and they ran back.
We heard the voices growing fainter in the distance and
registered a vow if we got out of this place alive,
we would not trust in a hedge again. Dogs and
(15:06):
children seemed to be our greatest dangers. When we began
our journey that night, we crossed a light railway, one
of those which on the map was indicated with light lines,
and which sure enough had only dirt ballast. Ahead of
us was another railway track with lights, which we determined
(15:27):
to leave alone. The lights of the two towns Delmenhorst
and Gunderksey shone against the western sky, and we kept
to the south to avoid them. The going was difficult
on account of the settlement, and we had to be
watching all the time for travelers. There were a lot
(15:48):
of people out that night who might better have been
at home and in bed. We were glad to take
refuge before daylight in an extensive wood. We had a
few turnites which we ate. The day was spent as
usual trying to dry our socks and get our feet
in shape for the night, but the rain came down hard,
(16:10):
and when We started out at dusk. We were soaking wet.
We at once got into a forest, a great, dark,
quiet forest where fugitives could hide as long as they liked,
but which furnished no food of any kind. In the
small clearings, we came upon herds of cattle, but they
(16:32):
were all young, with not a cow among them. This
was one of the planted forests of Germany where a
sapling is put in when a big tree is taken
out to conserve the timber supply. No one would know
that it had been touched by man except for the
roads which ran through it. There was no waste wood.
(16:54):
There were no stumps, no hacked trees, no evidences of
fire such as I have often seen in our forests
in British Columbia. The Germans know how to conserve their resources.
There was no wind or stars, and there were so
many roads crossing and dividing that it was hard for
(17:18):
us to keep our direction. Toward morning, it began to rain,
and soon the wet bushes as well as the falling rain,
had us wet through. We stopped at last to wait
for daylight, for the forest was so dense we believed
we could travel by day with safety. We lit our
(17:38):
pipes in the usual way to conserve our matches. One
match would light both. When we followed this order, the
lighted one was inverted over the unlighted one into the
lighted one ted blue, while I drew in my breath
from the unlighted one. This morning, something went wrong. Either
(17:59):
the tobacco was soggy or I swallowed nicotine. For in
a few minutes I had all the symptoms of poisoning.
I wanted to lie down, but the ground was too wet,
so I leaned against a tree and was very sorry
for myself. Ted felt much the same as I did.
Then we tried to light a fire. We were so
(18:21):
cold and wet, and besides we had a few potatoes
carried from a garden we passed the night before, which
we thought we could roast. Hunger and discomfort were making
us bold. Our matches would not light the damp wood,
and we could find no other We chewed a few
oats and were very down hearted. It looked as if
(18:45):
a lack of food would defeat us this time. We
had so far come safely, but at great expense of
energy and time. We had avoided traveled roads, bridges, houses,
taking the smallest possible risk, but with a great expense
of energy. Our journey had been hard, toilsome and slow.
(19:10):
We were failing from lack of food. Our clothes hung
in folds on us, and we were beginning to feel weak.
The thought of swimming the ems made us shudder. One
thing seemed clear. We must get food, even if to
get it imposed a risk. There was no use in
(19:31):
starving to death. The recklessness of the slum cat was
coming to us. The weather had no mercy that day,
for a cold, gray, driving rain came down as we
leaned against a tree, two battered hulks of men, with
very little left to us now but the desire to
(19:52):
be free. If this were a book of fiction, it
would be easy to lighten and vary the narrative He
and there with tales of sudden attacks and hair's breadth escapes.
But it is not a fancy story. It is a
plain tale of two men's struggle with darkness, cold, and
(20:13):
hunger in a land of enemies. It may sound monotonous
to the reader at times, but I assure you we
never for one minute got accustomed to the pangs of hunger.
