| Show i 1 rf i TT TT g m r W 14 bl M ki ra UN iu fe 1 baj by ex em gunner and chief petty officer U 5 navy member of the foreign legion of france A L k R D E P aj captain gun turret french Dattle battleship ship cassard cassara ja winner of the cral croix ix de guerre copyright 1018 by reilly and duwors co arith tt alth the ibo acor gcorge c 31 I j 2 lo N fill ill IIII 1111 fill 1 if ill ill if III I 1 I 1 ill ill III I 1 ill 11 1 1 in 1 CHAPTER continued 19 the day we were transferred to the regular prison bar barracks rachs four hundred russians and belgians were buried most of oc them had died from croul choldin ch oleia olein typhoid and inoculations we heard from the prisoners prison eis cis there before us its that tile germans had come through the camps with word that there was aas in an epidemic of black typhus ind and cholera and that the only thing tor for the men to do was to take the scrum bruni treatment to avoid catching dl disca alsea es most alot alo t or of the four hundred men had died from the hie inoculations they had taken the germans word had been inoculated rind and hat hail died within nine hours which shows how foolish it is to believe a german none of us had any doubt but what the serum scrum was poisonous the second day that wo we were in the regular camp the germans german strung barbed wire all around out our barr barracks aks they told us we had a case of lack black typhus among us this was nothing more nor less than a blun bluff tor for not one of us had typhus but they put up the wire nevertheless aud and we were not allowed to go out one day when I 1 was loafing around our barracks door and not blavin having anything thin particularly important to do I 1 packed a nice hard snowball and landed it neatly behind the car of a little antt sentry N not far away when lie he 1001 looked ked around he did not blow his whistle but began hunting for foe the thrower this was strange in ili a german sentry and I 1 thought lie he must be pretty good stuff when he looked around however all lie he saw was avas a man staggering around as if il he were drunk the man was the one who had done the throwing all tight light but the sentry could not be sure of it for surely no man mail would stay out in the open and invite accidents like that but still who bad done it so I 1 just kept staggering around and the sentry came up to me and looked me over pretty hard then I 1 thought for the first time that things might go hard on me but I 1 figured that if I 1 quit the play acting it would be all over so I 1 staggered right up to tile alie sentry ind and looked at it him drunkenly expecting every moment to get one from the bay bayonet met but lie he was sc 3 surprised that all lie he could do war vat stare so I 1 stared bad back pretend pretending in that I 1 saw two of him and otherwise acting foolish then I 1 guess giess lie he for the first time that the chances of anybody being drunk in that camp were small tit at least for the prisoners he was rubbing his ear car till all the time but finally the thought seeped through tile the ivory and lie began to laugh I 1 laughed too and the first thing you 1 know now lie he had me doln doing it again that olat is the imitation 0 one n C sno snowball iball rs enough I 1 figured I 1 u ed to talk to him quite often after r that we had no particular love for each other but he was gamer than the other sentries and he did not call me hund every time lie he saw me BIC so we got on very well together nis his name must have been schwartz I 1 guess but it sounded like batts Sat ts to me so S batts atts he was and I 1 was chink to him as everybody else called me that one day lie he risked asked me if I 1 could speak french and I 1 said yes italian yes russian yes no matter what lan language lie he might have mentioned I 1 would have said yes because I 1 could smell emell something in the wind and I 1 was curious then he told me no that it if I 1 went to the hospital and worked there I 1 might get better meals ind and would not have to go so far for them and that my knowing all the languages I 1 said I 1 did would help mo me a great ways toward getting the job D evidently vi dently he had been told to get a man for the place because lie he appointed me to it then and lie he put me to work right away anay we went over to one of the barracks u where here a case of sickness had been reported and found that the invalid was a big Barba barbadoes docs negro named jim a heman fileman flow the voltaire at one time jim must have weighed pounds but by this time he was about two pounds lighter titan than a straw hat but still black and full of pop pep light as he was I 1 wu was no white hope arid and it was all I 1 could do to carry him to the hospital kept right along behind me and every time I 1 would stop to rest he would poke me with ath a hroboni the only broom I 1 s saw aw in germany and laugh and point to his ear car then I 1 thought it was a frame up alid und that he be was getting aca eian with me but I 1 was in for it then own and the best I 1 could do was to go through with it but I 1 was all in when we reached the hospital the first thin thing I 1 saw hen v c got jr ir the door was waa another nugio also fr arm m barbadoes and as tall and thin as jim had once been short and fat this black boy aud