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
We had not gone very far when we heard the sound of wagons, and when
we stopped to listen we could hear many voices, and knew our road was
bringing us to a much-used thoroughfare. In the corner formed by the
intersecting roads there was a thick bush of probably ten acres, and
I could not resist the desire to scout and see what sort of country
we were in. So I left Bromley, carefully marking where he was by all
the ways I could, and then went out to the edge of the bush. I went
along the edge of the road, keeping well into the bush. It was too
dark to see much, but I could make out that there was a well-wooded
country ahead of us. I came back to the exact place where I had left
Bromley, or at least where I thought I had left him, but not a trace
of him could I see. Of course, I dared not call, so I gave a soft
whistle, as near like a bird-call as I could. Bromley reached out his
hand and touched me! He was right beside me. That gave me the comfort
of knowing how well the darkness and bushes hide one if he is
perfectly still.
We thought this road led to the river Main, and decided to keep close
to it so we could get across on the bridge. We followed along the
road until it branched into two roads. We took the right branch
first, but as it turned more and more sharply to the west, we
concluded it was the road to Frankfort, and retraced our steps to the
place where we had picked it up, and went the other way. There was
heavy forest along the road, and it seemed to us to run southeast by
east. We wanted to go south, so we turned off this road through a
chance hay meadow, and then through the forest, until we found a sort
of road which ran south.
All German forests have roads, more or less distinct, traversing them
according to some definite plan, but they do not necessarily follow
the cardinal points of the compass. We followed the south road, which
was little used, until we came to a stream. There was no way of
getting across it, so we followed its bank until it flowed into the
Kinzig River. We knew by our map this must be the Kinzig River.
We tried to find a path along the Kinzig, but there did not seem
to be any, and the underbrush was impenetrable. We decided to wait
until morning came, took some chocolate and biscuits and filled our
beer-bottle in the stream. Then we found a comfortable bank, and put
some brush under our heads and slept. But not very soundly, for we
did not want to miss that misty light which comes about an hour
before sunrise.
We wakened just as the light began to show in the east, and, stiff
and cold, with our teeth chattering, we started on our way to find
some means of getting across the Kinzig. Bridge, boat, or raft,
anything would do us, provided only it came soon, before the
daylight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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