TWO DAYS TO THE EMS
Leaving our secure hiding-place at 10 p.m. as usual, we made good
progress until we came to a stream which had evidently been widened
artificially, as it had the appearance of a canal at the point at
which we struck it. It was quicker we thought to strip and cross at
once than to hunt up and down, perhaps without avail, for a possible
bridge.
I took to the water first. It was up to my shoulders and the bottom
was muddy. I went across to try it without any of our possessions with
me. It was lucky I did so, as at the other side of the stream I got
into very bad mud and had a hard job to get out of it. By dint of half
swimming, half clambering among the thick reeds on the edge of the
river I managed to get over, but I had found out the best way to
tackle it, and went back to the other side quite easily.
Taking the bulk of our possessions tied roughly together on the big
bag with me, I got safely across and deposited them on the other side
by my second trip.
Another journey, and all our gear was across. Fox being a heavy man
could naturally do none of this work as the mud was too treacherous.
As it was, in attempting to cross himself, he got badly stuck near the
bed of reeds on the other side.
With my hand to help him and by making use of the reeds with arms and
body, he struggled clear at last, by no means sorry to be on firm
ground again.
Quickly dressing ourselves we got away in very little time, and made
rapid progress.
Our map was very faulty in its description of this part of the
country. Villages had sprung up lately perhaps, and as it was an old
map they were not included in it.
The main result of this to us was that we discovered here at
unexpected moments villages and collections of farms in front of us.
We took them all as they came, driven to great speed by the threat of
having to reduce our food rations. As usual our canine foes advertised
our movements everywhere, but we had become thoroughly used to them by
now, and took little or no notice of them.
The sign-posts at the road-junctions in this particularly old-world
district were very ancient, often written in old German characters. To
read them it was frequently necessary for me to mount on Fox's
shoulders in order to get a closer look at blurred and faded words.
These villages, seen as they were by the light of a nearly full-moon,
gave one the impression of being extremely beautiful. The houses were
all old. Bulging walls, practically all containing supports and
cross-pieces of old timber, and low eaves were common.
It was a very out-of-the-way track we had chosen, and one wondered
whether we had unwittingly come across a collection of something quite
out of the ordinary in the way of old-fashioned villages. I should
like to have seen them by day. I expect some of these old places could
produce a very fine collection of really old furniture if they were
searched by a connoisseur.
While creeping through a village we got a bad fright in the early
hours of the morning. Without warning we heard the ringing of a
high-noted bell quite close to us.
The mystery of this was rather alarming until we solved it.
A few yards farther on we passed an old church in the side of the
road; from the windows of this a faint light was shining. The bell
rang again, and we located the sound as having come from the church.
Evidently an all-night mass for the dead must have been in progress.
On clearing the village we seemed to leave civilisation behind us and
entered an area of wild moorland. At first here and there
quaint-looking houses were dotted about, but even these we left behind
in our rush westwards over this moor.
_Saturday, 30th June._ By this time it was fairly light and we had
covered a great distance in a very short space of time. A hiding-place
was forthcoming when we decided to rest, and with a plentiful supply
of water not very far away we managed at last to get a good hot drink
before sleeping.
The wildness of the country and the need for speed moved us on again
at about 3 p.m. Excellent water was abundant in all the low land in
this undulating moorland district, and after a good drink we felt very
strong in preparation for what we decided must be a great march before
we rested again.
While following a rough track over the heather-covered slopes, a young
hare foolishly sat down in a tuft of heather a short distance ahead of
us. This we proceeded to stalk, and thinking of the possible food
supply in front of us we went very carefully for it. I took a detour
round it so as to occupy its attention, while Fox, armed with a
water-bottle held by the strap, warily approached it direct. He got to
within two yards of it before up it got.
A wild swipe with the water-bottle missed it by six inches. The hare
galloped off, while our water-bottle let its valuable contents run out
rapidly. However, Master Hare had not apparently had enough of it, for
he again squatted in a tuft some two hundred yards farther on. The
same plan of attack was carried out, and again Fox got to within
striking distance.
This time, feeling that the strap had only retarded the attack, he
hurled the whole thing at the hare, narrowly missing it, but this time
scaring it so much that it disappeared in the distance at a great
pace.
At about 10 p.m. we got near a village we had been making for, with
the object of striking a road. This village, although nothing very
important, proved to be the point of concentration of roads and tracks
crossing the moor. In making a careful detour round the northern
outskirts of it we suddenly came upon three men in dark clothes,
standing on one of these tracks. Turning sharply to the north we made
for a wood a mile or so away, and watching them carefully out of the
corners of our eyes we slunk along rapidly. They did not really follow
us, although they took a few paces in our direction.
Having gained the wood we made a circle through it and were able to
come back to the vicinity of the village well away from the three men.
