THE ESCAPE
Sunday, October 3d, was the day we had chosen as our "going-away"
day. We did no work on Sundays, and so had a full day's rest.
Besides, we had a chance for a bath on Sunday, and knew we needed
every advantage we could get, for it was a long way to Switzerland.
The day had been sunny and bright, but toward evening big, heavy
clouds rolled up from the southwest, and the darkness came on early.
This. suited our purpose, and it was hard for Bromley and me to keep
our accustomed air of unconcern.
By a fortunate arrangement, we were occupying a room downstairs in
the old boarding-house, which made our escape less difficult. The
upstairs sleeping-place would hold only three more when the six of us
arrived from Giessen the week previous, and that left three of us for
a downstairs room. For this, Bromley and I, and a young Englishman
called Bherral were chosen.
The walls of the house were of plaster, and the windows had a double
barring of barbed wire, stapled in; but plaster does not make a very
secure bedding for staples, and we figured it would not be hard to
pry them out.
[Illustration: Two Pages from Private Simmons's Diary]
There was a light outside which burned all night at the corner of the
house, and by it the windows were brightly illumined. This made our
exit rather difficult. The doors were all locked, and there were
about a dozen guards who slept in another room adjoining ours. Some
of them slept, we knew, and we hoped they all did.
None of the prisoners at this place had ever attempted to escape, and
so the guard had become less vigilant. I suppose they figured it out
that if any of us were determined to go, we would make the start from
the field where we were working, and where there were no guards at
all.
But they made a fine bluff at being awake all night, for we heard
them walking up and down in the early evening. However, we reasoned
that they were not any keener on sitting up than any of the rest of
us would be if we didn't have to; and it turned out that our faith
in them was justified.
Although we did not have to work on Sunday, those who had to work in
the mines had no seventh day of rest, and the night-shift went out
each night about ten-thirty when the day-shift men came in. We had
decided on eleven-thirty as the hour for our departure, giving the
guard one hour in which to settle down after this disturbance.
We were lying on our mattresses, apparently wrapped in a heavy
slumber, but in reality eagerly listening to every sound.... We heard
the night-workers going out, and the day-men coming in and going
heavily to rest.... A guard seemed restless for a while and tramped
up and down the creaking floor... but at last the only sound to be
heard was the deep breathing of tired men.
I heard Bromley gently reaching for his clothes, and I did not lose
any time in getting into mine. Bherral and a little Frenchman, who
were in our room, were wide awake and full of fear. They had tried
to dissuade us.
But the guards, all unsuspecting, slept on.
They slept the sweet sleep of childhood while we pushed out the
strands of barbed wire which protected the window; they slept while
Bromley slipped cautiously to the ground, and while I handed him down
the overcoats, boots, and parcels of food (which we had been saving
for a month); they slept while I slid through the window and dropped
to the ground, too.
Just then the wind caught the window, which was on a hinge, and
slammed it noisily against the wall.
We grabbed our belongings, and ran!