Prisoner-of-war escapes; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
We three stood a little apart, occasionally exchanging a word or two in
German. We were hot with excitement and exertion. I was carrying the
large portmanteau and an overcoat over my arm. Kent had the other bag,
Tynsdale an oilsilk wrapped in his overcoat.
The first tram was crowded, but a second, immediately behind, was only
moderately full. As prearranged, we got on the driver’s platform, the
darkest part of the vehicle, and the least sought after.
For the first quarter of an hour of our ride, tram-lines and street
ran parallel to, but on the other side of, the railway, which passed
along the front of the camp. The eastern gate of Ruhleben camp was at
one point not more than two hundred yards from a stopping-place, where
officers and men of the camp-guard usually boarded the trams when going
to town. Hardly half that distance away a sentry patrolled.
The possibility of an untoward meeting at this point kept us on edge.
If somebody from Ruhleben had accidentally entered our car, we intended
to take no notice of it, unless he came to the front platform. What we
should have done in that case, I do not know. Our resourcefulness was,
fortunately, not put to the test.
The front platform became fairly crowded. I succeeded in manœuvering
Tynsdale into a corner, and planted myself in front of him, thus
cutting him off from any likelihood of being spoken to by any of the
passengers. Kent could take care of himself, better perhaps than I,
for he was readier with his tongue. Half-way to Berlin, in front of
West End Station, Charlottenburg, where eighteen months ago my railway
journey had started, the track was blocked by a car which had broken
down. It took half an hour to shunt it upon a siding and clear the
line. We were not pressed for time, and remained in our places, almost
the only passengers who did so.
Our immediate destination was the Wilhelms Platz in Berlin. From
there we had to get to the Lehrter Station. Without local knowledge
ourselves, we had gathered an idea of how to do it. Kent was to be
guide and acting manager, but he kept consulting me, who was well
content to follow.
Broadway at the most crowded hour of the day is hardly so packed as
were, that night, the far wider streets of the German capital. It
seemed as if the whole population of Berlin were wandering more or
less aimlessly about. Two solid streams of people moved in opposite
directions on the pavements, and spilled over the curb into the
roadway. In a way, this was favorable to us. Except by accident, it
would have been impossible to find us. On the other hand, it made it
difficult for a party of three to proceed by tram or omnibus. At every
stopping-place of these public conveyances a free fight seemed to be
going on for the places inside them; not the rush we are accustomed to
complain about in London, but a scramble in which brute force triumphed
unchecked by any trivial regard for decent manners and the rights of
others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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