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PAT O BRIEN ;
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Copyright, li<lH, by Fat Alva O'Hrifln
SYNOPSIS.
CHAPTER I -Introductory. Pat O’Brien
tell* of hi* purports in writing the mory
of la* adventure*.
CHAPTER 11 —Telia of his enlistment In
the Royal Flying corps, his training In
Cunada and hi* transfer to France for *•
tlve duty.
CHAPTER 1 IT—Describes fights in which
he brought down two German airplanes
and IP* final fight in which he was
brought down wounded within the Ger
man lines and w .is made a prisoner of
war
CHAPTER IV -Discovers that German
hospital Htaff tnsrbarously neglected the
fatally wounded and devoted their ener
gles to restoring those who might be
returned to the firing line*. Witnessed
death in fight of his best chum. Lieut.
Paul Rainey.
CHAPTER V—He Is taken to the of
fleers' prison camp at Courliul. There he
began planning his escape. Hv great s.-v
rtflee he manages to save ami hide away
two dally rations of bread.
CHAPTER VI—He confiscates a map <>f
Germany and Just half an hour later Is
put on a train hound for a prison camp
In Germany lie leaps through a window
while the train Is traveling at a ra»© of 3*.
miles an hour.
CHAPTER VII For nine days he
crawls through Germany, hiding during
the day, traveling ai night, guided by tin
stars and subsisting on raw vegetables.
He covers 76 miles before reaching Lux
emburg
CM A rrrJK vin For nine days more he
Struggle* on In a weakened condition
through Luxemburg In the direction ol
Belgium.
*.»ue night hh I came out of a yard
ft wit* go pitch dark that I could not
see ton foot nhoad of mo and I was
right In the back of a little village,
although I did not know It. I crawled
along fearing I might come to a cross*
roads at which there would In all
probability tx* a German sentry.
My precaution served me in Rood
stead for had I come out In the main
street of the village and within twenty
feet of me, sitting on soni# bricks
whore they were building a little store.
I could see the dim outline of a Ger
man spiked helmet!
I could not cross the street and the
only thins to do was to hack track.
It meant making a long detour and
losing two hours of precious time and
effort, but there was no help for It,
so I plodded wearily back, curslug
the Huns at every step.
The next night while crossing some
fields I came to a road. It was one of
the main roads of Belgium and was
paved with cobble stones, (in these
roads you can hear a wagon or horse
about a mile or two away. I listened
intently before I moved ahead and
hearing nothing concluded that the
way was clear.
As I emerged f rom the field and got
my first glimpse of the road, I got the
shock of nip life! In either dlns-tlon,
as far as I could see, the road was
lined with German soldiers! What
they were doing In that part of Bel
gium I did not know, hut you can ho
mighty sum' I didn't spend any time
trying to find out.
Again It was necessary to change
my course and lose a certain amount
of ground, but t>y this time I had be
come falrty well reconciled to these
reverses and they (lid not depress
as much ns they did at first.
At this period of my adventure, if a
day or night passed without its thrill
I begun to feel almost dlapfxdnted
hut such disappointments were
rather rare.
0n evening ns I wns abnnt to swim
X banal about two hundred feet wide,
f mp' I' nly notleed aboil! one hundred
yards away a canal boat moored to
the side.
It was at a sort of oiit-of-the-wnv
place and I wondered what tin* canal
Imat bad stopped for. I crawled up
to see. As T neared tile boat five men
were leaving It and I noticed them
cross o\er into tho fields. At a safe
distance I followed them and they Imd
not gone very far before 1 saw what
they were after. They were commit
ting the common but heinous crime of
stealing potatoes!
Without ttie means to rook them,
potatoes didn't Interest me a tilt and
I thought that the boat Itself would
probably yield me more than the po
tato patch. Knowing the etimil-liimds
would probably take their time In the
fields, I ellmbed up the stern of the
boat leisurely and without any partic
ular plans to conceal myself. .Inst ns
my head appeared above the stern of
the boat I saw silhouetted against
the sky. the dread outline of a tier
man soldier—spiked helmet and alt!