The beat of the rain or the ache of our
tired legs, and the gripping, choking fear that through some
(20:36):
mishap we might be captured. The country was so full
of bogs and marshes that we had to stick to
the road that night, but we met no person and
had the good fortune to run into a herd of
cows and drank all the milk we could hold. Unfortunately,
we had nothing in which to carry milk, so had
(20:58):
to drink all we could and go on in the
hope of meeting more cows. While we were helping ourselves,
the storm, which had been threatening all night, came on
in great fury, and the lightning seemed to tear the
sky apart. We took refuge in an old cow shed,
which saved us from the worst of it. That morning,
(21:22):
we hid in a clump of evergreens, thick enough to
make a good shelter, but too short for comfort, for
we could not stand up. Ted was having a bad
time with his feet, for his improvised socks did not
work well. They twisted and nootted and gave him great discomfort.
(21:43):
This day he removed his undershirt, which was of wool,
and cutting it into strips five or six inches wide,
wound them round and round his feet, and then put
his boots on. He had more comfort after that, but
as the weather was cold, the loss of his shirt
was a serious one. That night we came to a
(22:06):
river which we knew to be the Hunt, and looked
about for a means of crossing it. We knew enough
to keep away from bridges, but a boat would have
looked good to us. However, there did not seem to
be any boat, and we decided to swim it without
loss of time, for this was a settled district and
(22:27):
therefore not a good place to hesitate. On account of
our last experience in crossing a river, we knew a
raft to carry our clothes on would keep them dry
and make it easier for us, so, failing to find
any stuff with which to make a raft, we thought
of a gate we had passed a short time back.
(22:49):
It was a home made affair made of a big
log on the top, whose heavy route balanced the gate
on the post on which it swung. We went back,
found it, lifted it off, and although it was a
heavy carry, we got it to the river, and, making
two bundles of our clothes, floated them over on it.
(23:13):
I swam ahead, pushing it with one hand, while Ted
shoved from behind. Our clothes were kept dry, and we
dragged the gate up on the bank. We hoped the
farmer found it, and also hope he thought it was
an early Halloween joke. That day, August thirty first, we
(23:33):
took refuge in the broom, which was still showing its
yellow blossom, and as the sun came out occasionally we
lit our pipes with Ted's sunglass. The sun and wind
dried our tobacco and our socks, and we started off
that night feeling rather better. It was a fine night
(23:54):
for our purpose, for there was considerable wind, and we
kept going all night, mostly on the roads. At daylight
we took refuge in an open wood. The day was
cloudy and chilly, and we found it long at night.
We had not gone far when we found three cows
(24:14):
in a small field. We used all our blandishments on them,
but the lanky one with straight horns was unapproachable and
aloof in her manner, and would not let us near her.
One of the others was quiet enough but was nearly dry.
The third one was the best, and we filled and drank,
(24:35):
and filled and drank until her supply was exhausted. Too,
on account of the field being near the house, we
were careful not to let the stream of milk make
a sound in the empty can, so left some milk
in the can each time to deaden the sound. However,
the owners of the cows were safe in bed and asleep.
(24:59):
We wondered if they would think the cows were bewitched
when they found they would give nothing next morning. End
of Section nineteen
Section nineteen of Three Times and Out by Nellie mc lung.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, Chapter twenty one,
Travelers of the Night. The country we traveled over in
the first hours of the night was poor and evidently
waste land, for we saw no cultivation until near morning,
(00:25):
when we crossed through a heavy oat field, soaking wet
with the night's rain. When we came out, we were
as wet as if we had fallen into the ocean.
We took some of the oats with us to nibble at.
As we went along. We came to a wide stream
with wooded banks, which looked deep and dangerous, so we
(00:48):
made a pack of our clothes and cautiously descended into it,
expecting to have to swim over. However, we found we
could easily wait it, for we had made our crossing
a ford. On the other side, we found ourselves stumbling
over a turnip field, and very gladly helped ourselves and
(01:08):
carried away two of them for provisions for the next day.
When morning came, we took cover in a thin wood.
On the other attempts, we had been able to carry
something to eat and an extra pair of socks this
time we had nothing but what we had on. I
had selected from the stockings I had appear in it
(01:29):
by miss Edna Mackay of Vancouver, which were the first
pair she had knit, but were very fine and well made.
