"Over There" with the AustraliansKnyvett, R. Hugh (Reginald Hugh)
History
"Over There" with the Australians
Knyvett, R. Hugh (Reginald Hugh)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
There was another occasion when I unearthed a spy's burrow. One night
a man in D Company stopped me on the road, and pointing out a lonely
farmhouse, told me he had seen some blue sparks flashing from the
chimney. We walked across and, entering the flagged kitchen, asked for
"cafe au lait." Sitting at the white table worn with much scrubbing,
and slowly sipping the coffee, we engaged the old man and woman in
conversation. They were very bitter in their denunciation of "les
boches," and spoke of their sacrifices as nothing. "Why, monsieur, it
is for France! It is not for us to complain if she ask much from us."
My companion spoke French very fluently (his name was Davies), and he
acted as interpreter. I noticed that they seemed anxious to get rid of
us, but we stayed for several hours getting the old lady to cook us
eggs and chipped potatoes, and talking on almost every topic but the
war. One suspicious circumstance that had caught my eye as soon as we
entered the kitchen was the fact that the flue of the stove did not
lead up the chimney, but out through a hole in the wall.
At last, when we rose to go the old man in an excess of hospitality
accompanied us fifty yards on our way. We promised to bring some
companions on another day. "But no, monsieur, that will not do--we
cannot get more eggs, and my wife she is a little afraid of the soldat
from Australie."
After he left us and returned to the farm we doubled back, and round to
the other side. Soon we heard the crackle of wireless. Expecting that
the door would be fast bolted, we smashed-in a window, almost knocking
over the old woman as she barred our way. Looking up the chimney, I
found there as neat a small set of wireless as was ever "made in
Germany." The motor was in the cellar and well-muffled. The old chap
hesitated to come down, but a shot that brought down some plaster
hurried his decision. In spite of the old woman's pretended fear of
Australians, she evidently did not think we were adamant to pity. On
her knees with much weeping she begged us to let them go away, and
shifted rapidly from one ground of appeal to another. She said her
husband was crazy and his wires and things did no harm; he was trying
to talk to "le President," but no answer ever came. She would have him
locked up. "You would not harm an old mother of France!" I told her
she wasn't French, but German, of which I had had suspicions all along.
She then spat at us and told us to do our worst, but the old man merely
stood there and scowled, and as he stood upright, with folded arms, we
judged he was not as old by twenty years as he appeared, though his
make-up was perfect. We marched them through the village under the
curious eyes of many of our own comrades, but the eager gesticulations
of the French people, and the fierce blaze of rage in the eyes of the
women showed us that they had no friends among the neighbors, and
revealed to us the smouldering fires of hate that the French people
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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