A chill ran down my spine as I
dropped to the hank of the canal and
slunk away. Evidently the sentry had
not seen me or. If he had, he had prob
ably figured that I was one of the
foraging party, hut I realized that It
wouldn't pay In future to take any
thing for granted.
CHAPTER X.
Experience* in Belgium. i
T think that one of the worst things
I had to contend with In my Journey
through Belgium was the number of
small ditches. They Intercepted me
at every half mile or so, sometimes
| more frequently. The canals and the
Burying His Uniform at Night.
rug rivers i omul swim, or course, i
got souked to the skin every time 1
did It, hut I was becoming hurdened
f to that.
These little ditches, however, were
too narrow to swim and too wide to
Jump. They hud perhaps two feet of ;
water in them and three feet of mud, !
' anil it was almost Invariably a ease of
! wading through. Some of them, no |
! doubt, I eould have jumped If I had
been In decent shape, but with a had
ankle and in the weakened condition
in which I was, it was almost out of j
I the question.
! One night I came to a ditch about
| eight or nine feet wide, I thought 1
I was strong enough to Jump It ami It
) was worth trying as the discomfort l
suffered after wading theta* ditches
was considerable. Taking a long run.
I Jumped as hard as I could, hut I
missed it by four or live inches and
landed in about two feet of water ami
three of mud. (Jetting out of that
mess was enite » tni* The wuter was
. _ _■
Diagram Showing How O'Brien Lost
Precious Hours by Swimming a Riv
er and Later Finding That He Was
on the Wrong Side and Had to Swim
Back.
too flirty nnd too scanty to enable me
to wash off the mini with which I was
covered and It whs t»M> wet to scrape
ofT. I Just had to wait until it dried
and scrape it off then.
In many sections of Belgium through
which I had to pass I encountered
large areas £** swamp and marshy
ground and rather than waste the
time Involved In looking for better
underfooting—which I might not have
found anyway—I used to pule right
through the mud. Apart from the
discomfort of this method of travel
ing and the slow time I made, there
was an added danger to me in the fact
iliat the "squash, squash" noise which
I made might easily he overheard by
Belgians and (Jermans ami give my
position away. Nobody would cross
a swamp or marsh in that part of the
eountry unless he was trying to get
..way from somebody, and I realized
my danger hut could not get around It.
It was a common sight In Belgium
to see a small donkey and a common
ordinary milch cow hitched together,
pulling h wtigon. \\ hen 1 first ob
served lht> unusual combination, I
thought It wus ii donkey and ox or
hull, but closer Inspection revealed to
me that cows were being used for tbo
pu rjio.se.
From thnt I was able to observe
there must be very few horses left In
Belgium except those owned by the
Germans. Cows and donkeys are now
horses and mutes. Altogether I spent
nearly eight weeks wandering through
Belgium, and In all thnt time I don’t
believe I saw more than half a dozen
horses In the jmssesslon of the native
population.
One of the scarcest things hi Ger
many. apjuirontly, Is rubber, for I
noticed that their motor trucks, or lor
ries. unlike our own. had no rubber
tires. Tnstead honvy Iron hands were
employed. I could hear them come
rumbling along the stone roads for
miles before they reached the spot
where I happened to tic In Ihlding.
When I saw these military roads in
Belgium for the first time, with their
heavy cobblestones thnt looked as if
they would Inst for centuries. I real
i/"d at once why It was that the Ger
mans laid been able lo make such a
rapid advance Into Belgium at the
start of the war.
I noticed that the Belgians used
dogs to a considerable extent to pull
their carts, and I thought many times
thut li 1 could have stolen one of
those dogs It would have been a very
good companion for me and might. If
the occasion arose, help me out In a
tight. But 1 had no way of feeding It
and the unltnul would probably have
starved to death. I could live on veg
etables. which I could always depend
upon finding In tiie fields, hut a dog
couldn't, aud so 1 gave up the Idea.