We removed our socks the first thing each morning and
rubbed our feet and put the socks in a tree
to dry, being careful not to have them so high
they would be seen. We were trying to take every
(01:50):
precaution this time. The first day we were near some
farm buildings, and as we lay in the woods, pretty
chilly and wet, we could hear the hens scolding and cackling.
Cackling hens always bring me back to the pleasant days
of childhood. And I was just enjoying a real heartsome
(02:10):
visit to the old home at Delmer, and was chasing
Willie Fuster to around a strawstack when the farmer's dog,
an interfering, vicious looking brute, came peering through the woods
and gave us heart spasms, barking at us for a
few minutes, but we did not move a muscle, and
(02:31):
seeing that he couldn't start a row with us, he
went away, muttering to himself about suspicious characters being around.
A woman passed through the wood too, going over to
one of the neighbors, I think to borrow something, for
she carried a plate, but she did not see us
as we lay low in the scrub. We certainly found
(02:54):
plenty of unsettled country to travel through in the first
days of our journey, for we seemed to go through
one marsh after another covered with coarse, long hay, which
would have been cut, no doubt, but for the soft
bottoms which make it impossible to use a mower to drain.
This land would furnish more work for the Russian prisoners.
(03:17):
In one place, we suddenly stepped down a couple of
feet into a bog filled with water but with grass
on the top. We discovered that it was a place
from which the peat had been removed, and it was
the only sign of human activity that we saw all night.
On the evening of August twenty third, when we started
(03:37):
out after a fairly good day in a spruce thicket,
we could see the lights of Bremen reflected in the sky.
The lights of a city, with its homes, its stores,
its eating places, its baths, should be a welcome sight
to wayfaring men. Who have been living on oats and turnips,
but not for us, to whom a city meant only capture.
(04:02):
So when we noticed the rosy glow in the southern sky,
we steered our course farther west, but still taking care
to avoid the city, which we intended to pass on
the south and east side. Our troubles were many that night.
A good sized river got in our way and had
to be crossed. There was no bridge in sight, and
(04:25):
we had determined to waste no time looking for one,
so we undressed on the marshy bank and made bundles
of our clothes, pinning our tunics about everything with the
safety pins which we carried. We also used the cord
around the bundles. Ted was doubtful about swimming and carrying
his clothes, so I said I would try it first
(04:47):
with mine. I went down through the coarse grass, which
was harsh and prickly to my feet and full of
nettles or something which stung me at every step, and
was glad to reach the open water. The moon was
in the last quarter and clouded over, so the night
was of the blackest. I made the shore without much
(05:09):
trouble and threw my bundle on a grassy bank. I
called over to Ted that the going was fine and
that I would come back for his clothes. At that
he started in to meet me, swimming on his back
and holding his clothes with both hands, using only his feet.
(05:29):
But when he got into the current it turned him
down stream. I swam toward him as fast as I could,
but by the time I reached him, he had lost
the grip of his clothes, and when I got them
they were wet through. As we were nearer to the
bank from which we had started, we went back to it,
(05:49):
for we were both pretty well blown. However, in a
few minutes we were able to strike out again and
reach the other bank in safety. Poor Ted was very
cold and miserable, but put on his soaking garments without
a word, and our journey continued. This was another ditch country,
(06:11):
ditches both wide and deep, and many of them treacherous things,
for their sides were steep and hard to climb. The
darkness made it doubly hard, and sometimes we were pretty
well frightened as we let ourselves down a greasy clay
bank into the muddy water. Later on we found some
corduroy bridges that the haymakers had put over the ditches
(06:36):
all night. We had not found anything to eat, and
when we arrived at a wood near morning, we decided
to stay, for we could see we were coming into
a settlement and the German farmers rise early in harvest time.
So hungry, muddy, wet, and tired, we lay down in
(06:57):
the wood and spent a long, uncomfort sfitable day. My
watch stopped that day and never went again. Edward's watch
was a better one, and although it stopped when it
got wet, it went again as soon as it had
dried out. That day we had not a mouthful of anything,
(07:18):
but we comforted ourselves with the thought that in this
settled country there would be cows, and unless the farmer
sat up all night watching them, we promised ourselves a treat.