and I 1 made a great team but I 1 never knew what his name was I 1 always called him kate because night and day he was whittling the old song kate kate meet me at the garden gate or words to that affect a chave waked up many a ight and heard that whistle just about tit at the manie ame place as when I 1 had fallen asleep it would not have been so bad if he h bia 40 kloxin all of it IL I 1 took swats swaps broom and cleaned vp tp and then honed where tho the coal or w was this got a great laugh it humorous to tho the men who bad shivered for weeks maybe but to me it was nas about as funny as a I 1 cry for help I 1 got wood though before I 1 had been there long there was aas a great big cupboard that looked more like a small house built against the wall of the hospital barracks in one corner of the room and not far from the nuite kotc was nas the only patient able to be on his feet so I 1 thought lie he would have to be my chief cool aud and bottle washer for a while and beides bes there was something about him that made him look cletty valuable I 1 had not recognized his whistling yet so slim looked to bo be the right D name for him slim that big cupboard for howd I 1 know euthin ruth ln in it IL slim that would muke inake a fine b box ox for coal or wood it dm whar de coal an wood im going out and take eions slim take the wheel while im gone and lee keep our eye peeled for U boat so I 1 sneaked out the door and began looking around if you took look at the alic sketch I 1 have made it will not take you long to see sec that next to us was a vacated russian barracks and it did not take me lilt much longer to see it too back to the hospital li and slim slim what barracks are net to us russian bur rucks only dey aint dere now been sick and you mean to tell me you dont know where to get wood sick men been in ili dent bur rucks sick men here arent there lets go EO that did the trick the black blach boy would watch from the hospital hospit al windows do s until he be saw the coast A w as clear then we would slip into the barracks next door and lie ho would watch again when there aas no sentry near enough to hear us crush and out bould w conic come a dividing board from the bunks when we had an armful apiece ind and had them up to tile the right lengths all we needed was a little more watching and then back to the hospital and the big cupboard later on our men told me they used us ed to watch the arnol smoke c that poured from alie hospital chi chimney niney all the time and wonder nonder where on earth xe we got the wood we got tile the same kind of food in the ao 10 hospital pital that was served in the other barmas and I 1 would not have had any mote moie than I 1 used to except that hom ellmes s some of the wenty twenty six patients could not cat their hire and then of course it was mine one day though we nil all had ei etra eitra tra rations two russian doctors came to visit us each day and once they were fool iba ebli enough or kind enough to ask if v we e it had ad ived our rations rit ions we had received them than usual and they were finished at the time of course I 1 said no so they orde ordered the russian in the kitchen to deliver twenty eight rations to us which was not quite thice loaves of 0 bread we were that much ahead that day but it would not OIL when I 1 tried the trick again one day a german doctor came to the hospital barracks he would v not ot touch an tiling hile lie he was there not even open the door all of the patients had little caida attached to their beds charts of their condition when the gelman wanted Nan ted to see the taco c charts uie russian doctor had to boia tile them for him P I 1 was having nl a gle gr eal time at alie hospital wrecking the bari barracks acks net nest door each quy day for wood along with kate and getting a little more food s sometimes and was ains always nice and N warm nirm irm I 1 i thought myself quite a pet Com combated to what hat I 1 had bud been up against it seemed like c real comfort but tile the mole moie food agot the mote moie I 1 NN wanted anted arid and it was as food that brought tile me dov it after all across from us was a barracks in which there englis h officers and son somehow lellow it seemed to me that they must have ind had a drag B every very once in a while I 1 saw what nhat looked lil lg ege tables and bags of something that was aang a dead ringer for biown bikov n hour flour so I 1 told slim or kate kale as I 1 was liim him by then and with him on guald I 1 sneaked out after two or three false starts I 1 got over our barbed alle and their barbed wire nire and in through a window Nin dow there I 1 saw carrots and graham flour bourl I 1 took all I 1 could carry to divide up with ith kate and then started eating so Is as not lot to 1 aate anything it was as some home feast the only thing besides mud bread and barley coffee and shadow soup that I 1 had bad to eat in Ger ninny then 1 I stalled hark barl to the hospital I 1 got over their barbed wire avire all right and kate gave me the go ahead for our entanglements entangle ments menth but just as I 1 was going over them a sentry nabbed me at first I 1 thought kate had turned traitor because we had had a little argument a short time be foie but later on I 1 figured that lie he would not havo have done a trick like