"Weel, I'm glad I've caught ye in time, ye bounder, cause I dinna think I
could have followed ye to the States to make a visit on ye," he said.
By this time I had fully recovered myself and scrutinized him carefully.
"You've got the same smile, Ned, but my how you've grown! You look at
least two inches taller than when I saw you last."
"And that I might," he replied; "come on and I'll tell ye all about it."
So we limped into Cook's tea rooms, secured a table in a quiet corner, and
he told me his story. He spoke in a halting manner, for it brought back
many of his sufferings, but to me it is so striking that I felt, in
finishing the tale of my war experience, you would like to know about a
war romance--for romance it surely was--with as happy an ending as any
novelist might conceive. I will tell to you, as nearly as possible in his
own words, the remarkable story he unfolded to me.
"Do ye mind when ye left me in the nook after bandaging my wounds?" he
asked. "Weel, I lay there thinking and wondering. Ye ken, Reuter, what I
was wondering about--about ye're coming back; or maybe someone else might
find me and take me back to the lines. But no help came. Then I got to
thinking of the lass, and I managed to take her letters, as well as a few
fags, from my haversack. I smoked the fags one after the other, and read
her dear kind words over and over again. My mind kept dwelling on what was
to have been our marriage day. Reuter, remember I told ye about it. It was
to have been on the 7th of August, and then on account of the war, we put
it off until after I should come back.
"And now, I thought to myself, maybe I'll never get back. All sorts of
possibilities passed through my mind, and between this and the awful pain
that throbbed all over me, I felt like as if I'd go mad.
"It began to get dark and my patience got exhausted. Then the idea came
into my head that I could maybe drag myself along with my hands a wee bit
nearer our lines. I thought of your promise, Reuter, but I couldn't stay.
A few of the lads around me pegged out one after the other, and it made me
feel fair frenzied.
"Do ye remember Stanley Stenning, an English fellow of C company? Weel, he
crawled out a wee while before me. I've heard since that he was home, but
minus a leg, but I haven't heard so far of any of the other wounded
fellows that were in the nook with me.
"Weel, to get back to my own experience. It was awful--the pain--it racked
me through and through, as I tried to move ahead by the aid of my hands. I
would take a grip on anything I could get hold of and drag myself on a wee
bit at a time. I had managed to do about a hundred yards, when I seemed to
sense that I had taken the wrong direction, and oh! how weak I was about
that time--it's past telling. I just simply had to lie there--I couldn't
drag myself another inch.
"I remember seeing a few bushes about fifteen yards ahead--it seemed so
far!--and at first I wished I could manage to get to them, thinking I
might get out of the way of the enemy, should any of them come along. But
after a few minutes I decided it was perhaps as well that I was exhausted,
because if I got there and should lose consciousness, ye might not find
me, and that it was just as weel I was in the open. So I tried to content
myself, but it was maddening.
"In dragging myself to this spot I passed here and there one of our
lads--then again I would make out one of the Camerons--and Reuter, they
were so--still! But I crawled on, and as the vision of the lass came to
me, I felt braver, and made up my mind to hold out as long as I possibly
could.
"By this time it was night--the time seemed to drag so! Then I remember
hearing the sound of some one moving about, and I was just in the act of
calling for help when the thought flashed through my brain that maybe they
were Germans; so I kept still. The sound soon died away. My! how often,
since then, I've wished I _had_ called out.
"I lay there wishing and hoping that I might be found before morning, but
the hours dragged on. I was growing fainter and fainter, and more
feverish.
"At last, I dimly distinguished the presence of a party. Then I saw them
turn over some of the dead Highlanders as they came across them, give each
a kick, and pass on. By this time I could see they were
stretcher-bearers--and Prussians, at that. I was already on my back and
therefore hoped they would pass me--praying all the time that they would,
I kept staring up at the stars. The Huns _were_ passing, but it was over
my body. The carrier at the front of the empty stretcher stepped over me,
but the man in the rear stepped directly on one of my wounded legs. The
pain caused me to groan out. At this they halted and spoke, gruffly, in
German.