The next night, at nightfall, we stole out and began
again to get over the distance that separated us from freedom.
The country was drier and more settled, but the cows
(07:42):
we saw were all in farm yards, and we were
afraid to risk going near them. About midnight we almost
stumbled over or heard of them, and a fine old
white face arose at our request and let us milk her.
Ted stood at her head and spoke kind words to
her and rubbed her nose while I filled our tin
(08:03):
again and again. She was a Holstein, I think, though
we could not see if she was black or red.
It was so dark we could only see the white markings.
We were sorry to leave her. She was another of
the bright spots in my memory of Germany. We crossed
a railroad, a double tracked one with rock ballast, which
(08:26):
my map showed to be a line which runs to Bremen,
and a little later we came to the Vaser. This
river brought up pleasant recollections of the pied Piper of Hamlin,
who drowned the rats in the veser by the magic
of his pipe, but there was no romance in it.
As we came upon it in a gray and misty dawn,
(08:48):
it was only another barrier to our freedom. There were
bunches of willows on the water's edge, and some fine
beeches whose leaves were slightly tinged with yellow. Farther back.
We selected a close bunch of willows for our hiding place,
and after spending a short time looking for a boat,
(09:09):
we gave up the quest and took cover. We were
feeling well and were in a cheerful mood, no doubt
the result of our pleasant meeting with the Holstein. And
when we saw some straw in a field not far
from the willows, we went over and got two armfuls
of it and made beds for ourselves. Fresh clean straw,
(09:32):
when dry, makes a good bed, and no ostermoor mattress
was ever more comfortable. We burrowed into it like moles,
and although it rained, we had a good day. Waking
up in the afternoon, we decided on a general clean up, and,
dipping water from the vasor in a rusty tin pail
(09:54):
without a handle, we washed our faces, cleaned our teeth,
shaved and our hair. My socks were in fine shape,
but Tad's began to show signs of dissolution. The heels
were gone, and the toe of one was broken and going.
His feet were sore and blistered, and he sat long
(10:16):
looking at the perfidious socks which had failed him so soon.
Then he had a plan. He would make himself a
pair out of the sleeves of his undershirt. To me
was given the delicate task of cutting off the sleeves
with a rather dull knife, which I managed to do
with some difficulty, and with a thorn for a needle
(10:39):
and wool from the socks for thread, a pair of
socks were constructed. The thorn was too soft and doubled back,
so ted sharpened a piece of hard wood and with
it made the holes for the yarn. From our shelter
in the willows, we could see a ferry boat carrying
people across the river, and sometimes people passed along the
(11:02):
sandy shore quite near to us, but the willows were
thick and we were not discovered. Two big freight steamers
also passed by us. That night. We went cautiously down
the bank looking for a boat. We could swim the river,
but a boat would suit us better, for the night
(11:22):
was chilly and dark. Before we had gone far we
found one tied in the rushes, but the oars were
locked to the bottom of the boat, and we had
to cut them loose with our penknives, which took quite
a while, for the wood was hard. When we got
across the vaser we found plenty of cows. Some of
(11:43):
them were fickle jades who would let us almost touch them,
and would then sniffet us in disapproval and leave us.
Others would not consider our case for a moment. They
were not going to run any danger of giving aid
and comfort to the enemy. But one good old one
with a crooked horn took pity on us, and again
(12:05):
we felt better. The fields were divided by hedges made
of a closely leaved green shrub, somewhat resembling in the
leaf our buckthorn. It was very thick and very green,
and we crawled into one of these on the morning
of the fourth day, glad of such good shelter. However,
(12:26):
there was no room to move or stand up. The
hedge being low, made it necessary to lie down all day. Still,
we were well satisfied with the hot milk and slept
most of the day, waking up. Suddenly I heard a whistle,
and without moving could see a man's legs coming toward us.
(12:49):
Then a dog, white with black markings, darted past him,
and to my horror, stood not six feet from me.
