Three Times and Out: Told by Private Simmons, Written by Nellie L. McClung — John Shaqi
Three Times and Out: Told by Private Simmons, Written by Nellie L. McClungMcClung, Nellie L.
History
Three Times and Out: Told by Private Simmons, Written by Nellie L. McClung
McClung, Nellie L.
Prisoner-of-war escapes; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
The third night there was a faintly light patch in the sky, by which
I guided my course and did not use my compass at all. Bromley had
evidently not noticed this, and declared that no human being could
keep his direction on as black a night as this. The faint light in
the sky continued to hold, and I guided our course by it until we
came to a road. Here Bromley insinuated that I had better use my
compass (I was thinking the same thing, too). I assured him it was
not necessary, for I knew the road was running east and west. It was,
I knew, if the light patch in the sky had not shifted.
When we made the observation with the compass, we found it was so;
and Bromley asked me, wonderingly, how I could do it. I told him it
was a sort of sixth sense that some people had. After that he trusted
me implicitly. This saved him a lot of anxiety, and also made it
easier for me.
Soon after this we got into a miry part of the country, with the
woods so thick and the going so bad that we knew we could not make
any progress. It was a veritable dismal swamp, where travellers could
be lost forever.
As we stumbled along in this swampy place, we came to a narrow-gauge
railway, which we gladly followed until we saw we were coming to a
city. This we afterwards knew to be the city of Hanau. Just in the
gray dawn, we left the track and took refuge in a thick bush, where
we spent the day. This was October 5th.
Our first work was to change our socks, spreading the ones we took
off on a tree to dry. We then carefully rubbed our feet until they
were dry, and put on the dry socks. We soon learned that we must
leave our boots off for a while each day, to keep our feet in good
condition. The pressure of the boots, especially with the dampness,
made the feet tender and disposed to skin.
This day was a showery one, too, but the sun shone for about an hour
in the morning, and when Bromley lay down to sleep, I decided to go
out and see what sort of country we were in. I wanted to check up my
map, too, for if it were correct, we should be near the Main River.
I made my way cautiously to the edge of the wood, marking the way by
breaking the top of a twig here and there, to guide me safely back
to Bromley. Ordinary travellers can call to each other, but the ways
of escaping prisoners must all be ways of quietness, although their
paths are not all paths of peace!
I saw a beautiful little lodge, vine-covered, with a rustic fence
around it, with blue smoke curling out of its red-brick chimney, and
I just knew they were having bacon and eggs and coffee for breakfast.
Two graceful deer, with gentle eyes, looked out at me from a tangle
of willows, and then I knew the brown lodge was the game-keeper's
house. A hay meadow, green with after-grass, stretched ahead of me,
but there was no sign of the Main River.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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