that and besides he knew I 1 was bringing liliu something to eal cat so the sentry must have sneaked up without kate seeing him who got the carrots and graham flour that I 1 was carrying I 1 do not know the bentrick booted me all the way back to my old barracks CHAPTER despair and freedom while I 1 was working at the hospital conditions nt at my old barracks hat had been getting worse orar and wor worse wore e very few of the men nian were absolu absolutely tel right in the licad head I 1 guests and almost all lind had given ua u hope pa or of ever getting out alive though they aliey put up un a good front to the huns they really did not care a great deal what happened to them the only abil g to think about was the minute they wore were living iving in the day I 1 canic came back two EugIl englishmen II who had suddenly gone mail mad commenced to light ench each other it was the most terrible fight I 1 have ever sen seen it was nas some ome time before rest of us could make them quit because at first we did not know they were crazy when we had them down li howe cr they were scratched and bitten rind and pounded aiom head to foot both of them theiu bled from the nose all that night arid and toward morning one of them became sane batic for a few minutes and then died the other was taken away by the germans still crazy another time nn an australian came into our barracks rind and deiy seriously told us that lie he had a drag with the german and that he had been to dinner with them and had had turkey potatoes coffee butter eggs sugar in ills his codyce and all the luxuries ou could think of we just sat and stared at him it seemed impossible that any of our own men would haic haae the gall to torture us its like that eliat rind and yet wu 1 I could not possibly believe that it had really happened finally one fellow could not stand it any longer he was nothing but skin and bones af 1 V IP I 1 p mf n fig LL IM W I 1 1 I 1 one man would trade his whole ration for the next day for half a ration today but he grabbed a dividing board ind and there were just two tio wallops Aal lops the board lilt hit mhd australians Austia lians head and the head lilt the floor then halt half a dozen more pounced onto him and gave him 1 a I real lic licking kLug when he be came to lie he lind forgotten all about the wonderful dinner lie he did not ba have not lonz long after this the russian doctors d oc proved to the G germans finans that there was no black typhus in ili our banacka rind and we avers wera albov loved ed the freedom of the camp except that VB ne could conlan not 0 L 1 visit the russian russan barracks that was as no hardship to tile me nor to tin decof arst oc us except one chap from the cambrian Ca mUrian range who had a special pal among the russians Russ fans rans that lie he wanted to tobee bee and of cour course coure e alion w hell it ai was js vei vel hoten botell he wanted to see I 1 in di all the more A d day y or tv 0 after the order I 1 was standing outside the barracks door when alien I 1 saw this fellow come collie out with a dividing board in ills his hand I 1 thought I 1 lie was as going to smash somebody with it ft so I 1 stood by cut but he stooped over and jammed one end of the board against the threshold of tile door scratched the ground iab with the farther end ot of the board and measured again ne he kept this up length by length in the direction of the russian barr barracks aels the sentry in tile yard vard stopped and stared at him but tile the fellow kept right on paying no attention to anybody pretty soon lie was right by the sent rys feet and I 1 thought any minute the sentry would give him the b butt hut but he just stated a while and let him pass that lad ind measured ill the e whole distance ii lince to the russian barracks went inside stayed a while and calmly strolled hack back with the board under its ills alafi aim when he reached benched our barracks again he told us it he had found a vino mine what lit he bad found was something not so unusual a boneheaded bonc headed german there was a lot of bamboo near the russian barracks and the Russi russians alls made baskets out of it and turned them in to the germans for this they got all the good jobs in the kitchen and had bad a fine chance to get moro more to ent cat but they were treated dilice like that la Is all except the few cossacks that were in tile bunch the nuns hung know that a cossack never forgets forget s and I 1 will vill get revenge for the slightest mistreatment even if it means his death I 1 have seen antiles entil en tiles cs turn aside from the lie boat beat they were walking and pet get out of the way nay when they saw a cossack coming there were very few cossacks there however I 1 do not think they let themselves get captured very often we lind had roll call every morning of course and were always mustered in front of our barracks ban acks the middle of the line being right at the barracks door sometimes when the cold got too much for them the men nearest the door would due duck into the bar lacks As they left the ranks the other oilier men would close up and this kept the line alno even with the center still till opposite the barracks door finally almost all of the men would be lit in uie bai racks rachs and by the time the roll was over not one |