We stopped breathing. We shut our eyes for fear we
might wink. We effaced ourselves. We ceased to be I mean,
we wished we could. The dog came nearer. I could
(13:13):
hear his soft footfalls. I knew the brute was stepping
high as they do when they see something. I knew
his tail was going straight out behind he was pointing.
The man walked by, whistling, but the dog stayed. Then
(13:34):
I heard the man call him, insisting that he come,
making remarks about his lack of sense. It sounded like,
come here, you fool. The dog, with a yelp of disapproval,
did as he was told, but I could hear him
barking as he ran along in a hurt tone. His
(13:56):
professional pride had been touched. That afternoon, as we lay
in the hedge, we saw a company of school children
running toward us. I think it was the afternoon recess,
and they came running and shouting, straight for the hedge.
I could only see their feet from where I lay,
but it seemed to me that there were a large number.
(14:20):
They stopped in the field on the right of where
we lay and played some game. I was too excited
to notice what it was. Sometimes it brought them close
to the hedge, and then they ran away again. It
may have been a ball game. We were cold and
hot by turns, watching the feet that advanced and receded
(14:42):
and were coming at us again, racing this time as
if to see who would reach the hedge first. When
a sudden downpour of rain came on and they ran back.
We heard the voices growing fainter in the distance and
registered a vow if we got out of this place alive,
we would not trust in a hedge again. Dogs and
(15:06):
children seemed to be our greatest dangers. When we began
our journey that night, we crossed a light railway, one
of those which on the map was indicated with light lines,
and which sure enough had only dirt ballast. Ahead of
us was another railway track with lights, which we determined
(15:27):
to leave alone. The lights of the two towns Delmenhorst
and Gunderksey shone against the western sky, and we kept
to the south to avoid them. The going was difficult
on account of the settlement, and we had to be
watching all the time for travelers. There were a lot
(15:48):
of people out that night who might better have been
at home and in bed. We were glad to take
refuge before daylight in an extensive wood. We had a
few turnites which we ate. The day was spent as
usual trying to dry our socks and get our feet
in shape for the night, but the rain came down hard,
(16:10):
and when We started out at dusk. We were soaking wet.
We at once got into a forest, a great, dark,
quiet forest where fugitives could hide as long as they liked,
but which furnished no food of any kind. In the
small clearings, we came upon herds of cattle, but they
(16:32):
were all young, with not a cow among them. This
was one of the planted forests of Germany where a
sapling is put in when a big tree is taken
out to conserve the timber supply. No one would know
that it had been touched by man except for the
roads which ran through it. There was no waste wood.
(16:54):
There were no stumps, no hacked trees, no evidences of
fire such as I have often seen in our forests
in British Columbia. The Germans know how to conserve their resources.
There was no wind or stars, and there were so
many roads crossing and dividing that it was hard for
(17:18):
us to keep our direction. Toward morning, it began to rain,
and soon the wet bushes as well as the falling rain,
had us wet through. We stopped at last to wait
for daylight, for the forest was so dense we believed
we could travel by day with safety. We lit our
(17:38):
pipes in the usual way to conserve our matches. One
match would light both. When we followed this order, the
lighted one was inverted over the unlighted one into the
lighted one ted blue, while I drew in my breath
from the unlighted one. This morning, something went wrong. Either
(17:59):
the tobacco was soggy or I swallowed nicotine. For in
a few minutes I had all the symptoms of poisoning.
I wanted to lie down, but the ground was too wet,
so I leaned against a tree and was very sorry
for myself. Ted felt much the same as I did.
Then we tried to light a fire. We were so
(18:21):
cold and wet, and besides we had a few potatoes
carried from a garden we passed the night before, which
we thought we could roast. Hunger and discomfort were making
us bold. Our matches would not light the damp wood,
and we could find no other We chewed a few
oats and were very down hearted. It looked as if
(18:45):
a lack of food would defeat us this time. We
had so far come safely, but at great expense of
energy and time. We had avoided traveled roads, bridges, houses,
taking the smallest possible risk, but with a great expense
of energy. Our journey had been hard, toilsome and slow.