The knack of making tiro with two
pieces of dry wood I Jmd often read
about, but I bad never put It to a test
and for various reasons I concluded
that It would he unsafe for me to
build a tire even If I had matches. In
the first place, there was no absolute
need for It. I didn't have anything
to cook nor utensils to cook It in even
If I hud. While the air was getting
to be rather cool at night, I whs usu
ally on the go at thut time and didn’t
notice It. In the duytlmc, when I
was resting or sleeping, the sun wus
usually out
tielglan peasunt wbuld have been feas
ible, but when I was willing to take
the chance of approaching anyone. It
was Just as easy to ask for food as
matches.
It the second place, It would have
Is-en extremely dungerous to have
built a tire even If 1 hud needed It.
You CHn't build a Ore In Belgium,
which Is the moat thickly populated
country In Kurope. without everyone
knowing It, and I was fur froth anx
ious to advertising my whereabouts.
The villages In that part of Bel
gium through which I was making my
course were ao close together that
there was hardly ever an hour pusaed
without my bearing some clock strike.
Kvery village hus Its clock. Maqy
times I could hour the clocks striking
In two villages ut the same time.
But the hour had very little Interest
to me. My program was to travel as
fast as I could from sunset to sunrise
and pay no attention to the hours In
between, and In the daytime I had
only two things to worry about: keep
concealed and get as much sleep us
possible.
The eubhuge that I got In Belgium
consisted of the small heuds that the
peasants had not cut. All the strength
had concentrated In these little heads
and they would be as bitter as gall. I
would have to be pretty hungry to
day before I could ever eat cabbage
again and the observation aj>
pue* n» mfrins, (..inlps and sugar
beets—especially sugar beets.
It is rather a remarkable thing that
today even a s 11»• • 11 of turnips, raw or
cooked, make* rue sick, and yet a few
short months ago my life depended
upon them.
Night after night as I searched for
food. I was always in hopes that I
might come upon some tomatoes or
celery—vegetables which I really
liked, hut with the exception of once,
wln-n I found some celery. I was never
so fortunate. I ate so mueh of the
celery the night I came upon It that
I was sick for two days thereafter,
but I carried several bunches away
with me and used to chew on It as 1
walked along.
Of course, I kept my eyes open all
the time for fruit trees, but apparently
It was too late In the year for fruit, as
all that I ever was aide to find were
two pears, which I got out of a tree.
That was one of my red-letter days,
hut I was never aide to repeat It.
In the brooks and ponds that I
passed I often noticed fish of different
kinds. That was either in the early
morning Just before I turned In for
the day, or on moonlight nlghts^when
tin* water seemed as clear In spots
as in the day t fine. It occurred to me
that It would he a simple matter to rig
a hook and line and catch some fish,
but I had no means of cooking them
and It was useless to fish for the sake
of It.
One night In Belgium my course
took me through a desolate stretch of
. 111 ■ i t r v u hi. It w*...,t,. I... uKu.iInhiU'
uncultivated. I must have covered
twelve miles during the night, without
passing a single farm or cultivated
Held. My stock of turnips which I
had picked tile night before was got'"
anil I Jiluiined, of course, to get enou0i
to carry me through the following
day.
The North Slur was shining brightly
that night and there was absolutely
nothing to prevent nty steering an ab
solutely direct course for Holland and
liberty, but my path seemed to lie
through arid pastures. Far to the
east or to the west I could hear
faintly the striking of village bells,
and I knew that If I changed my
course I would undoubtedly strike
farms and vegetables, but the North
Star seemed to plead with me to fol
low It and I would not turn aside.
When daylight came, the conse
quence was I was empty handed and I
hud to Hud a hiding pluis1 for the day.