"They took the contents out of my pockets and haversack, opened the
stretcher, laid it alongside of me, rolled me very roughly onto it, and
picked it up. Every once in a while during the journey to the dressing
station which was quite some distance over broken ground, they would stop
and drop the stretcher on the ground, which caused me to groan more and
more. There were hundreds of wounded Germans at the station.
"Here I was rolled out of the stretcher. I could feel that the pleats of
my kilt were soaked with blood. Presently a little insignificant-looking
German with spectacles on looked at me, and asked in English: 'What is the
nature of your wounds?'
"I told him. He looked at them very hastily, then said: 'You are lucky.
They should have been eight inches farther up.' With a grunt he went to
attend to the Prussian patients.
"With that, the Hun lying next to me--he had been wounded through the arm
and foot--noticed me and commenced spitting on me and cursing in German. I
made no protest. I was too utterly weak and exhausted.
"At last ambulances drew up near by, and the wounded Germans, after having
their wounds dressed, were placed in them. My turn came to be carried onto
the ambulance, without, however, any attention having been given to my
wounds. After a great deal of jolting about, our ambulance drew up near a
railway siding, and the German patients were served with some hot coffee,
then we were all put on board a train. By this time it was daylight.
Almost as soon as I was put on the train it began to move off.
"Shortly afterward, a tall, lean German doctor came over and looked at me,
then renewed my dressing, which was the first since yours, Reuter. He
asked me in broken English if I had had anything to eat. When I answered
in the negative, he walked away and looked over the other patients and
talked to them. After quite some time, a German orderly came to me with
some hot milk and a sandwich of black bread and very bad-smelling cheese.
I was given the same treatment as the others while on the train. The
doctor told me there were more English wounded on the train, but that was
all he said. I cannot say how long I was on the train, but at last, after
a lot of shunting, it halted, and all the German wounded were taken off.
"An armed guard of two men came in and took their posts beside me. I was
given coffee and more black bread and cheese. I was transferred into a
sort of truck, the guard being with me. They cut a few buttons off my
jacket as souvenirs.
"After another considerable journey, I was put into a motor ambulance,
which brought me to my destination. It was dark when I reached this place
and I could not see my surroundings. I was carried into a hut-like
arrangement, where I found others, German and British soldiers, and some
French also.
"I was only a few minutes in this 'hut' when a big fat, over-fed,
severe-looking German officer came in and growled out something in a rough
voice. A nurse rushed up to his side. He growled out something else, and
she immediately went out. In less time than it takes to tell, she came
back with what no doubt he had been growling for. It was a sheet of paper
and he commenced reading from it. It was to the effect that the English
prisoners would not be allowed to disobey any of the officers, soldiers,
orderlies or nurses--that if they should do so they would be instantly put
to death. If they wished to make complaints they were to do so through
the orderlies. However, if the complaint should not be a proper and
truthful one, the prisoner making it would be liable to be put to death.
He also strongly emphasized the fact that if any prisoner was caught
attempting to smuggle or write letters, the sentence of death would
instantly be imposed on him. At this point he went away.[2]
"My heart sank. I got so homesick and much weaker; my hopes gave out
entirely. I had been thinking that, on reaching my destination, I would be
allowed to write home; and now----?
"I must have lost consciousness, for it was day time when I awoke, to find
two doctors examining my legs, with a number of young students standing
around me. One of the doctors, an old man, who spoke excellent English,
said that both my thighs were badly fractured and that it would be
necessary to operate on me the next morning. Then he commenced explaining
to the young doctors. After the explanation was over, they all walked
away.
"The next morning I was taken to the operating theatre, which had a
gallery all 'round packed with young German students. On the floor there
were only a nurse, the old doctor who had spoken to me the previous day,
and a few attendants. I was lying on a sort of high-wheel stretcher. The
young students were laughing and jeering, when suddenly the old doctor
turned on them furiously, using some hot German language, and instantly
there was quietness. Then a cap was put under my nose.
