Commander Lawless V.C. : $b being the further adventures of Frank H. Lawless, until recently a Lieutenant in His Majesty's NavyBennett, Rolf
General
Commander Lawless V.C. : $b being the further adventures of Frank H. Lawless, until recently a Lieutenant in His Majesty's Navy
Bennett, Rolf
World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
A few moments later Lawless was eating ravenously of a savoury mess out
of a tin plate with his fingers--knives and forks, apparently, were
regarded by these people as among the superfluities of life. When he had
eaten his fill Lawless speculated as to where he was. There was no sign
of any docks or shipping, and he began to doubt whether he had reached
Stettin after all. He decided to try, by means of signs and
gesticulations, to make these people understand that he wanted to know
where he was.
It proved a long, wearisome, and almost hopeless task, but at last he
succeeded.
"Glatz," said the man upon whom he had been experimenting.
"Glatz!"
The man nodded.
"Well, I'm jiggered!" exclaimed Lawless under his breath.
He had contrived to escape from his guards, elude recapture, stow
himself away on a train--only to find himself in the very place he had
risked so much to avoid.
"Damn!" he remarked aloud.
Then, realising that it might be dangerous to hang about in the open
fields, he rose to his feet. Possibly he might come across some empty
barn or building where he could lie concealed till nightfall. At any
rate, since he had made his escape at Breslau, it was there that the
authorities would concentrate their search; certainly they would not
suspect that he had gone on to Glatz. And then the question arose, how
was he to reach Stettin?
He put his hand in his pocket, pulled out the notes which his mysterious
friend had given him and handed one to the gipsy. Its equivalent in
English currency was a little less than a pound, and his benefactor
stared in open-mouthed astonishment, first at the note and then at him.
For a minute Lawless thought that he had unwittingly insulted the man,
but he was wrong there; neither pride nor sensitiveness are among the
failings of the Silesian gipsies. The man merely thought that his guest
was a benevolent lunatic.
So, after shaking hands and exchanging grins all round, Lawless departed
and, taking chance as his guide, hurried off in the opposite direction
to the town, carefully avoiding all footpaths. At last he came to a
deserted windmill and, going inside, prepared to wait there till it was
dark enough to make further investigations.
Throughout the whole of the day, which seemed like an eternity, Lawless
did not see a single soul, though he frequently surveyed the landscape
through the numerous apertures in his hiding-place. Long before it
became dark he grew hungry again, and cursed his want of forethought in
not having demanded some bread and cheese in exchange for the note he
had handed over. Eventually, pressed by his inward pangs, he stealthily
crept out of the ruin, and, foraging in the immediate neighbourhood,
discovered a field of turnips. He pulled up several and returned with
them to the mill; they were better than nothing, after all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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