I thought I would approach the tlrst
peasant I came to and ask for food,
hut that day I had misgivings—a
hunch—that 1 would get into trouble
If I did. and I decided to go without
food altogether for that day.
If was a foolish thing to do, I found, j
because I not only sulTered greatly
from hunger all that day, hut It inter
fered with my sleep. I would drop off
to sleep for half an hour, perhaps,
and during that time I would dream
that I/was free, buck home, living u j
life i.f»viHiipuraUve case, und then 1 j
would wake up with u start and catch !
a glimpse of the hushes surrounding
me, feel the hard grouud beneath me
and the hunger pangs gnawing at my
sides, anil then 1 would realize how
far from home I really was, and I
would lie there and wonder whether
I would ever really see my home
again. Then I would full asleep again
anti dream this time, perhaps of the
days I spent In (’ourtral, or my leap
from the train window, of the Bava
rian jillot whom I sent to eternity In
my last air tight, of my tracer bullets
getting closer and closer to his head,
and then I would wake up again with
a start and thank the Lord that I was
fmly dreaming it all again instead of
living through It!
That night I got an early start be
cause I knew I had to have food, and
f decided that rather than look for
vegetables I would take a chance and
apply to the tlrst Belgian peasant
whom I came to.
It wus about 8 o'clock when I came
to a small house. I hud pteked up a
heavy stone and had bound It In my
handkerchief and I was resolved to use
It as a weapon If It became neeessary.
After all I bad gone through, I was
resolved to win my liberty eventually '
As It happened, I found that night ;
the ft rat real friend I had encountered j
1 In all my traveling. When I knocked ;
! timidly on the door. It was opened by ;
: a Belgian peasant, about fifty years of j
age. He asked me In Flemish what 1 |
wanted, hut I Shook my head and j
I [Minting to my ears and mouth tntl- ;
muted that I was deaf and dnmb. and
I then I opened und closed my mouth
, several times to show him that I
wanted food.
He showed me Inside and sat me at
the table. He apparently lived alone. :
for his Ill-furnished room had hut one j
chair, and the plate and knife and
fork he put before me seemed to be all
he hud. He brought me some cold
potatoes and several slices of stale ,
bread, and he warmed me some milk
on a small oil stove.
I ate ravenously and all the time I
was engaged I knew that he waa eye
ing me closely.
Before I was half through he came
over to me, touching me on the shoul
der. and stooping over so that his Ups
almost touched my ear. he said in
broken English. “You ure an Eng
lishman—I know It—and you can hear
and talk If you wish—urn I not right?"
There was a smile on his face and
a friendly attitude about him that told
me Instinctively that he could be
trusted, and I replied: “You have ;
guessed right—only I am an Ameri
can, not an Englishman.”
He looked at me pityingly and Oiled
my cup again with warm milk.
him Minim*** ..mi apparent willing
ness to help i;,e almost overcame me,
ami I felt like warning him of the
consequences he would *u?r,»r If fh«»
Huns fliscovered lie had befriended
file. I bad heard that twenty Belgians
had been shot for helping Belgians
to escape into Holland, find I hated
to think what might happen to this
good old Samaritan if the Huns ever
knew that lie had helped an escaped
American prisoner.
After my meal was finished, I told
him in as simple language ns 1 could
command of some of tie* experiences
I had gone through and I outlined my
future plans.
“You will never he able to get to
Holland,'* he declared, “without a
passport. The nearer you get to the
frontier the more German soldiers
you will encounter, and without a
passport you will he a marked man."
I asked him to suggest a way by
which I could overcome the difficulty.
He thought for several moments
and studied me closely all the time—
perhaps endeavoring to make nbso
"You Can Hear and Talk If You Wiah
—Am I Not Right?”
lutely sure that I was not a German
spy—amt then apparently deciding in
my favor, told me what he thought It
was heat for me to do.
