Part 10 (1/2)
We used to pray for night and the end of our enforced rest. We were never dry or warm but were always very cold and miserable. The sun, on those rare occasions when it came forth, did not appear until ten or eleven in the morning. By mid-afternoon it was again a thing of the past. At best it was very weak and we had to hide in the bushes where it could not reach us. All we could do was to take off one garment at a time and thrust it cautiously out near the edge of our hiding-place to some spot on which the sun shone. Under these conditions we grew steadily weaker on our allowance of two biscuits a day; for the time of year precluded the possibility of there being any crops for us to fall back upon for food, and it was too risky a proceeding to attempt to steal from the householders.
[Ill.u.s.tration: GERMAN PRISONERS MARCHING THROUGH GOOD NATURED ENGLISH CROWDS AT SOUTHAMPTON.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: HIGH EXPLOSIVES BURSTING OVER GERMAN TRENCHES.
BRITISH DEAD IN FOREGROUND.]
On the eighth day we reached the River Ems. We had no difficulty in recognising it, as it was the only large one on our map that lay on the route we had chosen, and we had pa.s.sed nothing even faintly resembling it, with the exception of some large ca.n.a.ls, which were easily recognizable as such and which we had swum. We made out trees which appeared to be on the other sh.o.r.e.
We regretfully decided that it was too late to attempt the crossing that night. The daylight proved the line of trees to be merely the tops of a flooded woodland. The sh.o.r.e was a good quarter of a mile away. It was January; the water was cold and full of floating ice, and very swift. Fording was out of the question. For two days and nights we wandered up and down the bank, vainly seeking a boat or raft with which to make the crossing. We finally discovered a large bridge, which was submerged except for its flood-time arches. There was no sign of life and it looked safe, so we proceeded to cross. We discovered, however, that we had not reached the bridge proper, but were merely on the approach to it. We dropped off onto the main steel portion. The wind beat the cold rain against us so that we could neither see nor hear. However, we went on and were nearly across when suddenly a light flashed on us and we heard a startled ”Halt!”
We could barely make out the ma.s.s of buildings that indicated the line of the sh.o.r.e. It seemed too bad to throw up the sponge so easily.
I said under my breath to Simmons: ”We'll push right on,” and loudly: ”Hollander!” thinking we might perhaps get far enough away to make a run for it. But there was no show: It was too far to the sh.o.r.e.
There was a shouted command and the clatter of rifle-bolts striking home. It was no use. We stopped and shouted that we would not run, and then waited while they advanced toward us.
The elderly Landsturmers guarding the bridge gathered us in and took us over to their guardroom at the hotel. We judged the incident to be an epoch in the monotony of their soldierly duties. They were very good to us. Two of them moved away from the fire to make room for our wet misery and they gave us a pot of boiling water, two bivouac cocoa tablets and a loaf of black bread. The news spread, and civilians dropped in to stare at and question us. In the morning the entire population came to see the _Englander_ prisoners. We learned that we were only four miles from Holland, and cursed aloud. The town was Lathen and when, the next morning, we discovered that it was gayly bedecked with flags and bunting we decided that we were indeed personages of note if we could cause such a celebration. However, it was only the Kaiser's birthday.
In the afternoon they took us by rail to Meppen and shoved us in the civilian jail, where we were allowed a daily ration of two ounces of black bread, one pint of gruel and three-quarters of a pint of coffee for two days, until, on January thirtieth, an escort came from Vehnmoor. They roped us together with a clothes-line, arm to arm, and marched us through the princ.i.p.al streets by a roundabout route to the station so that all might see.
We were unwashed, unshaven and so altogether disreputable as to satisfy the most violent hatred--such for instance as we found here.
It did not require our pride to keep our hearts up or to keep us from feeling the humiliation of so cruel an ordeal. We simply did not experience the painful sensations that such a proceeding would ordinarily arouse in the breast of any man; just as after heavy sh.e.l.l-fire no man feels either fear or courage; he is too dazed and stupid for either. Many spat at us and good old _Englander Schwein_ came to us from every side. It seemed like meeting an old friend, after our few days away from it. The faces of these people were different from those we had left at camp but their hearts were the same. They lined the streets and jeered at us. But we were too tired and hungry to care.
And that ended that trip to Holland.
CHAPTER XV
PAYING THE PIPER
Sheer Starvation--Slipping It Over the Sentry--The Court Martial--Thirty Days Cells--No Place for a Gourmand--In Napoleon's Footsteps--Parniewinkel Camp--”Like Father, Like Son”--The Last Kind German--Running Amuck--The Torture of the Russians--The Continental Times--”K. of K. Is Gone!”
Upon arrival at camp, we were put in cells for eleven days while awaiting our court-martial.
During that period we suffered terribly from sheer starvation. The daily rations consisted of a poor soup and a small quant.i.ty of black bread. Hungry though I was, there was only one way by which I could eat it--hold my breath and swallow. I am aware that the Germans consider this food quite palatable but that may be because they are accustomed to it. It was to us the resort of starving men. The cells were quite dark--four-by-eight-foot wooden boxes. The confinement and short rations on top of our arduous journey, during which we had had nothing but the two biscuits a day, caused us to grow weaker daily.
Our friends, however, contrived occasionally to get portions of their food to us. They maintained a sentry of their own, whose duty it was to watch for and report our trips to the latrine. It was unsafe for us to ask for this permission more than once a day with the same guard.
As the latter was frequently changed, however, we were enabled to work the scheme to the limit.
At the worst, this let us out of our cells for a few minutes; and, if we were lucky, enabled us to get a handful of broken food. Seeing us come out, the prisoner on watch would stroll into the hut and pa.s.s the word. Shortly, another would come out to us and in pa.s.sing frequently manage to slip us something. On one long-to-be-remembered occasion, a man of the King's Own Yorks.h.i.+re Light Infantry, managed to ”square”
the guard, a pleasant-faced young German, in some manner we could never fathom, so that the latter actually brought to us two spoons and a wash basin full of boiled barley, which we ate in the latrine. That was the most humane act experienced from German hands during my fifteen months' sojourn in Germany.
On the eleventh day we were marched out to what would be the Germans'
orderly room. A Canadian who had picked up a smattering of German acted as interpreter. He did what he could for us, which was little enough.
Asked why we had tried to escape, we feared to tell the truth, that we had been forced to it by ill-treatment; so merely stated that we were tired of Germany and wanted to go home. The presiding officer said: ”Well, you fellows have been a lot of trouble to us. I've been told to tell you that if you give us any more; we'll have a little shooting bee.” We were sentenced to thirty days' dark cells. That was our court-martial.
One lucky thing happened to us here: When they took our map away it fell in two, as a result of having been folded in our pockets. The officer crumpled one piece up, made a handful of it and tossed it away, at the same time shoving the other half at me, which I eagerly clutched. That piece showed the portion of Germany adjoining the Holland border.
Our thirty days' dark cells were spent in the military prison at Oldenburg. As before, they were four-by-eight feet in size, but with a high ceiling which gave me room to stand on my hands for exercise.