"When I came out of the chloroform there was a cage arrangement over my
legs and I had no pillow for my head. At the moment I thought it was a
very mean trick to do me out of it, but after some experience in the
hospital I learned that it was to prevent me from getting sick upon
recovering from the effects of the anaesthetic.
"There were about eighteen patients and two nurses in the hut where I was.
The nurses took turns of night duty week about. The day nurse during my
first week there was a very severe and sour-faced creature. She could
speak a little English, and I'm sure she did not speak to me more than
twenty times, and not once kindly. The night nurse was a woman about forty
years of age. She could speak only a very little English, but she was
pleasant and good-natured. She took more care of me than any of them and
would bring me a glass of milk now and again when the guards were not
looking. She also informed me that this was the place that students came
to, for practising and experimenting on the wounded prisoners, and added
that I would have a lot more operations--which I had.
"Conditions became worse as months dragged on. It was now summer of 1915,
and still my legs were not allowed to set. One operation followed another.
I saw an iron plate with rusty screw nails an inch long, that had been
used to patch up my thigh bones. I suffered much physically--but worse
than that was the mental suffering I experienced, worrying about my folks
at home.
"Every other day, young sarcastic doctors would come in, take the splints
off, and commence squeezing and turning my broken legs in a painful
fashion. Some would shout: 'English swine, why don't you cry out?' but I
don't remember doing so when any of them were near me.
"The food got worse and worse toward winter. I got three meals a day.
Breakfast consisted of weak coffee and a slice of black bread with some
kind of lard spread on it. Dinner was herring bone or potato-peel soup, or
ham-bone soup with a slice of heavy potato bread. Supper was a repetition
of breakfast except that very often the lard was absent.
"There were two German patients who got the best of attention. I learned
though, that they were wounded in the act of deserting, and were to be
court-martialed upon recovery. After they were able to sit up they would
get a large jug of beer with their midday meal and this was a keen torture
to me.
"I became determined to find some way of communicating with my sweetheart
and friends at home, to let them know I was still alive. The night nurse
told me she expected to go near the firing line for duty, so I asked her
if she could try to smuggle out a letter for me so that it would reach my
friends. At first, she very positively refused, saying that should the
effort be found out, she would be instantly shot, but after I explained my
case to her and pleaded with her she brought me a pencil and note paper
and watched a chance when all was quiet. She put a screen round me and
whispered in my ear to praise the commandant, and the doctors, and write
in the brightest manner of everyone there. Thus, she said, the censor
might allow the letter to go through.
"While she watched the guards, I scribbled, doing all she told me to. I
described the place and commandant something in the following manner:
This is a most beautiful place. I think it's the prettiest hospital
in the great German Empire. It is even more elaborate than the
wonderful Peterhead sanatorium at home, and the commandant is the
nicest old gentleman. The staff, here, is also superior. We get the
best of food and plenty of it and all kinds of recreation. Even
visitors bring English magazines and treat me like a relative.
"After finishing it, I gave it to the nurse to read. I had written all the
sheet could contain. She looked it over and seemed very pleased with it
and said that it would pass the censor all right. She sealed it, then
affixed a stamp, and hid it away in her dress, promising to post it next
morning.
"I thought it was rather neat, my working in the Peterhead prison in
Aberdeenshire, as a sanatorium.
"After the nurse's departure, I slept peacefully and with an easy mind, as
if a great burden had been lifted from it.
"When the usual batch of sarcastic young German students came next morning
and started in jeering at me, I smiled. One of them instantly leaped
forward and gave me a stinging blow on the face with his open palm. I
managed to contain myself--but how I did it, I don't know.
"That same evening, the commandant came in raging. He nearly ate me up,
while in the act of producing the letter I had written the previous night.
I longed so for the ground to open and swallow me up. He said the penalty
for the offence was death. At first I denied that I knew anything about
the letter, but he shouted: 'Do you not remember giving the same address
upon coming here?'
"I did, only too well.