(19:10):
We were failing from lack of food. Our clothes hung
in folds on us, and we were beginning to feel weak.
The thought of swimming the ems made us shudder. One
thing seemed clear. We must get food, even if to
get it imposed a risk. There was no use in
(19:31):
starving to death. The recklessness of the slum cat was
coming to us. The weather had no mercy that day,
for a cold, gray, driving rain came down as we
leaned against a tree, two battered hulks of men, with
very little left to us now but the desire to
(19:52):
be free. If this were a book of fiction, it
would be easy to lighten and vary the narrative He
and there with tales of sudden attacks and hair's breadth escapes.
But it is not a fancy story. It is a
plain tale of two men's struggle with darkness, cold, and
(20:13):
hunger in a land of enemies. It may sound monotonous
to the reader at times, but I assure you we
never for one minute got accustomed to the pangs of hunger.
The beat of the rain or the ache of our
tired legs, and the gripping, choking fear that through some
(20:36):
mishap we might be captured. The country was so full
of bogs and marshes that we had to stick to
the road that night, but we met no person and
had the good fortune to run into a herd of
cows and drank all the milk we could hold. Unfortunately,
we had nothing in which to carry milk, so had
(20:58):
to drink all we could and go on in the
hope of meeting more cows. While we were helping ourselves,
the storm, which had been threatening all night, came on
in great fury, and the lightning seemed to tear the
sky apart. We took refuge in an old cow shed,
which saved us from the worst of it. That morning,
(21:22):
we hid in a clump of evergreens, thick enough to
make a good shelter, but too short for comfort, for
we could not stand up. Ted was having a bad
time with his feet, for his improvised socks did not
work well. They twisted and nootted and gave him great discomfort.
(21:43):
This day he removed his undershirt, which was of wool,
and cutting it into strips five or six inches wide,
wound them round and round his feet, and then put
his boots on. He had more comfort after that, but
as the weather was cold, the loss of his shirt
was a serious one. That night we came to a
(22:06):
river which we knew to be the Hunt, and looked
about for a means of crossing it. We knew enough
to keep away from bridges, but a boat would have
looked good to us. However, there did not seem to
be any boat, and we decided to swim it without
loss of time, for this was a settled district and
(22:27):
therefore not a good place to hesitate. On account of
our last experience in crossing a river, we knew a
raft to carry our clothes on would keep them dry
and make it easier for us, so, failing to find
any stuff with which to make a raft, we thought
of a gate we had passed a short time back.
(22:49):
It was a home made affair made of a big
log on the top, whose heavy route balanced the gate
on the post on which it swung. We went back,
found it, lifted it off, and although it was a
heavy carry, we got it to the river, and, making
two bundles of our clothes, floated them over on it.
(23:13):
I swam ahead, pushing it with one hand, while Ted
shoved from behind. Our clothes were kept dry, and we
dragged the gate up on the bank. We hoped the
farmer found it, and also hope he thought it was
an early Halloween joke. That day, August thirty first, we
(23:33):
took refuge in the broom, which was still showing its
yellow blossom, and as the sun came out occasionally we
lit our pipes with Ted's sunglass. The sun and wind
dried our tobacco and our socks, and we started off
that night feeling rather better. It was a fine night
(23:54):
for our purpose, for there was considerable wind, and we
kept going all night, mostly on the roads. At daylight
we took refuge in an open wood. The day was
cloudy and chilly, and we found it long at night.
We had not gone far when we found three cows
(24:14):
in a small field. We used all our blandishments on them,
but the lanky one with straight horns was unapproachable and
aloof in her manner, and would not let us near her.
One of the others was quiet enough but was nearly dry.
The third one was the best, and we filled and drank,
(24:35):
and filled and drank until her supply was exhausted. Too,
on account of the field being near the house, we
were careful not to let the stream of milk make
a sound in the empty can, so left some milk
in the can each time to deaden the sound. However,
the owners of the cows were safe in bed and asleep.
(24:59):
We wondered if they would think the cows were bewitched
when they found they would give nothing next morning. End
of Section nineteen
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