"If you will call on this man"
(mentioning the name of a Belgian In
-. u city through which I hud to
pass), he advised, “you will he uhle to
make arrangements with him to se
cure a passport, Hnd he win do every
thing he can to get you out of Bel
gium."
He told me where the man In ques
tion could he found and gave me some
useful directions to continue my Jour
ney. and then he led rue to the door.
I thanked him a thousand times and
wanted to pay him for his kindness
and help but he would accept nothing.
He did give me his name and you may
be sure I shall never forget It. but to
mention It here might, of course, re
sult In serious consequences for him.
When the war Is over, however, or the
Germans are thrown out of Belgium.
I shall make It my duty to flud that
kind Belgian If I have to go through
again all that I have suffered already
to do It,
(To he Continued)
*•*•*•»«*•%♦••»»*«*•*•*•**
DRS. DAGGETT A BLYTH
Northern Hotel Building,
Cordova.
DENTISTRY
Hour* 9 a. m. to 9 p m.
Special Attention to
Prophylaxis and Pyorrhea.
PHONE 200
WM. A. HESSE
Mining Engineer.
U. S. Mineral Surveyor.
D. 8 Depaty Surveyor.
BOX 1* COROOVA. ALASKA
DR. W. H. CHASE
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON
Office over Cordova Drug Store.
Calls May be Left at Cordova
Drug Store. Residence,
Alaskan Hotel
DR, W. W. COUNCIL
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
Office and Residence: Cordova
General Hospital (Ostrander Bella
Ing-.
i’hones—Residence 115; office 111
DR. C. L. HALE
DENTIST
' Office: Over Slum, O'Neill'* Store
1 1-""-■- -LJaJB" “ w>
SMITH <b McCONAGHY
PLUMBERS ANB STEAMFITTERS
Cor. Front and B Streets
Office Open Evenings
E. F. MEDLEY
Attorney and Counsellor at Law
Room 1.
Adama Block CORDOVA, ALASKA
--1 M
WILLIAM PALLISTER, M.D
Specialist In the treatment of
disease* and deformities of the
eye. ear, nose and threat; glasses
fitted.
JUNEAU GENERAL HOSPITAL
FRANK A. METCALF
Civil and Mining Engineer
U. S. Mineral Surveyor
Juneau Alaska
FRANK H. FOSTER
Attorney at Law
| Room 1 Alaskan Hotel
♦ Windsor Hotel*
I ♦ L. Wain, Prop. ♦
j* Where You Get J
I* Comfort ad Service *
♦ And the Rates Are Right. ♦
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PCJR TOE
MAN f&jfo
vho
FIGHTS
CORDOVA
MACHINE WORKS
E. R. CARNES. Prop.
Roaldence Shop
Phono 101-1. Phono 112
Machine Woik of all Kindi.
Blackamlthlng. General Repair
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AUTOMOBILES
REPAIRED
Office and Shop: City Dock
Cordova. Alaaka.
Out of Town JePa Given Strict
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I Cordova House l
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Headquarters for Railroad and Mining Men j
Satisfaction Ooranteed |
Rates Reasonable j
i I
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| Copper River
and Northwestern Ry.
FOUR TRAINS WEEKLY BETWEEN
CHITINA AND KENNECOTT
Leave Cordova, Second Street Depot, on Mon
days, Thursdays and Saturdays
Leave Chitina for Cordova Sundays, Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Fridays
Leave Chitina for Kennecott Sundays, Tuesdays
and Fridays
Leave Kennecott for Chitina Mondays, Wednes
days, Thursdays and Saturdays
The above schedule subject to change without
ant ice.
Dining Car in Connection with all Regular
Passenger Trains between Cordova and Chitina.
I n ight received and delivered at Cordova
Wharf fn<m !» a. in. to 5 p in., except Sundays.
T '. ts on sale at Second Street Depot office
c I mu before departure of trains.
oALEB CORSER Superintendent
D. L. LEATON, Ticket Agent