"After blazing out on me, he left, cursing in German. I made up my mind
that I was doomed, but decided to lie as long as I could on my cot, as I
felt that I would no doubt be shot as soon as I was able to get out of
bed. That night a big masculine-looking nurse came on duty, and she was a
perfect virago.
"I learned with deep regret that the kind nurse was moved--perhaps shot. I
watched my chance, and at night, when no one had eyes on me, I twisted in
such a fashion that my thigh bones could not possibly get a chance to knit
together. The agony I suffered was fearful, but I did not care. In the
morning my temperature would go up and further operations would follow. I
continued doing this for a week or so but at last I could not stand it. I
just had to lie still.
"In December I began to get up for a few hours daily. It was torture to me
when I tried to move around. I was so very weak and all the-muscle and
flesh had left my body. I was reduced to almost skin and bone.
"I was not even given a stick to support me. I limped about for a few
weeks, then received my uniform and was moved to the prisoners' enclosure,
where there were one thousand British prisoners. Like myself, none of
these fellows was allowed to write home, and I don't suppose they will
be--until they are set free. We were crowded into tents. The food was
terrible; I have seen pigs get better. But we ate it just the same.
"The next morning after breakfast, we were all marched out to make roads,
chop wood, and do all kinds of convict work. Some of the men had a leg
off, others had an arm off as well as being otherwise crippled; but they
all had to work.
"I wasn't able to keep up with the rest while marching out to the place
where I was to work and one of the German guards started poking the butt
of his rifle into my ribs. This was his way of making me keep up with the
rest of them. I tried hard and finally managed to reach the spot where our
men were working. I was given wood to saw.
"I managed to stick to it about half an hour, then I fainted. When I came
to myself again a big dirty Prussian was kicking me and telling me to get
on with my work. But I couldn't. Upon seeing this, a man from our squad
was ordered to wheel me back to camp in a barrow with a German walking
alongside with his rifle slung over his shoulder, smoking a long pipe and
jeering all the way. I was at once classed as 'worthless.'
"Our officers had to work like the other men, but the special job given
them was road-sweeping. I was given some dirty work to do around the
prison camp for a few days, until at last I had to be put in the hospital
again on account of weakness. One of my legs was shorter than the other,
owing to the manner in which they had practised on me.
"This time I was in the hospital only about two weeks. Then I got my
clothes, and the commandant came in and informed me that he got orders to
supply six worthless English prisoners from the camp for exchange. 'You
are the first on the list,' he said. 'You are no good to anybody. You
cannot even work for the food you get.'
"I could hardly realize my good fortune. I wept with joy. To think of
being sent home as an exchanged prisoner!
"I 'fell in' along with five more fellows, one was stone blind; his face
was an awful sight--all dark blue as if it had been tattooed. The other
four had body injuries. We were placed in a motor truck which conveyed us
to a railway station, then we were packed in trucks with a few sentries
over us.
"One of the sentries, out of pity, gave one of our men a cigarette. The
poor fellow had just lighted it off the stump the sentry was about to
throw away, when a German officer rushed forward and knocked it out of his
mouth with his glove, and had him taken away at once. The sentry who had
given him the fag was ordered to take off his equipment, and two of the
German guards marched the British prisoner and German sentry away.
"Two nights later we landed at a port and were marched on to a steamer. I
think it was a Dutch boat, as I did not see any Germans on board until we
were out at sea, when we were gathered together, and a German staff
officer of the navy gave us a lecture. He finished up by saying that we
were not free of the German Government until we landed in England, and
should any of us disobey while on board, we would at once be sent back to
Germany. You may depend upon it that we obeyed.
"After we boarded the boat we were given some Capstan Navy-Cut
Cigarettes--and got a good meal, the first since I had been taken
prisoner. I was so overjoyed that I sat in a corner and did not utter a
word until I landed on British soil, then I prayed silently and thanked
God for bringing me back to a civilized country. I think there were over
six hundred exchanged British prisoners on the same boat.
