The Escape of a Princess Pat

son

ing the Helpless-Water on the End of a Bayonet-The Curious Cas

f trench, and for the next few minutes the officer was kept busy

r turned to do so than a German shot him from behind and from quite close, so that it blew the groin completely out, making a terrible hole. We could not tie up so bad a wound and he bled to death. Hookie Walker remained

ing the bidding of his captors at the time. The killing of those who resisted was of course quite in order. Why he was killed while Walker was left unharmed and at his side

ed to her which had been found on her brother's body, together with three war medals and a Masonic ring. The latter was the key to the i

for it was true that his speech contained no trace of the accent which is usually associated with a German's E

, my blood turned to water. My limbs refused to act and my mind travelled back over the years to a little Scottish village where I had been used to sit in the dark corners of the shoemaker's shop, listening to him and others of the old 2nd Gordons recount their terrible tales of the hill men on the march to Kandahar with "Bobs." And now I felt that same tremendous sensation of fear which used to send me trembling to my childish pallet in the croft, peering fearfully through the darkness for the oiled body of a naked Pathan with his corkscrew kris. Terror swept over me like a springtime flood. He saw no one else. His

latterly of the army group of Prince Ruprecht of Bavaria-"Rupie," we called him. They wore the baggy grey clothes and clumsy looking leather top boots of the German infantryman. The spiked pickel

r sticking flesh and blood as for sawing wood; and, if for the former, an unnecessarily cruel weapon, since it

sting our dead out of the shattered trench, both in front and behind, and in many cases using them

the remnant of our fellows still hanging on in the supports continued to come over, but none of us were hit. In all probability, they withheld

We did not see the latter again and missed them horribly in the rain of that day. Two

had always searched them but had invariably returned those little trinkets and comforts which t

exception of one, who, by permission of t

w in Toronto. The latter lay with a boy of the machine-gun crew for a couple of days in a dug-out, both badly wounded. A German stumbled on to them. They pleaded

in German, "kill me too, but

ent: "What, you schwein, you speak the

Christ's sake-give m

ith us and then d

d I will not kill you; just to show

ccount his mangled leg was amputated without the use of any anesthetic. But that m

he regiment, became lost and eventually floundered into an English battalion. He reported to the officer commanding the trench and told his story. The office

ese English troops. It was one of the first things mentioned. They did not say how they had acquired their information, but shouted out a request for

re so certain that they again went

ey could spare; each man perhaps contributing a button. They had no thread nor time to use it if they had, so tacked the buttons into place by all manner of makeshifts, such as broken e

strange conduct, but presumed that the Canadian was wanted fo

n to our

were lying in prevented our being actually within the range of the enemy vision, or whether they were merely playing cat and mouse with us, I do not know, but none were hit. Young Cox suffered stoically. His mangled hand had become badly fouled with dirt and filth, and the ragged bones protruded through the broken flesh. So, in a quiet interval between the sniping periods we hurriedly sawed the shattered stump of his hand off with our clasp kn

g land added to our wretched condition and increased

o corporal's stripes were noticed and a mild excitement ensued. "Korporal! Korporal!" they exclaimed and crowded up the better to inspect me and verify the report, and jabbering "Ja

and so had to await the examination of the others. Worn out by the events of the day and the wound I had re

in the ribs from Scarfe

ndustry, gotten the trench into some sort of shape again, with the parapet shifted over to the other side and facing Belle-waarde Wood. And

dd sections of both walls. Already they were taking a brick-like shape from the weight of the filled bags on top

gl?nder Schwein,"-pigs of English. Also quite a number of them spoke English after a fashion. There was in these men none of the soldier's usual tolerance or good-nature

with their saw bayonets and then laughed and sneered as we

asses and on his upper lip there bloomed such a dainty moustache as is affected by "Little Willie" as Tommy

it all. I was fed up. The all-day bombardment, the last terrible slaughter of helpless men, the rain and cold, combining with the pain of the raw wound in my side, had gotten on my nerves. With the revolver still at my head I turned to Scarfe: "They're going to do us in, Charlie. I only hope they'll do it p

ight as scare us to death,"

moment later our mysterious black offi

then we had to listen to our fate discussed in language and gesture so eloquent and so fraught with terribl

bag; that it would not be worth the trouble to send a miserable ten of Verdamn

er's bayonets. It was a bitter draught. If they had killed us then it would have had to have been done in most cold blood, exceeding even the murder of Taylor in planned brutality. He at least had not known that it was coming and had not felt this insane fear wh

minced no words in the saying. Our hear

, at which they slunk sullenly aw

ion and ran my hand uneasily beneath my