Fighting in FlandersPowell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
History
Fighting in Flanders
Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Belgium
"Then I have orders to take you to the commandant," said he.
"But I am on my way to dine with General von Boehn. I have a pass
signed by the General himself and I am late already."
"No matter," the man insisted stubbornly. "You must come with me.
The commander has so ordered it."
So there was nothing for it but to accompany the soldier. Though we
tried to laugh away our nervousness, I am quite willing to admit that
we had visions of court-martials and prison cells and firing parties.
You never know just where you are at with the Germans. You see,
they have no sense of humour.
We found the commandant and his staff quartered at a farmhouse a
half-mile down the road. He was a stout, florid-faced, boisterous
captain of pioneers.
"I'm sorry to detain you," he said apologetically, "but I ordered the
sentries to stop the first American car that passed, and yours
happened to be the unlucky one. I have a brother in America and I
wish to send a letter to him to let him know that all is well with me.
Would you have the goodness to post it?"
"I'll do better than that, Captain," said I. "If you will give me your
brother's name and address, and if he takes the New York World,
he will read in to-morrow morning's paper that I have met you."
And the next morning, just as I had promised, Mr. F. zur Nedden of
Rosebank, New York, was astonished to read in the columns of his
morning paper that I had left his soldier-brother comfortably
quartered in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Renaix, Belgium, in
excellent health but drinking more red wine than was likely to be
good for him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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