"When we landed in England, we were taken to a hospital, and those of us
who were able to travel were asked if we wanted to go straight home for a
few days, and report for medical treatment in our own districts. I think
all those who weren't able to do much more than crawl said they preferred
to go straight home. Next morning at 8 o'clock I was given two sovereigns
and a furlough, pending discharge.
"After receiving the money, I boarded the first train for Auchterarder,
where 'the lass' lived. She had opened a millinery business in my absence.
The train left at 10 A.M., and I arrived at Auchterarder depot at 8.15
P.M. It was about a mile from the station to Jeanie's house. I wanted to
get there as soon as I could, and walking was out of the question. So I
managed to coax a teamster to go a little bit out of his way and let me
off near her home. I wanted to surprise her, so went on upstairs in her
house quietly.
"As I climbed up I could hear the sound of much merriment coming from the
upper rooms. The first thought that struck me was that perhaps she had
been already notified and was preparing a surprise for me. Yet it seemed
strange, as I had sent no word ahead of me--not even a telegram.
"I felt real nervous upon reaching the door, and wondered what I should
say on entering it. At last I summoned up courage and opened the door. I
stood still. The sight that met me dazed me. I couldn't believe my own
eyes.
"In the room there were many young ladies--most of them dressed in white.
I recognized some of their faces. Jeanie was standing in the centre,
dressed as a bride with a bouquet clasped in her arm.
"I was beginning to think that it surely was a most heavenly surprise. But
they caught sight of me and it seemed as if they all made for the farthest
corners of the room. They looked at me in what seemed to be terror.
"Jeanie stared at me for a moment. She was very pale. I wondered why she
didn't rush forward and greet me--as I felt she ought--with outstretched
arms. At that I started to make for her side. She gasped out 'Ned'--and
sank to the floor in a faint.
"While I was leaning over her, there was a commotion at the door. I looked
around and saw the clergyman enter, with one of my old-time chums dressed
as a bridegroom. Upon recognizing me the bridegroom looked bewildered, but
the next moment he had recovered himself. He approached me and shook
hands, telling me, with an odd and embarrassed manner that my arrival was
timely. He added: 'If you had been delayed half an hour, Jeanie and I
would have been married by now. It seems as if Fate has taken a hand in
this.'
"He told me that Jeanie had been worrying and was continually talking
about me, and that she didn't believe I was dead, although I had been
reported 'killed or missing' since September, 1914. He had told her that
she was foolish to keep up this thought, and finally had persuaded her to
become engaged to him. The date for the marriage was fixed for the night
on which I arrived.
"During this time the bride was being attended by some of the other young
ladies and had been revived.
"The intended bridegroom went to her side and asked if she still cared for
me. Her answer was: 'If he loves me, _yes_.' He approached me again,
asking whether I cared for her still. Oh, I wanted to say how I loved her
and how anxiously and hurriedly I had made my way to her on reaching
British soil, but I was too overcome for words; I could only nod an
assent. Do you know, Reuter, what this old pal did? He withdrew, giving
me his place, and he acted as Best Man.
"Since then I've wondered whether, if it had been any other man, he would
have stepped aside so. He loved her as I did, no doubt, but it seems she
couldn't forget me, no matter how he tried to make her do so; so,
realizing all this at the time, he did what he thought would give her the
greatest happiness. I had suffered sorely, Reuter, but surely I was well
rewarded. The pal who had expected to have my place gave us a hundred
pounds as his gift to help us along in business. We were married that same
night--only three days ago. So you see, Reuter, I lost no time in trying
to find you to tell you of my complete happiness."
* * * * *
We left the tea rooms, and I accompanied Ned to the railway station, where
he took the train for his home town. As we parted he wished me the best of
success in America, and hoped that he would hear of my getting married
very soon, for he assured me he was so happy that he wished to know that
such happiness was mine also.
I made for home then, and in less than a week's time I was on my way to
the States.
Ned's good wishes for me have certainly been fulfilled. I have since
married, and it is my wife who has proved my sole inspiration and help in
writing this book.