We could still see them, but then we knew where to look and they would
have had to be visual marvels to see us, peeping as we were over the
top of the corn, which was plentiful all round this village. At last
we got on to our right road, which led us to the end of the moorland
and eventually landed us in a swampy bottom cut up with dykes and
small streams. Here we floundered about in a hopeless manner in the
darkness. Feeling thoroughly tired and cold owing to the rain which
had begun to descend an hour or so previously, we got into a cowshed
and decided to have as many hot drinks, etc., as we could manage, and
push ahead as soon as we could see sufficiently well to do so without
wasting time. I think we had about three brews each. It was marvellous
the effect this had on us. We both felt absolutely fresh again, and
quite strong enough for another long stretch before sleeping.
_Sunday, 1st July._ When sufficiently light we set off, passing a
village in the daylight, the track leading out of this difficult
country being easily found now, though it had eluded all our efforts
during the hours of darkness.
A large hill lay before us, and we decided to go to the top of it so
as to get from there a view of the country which lay before us. It
was a stiff climb and we reaped our reward. A magnificent view greeted
us. It was indeed a sight of the promised land, as we remarked at the
time.
This hill was the last piece of high ground, or for the matter of that
of any ground not dead flat, on the way to the frontier.
We could see the valley of the Ems and the funnels of a steamer which
we knew must be on the river itself.
The flat country had an almost sea-like appearance, spreading as it
did to a regular horizon, where the country became a misty grey line.
A twenty minutes' rest here, and on we went.
We were feeling our feet badly again now, and decided to rest on the
lower slopes of the hills. On the way down we put up a fox. We had
been extremely surprised all along at the scarcity of game in the wild
country we had traversed.
[Illustration: "FOX LED THEM OVER THE WORST PIECES OF BOGGY
GROUND HE COULD FIND" (_page 211_).]
Beyond a few deer, our hare, a black-cock, and a few duck which we
heard in a corn-field, absolutely nothing else showed itself or gave
any sign of its existence. As we had gone quietly for the greater part
of the distance, it was astonishing that we should have surprised no
rabbits out feeding in the early mornings.
We came to the conclusion that, from an English standpoint, there is
little or no game in these parts of Germany.
At 5 a.m., finding a good thick copse of small fir-trees, we lay up
for a rest. We were now about six miles from the river Ems, which
again was some ten miles from the frontier. We decided that the Ems
and the frontier itself should be crossed on the same night.
Therefore, in order to allow enough time for such a large programme,
we must cross the Ems at the beginning of the night; this meant that
the six miles which lay before us now before arriving at the river,
had to be done before dark. We proposed to move forward at 5 p.m. A
good rest and a large meal worked wonders on our tired bodies, and we
felt fit for our last great effort by the hour selected.
Before moving off, however, we decided to make a "cache" of all our
superfluous luggage, taking with us only food for twenty-four hours,
with a bottle of milk each as an emergency ration, and the
water-bottles. The remainder, which was not much now, we hid carefully
in case we failed and had to come back for reserve food.
The bag we also left, as that stamps the escaped prisoner more than
anything else. We each now had a bundle done up with a coloured
handkerchief.
The wild country still stretched westwards until it gave place to a
wet valley cut up into rough hay-fields and meadows of rank grass.
While walking quietly along a rough grass road here, we suddenly saw a
cart with two men in it come out of a field behind a hay-stack some
four hundred yards from us. Deciding that to avoid them, when they
must have already seen us, would be a very suspicious act, we walked
straight ahead. When level with them the old man driving shouted out
something to us; we stopped and he repeated his sentence. For the life
of me I couldn't make out a single word he said. He had a squeaky
voice and spoke a vile patois, but it sounded like no language I had
ever heard.
His third attempt to make us understand something had no more success,
but Fox, who hardly knew a word of German, walked two paces towards
him and shouted "Yah"! "Yah"! With that we walked off, leaving the old
man and his youthful companion gaping at us.
We discussed the matter as we walked away, and both came to the
conclusion that he had used the word "Landsturm." From this we made up
a nice theory. We imagined that the old man had thought that we had
been called up for Landsturm service, and were trudging off to the
nearest town with our bundles in our hands to join up. They still
stood and looked at us, and we had our beautiful theory badly smashed
a minute or two later. We suddenly came to the end of the cart-track
and found a ditch full of water bordered with a barbed wire fence in
front of us. As they were still looking at us, we followed the ditch
down for a short distance and then crossed it without hesitation,
hoping to give the impression that we knew what we were about.
They drove on then, and we turned our thoughts to other matters. Some
distance further on we came across a youth of about sixteen who was in
charge of a flock of sheep. When we were quite close to him his dog
must have done something to upset the youth's Hunnish temper, as the
beast got a fearful hiding.
Blow after blow, accompanied with torrents of Hun oaths, were rained
on the wretched animal's back by this child of Kultur, who was armed
with a heavy stick. To interfere would have been madness on our part,
so we passed on. For the next mile we could hear the poor beast's
howls.
A swampy mile or so had now to be covered, and then we got on to the
edge of a fir wood, which ran down to a road and railway. These we
reached and crossed safely, finding ourselves once again in farmland
and a country of hedges and dykes. When we judged that we had still a
mile or so to do before striking the river we halted and had our last
meal, hidden under a good thick bush which constituted part of a hedge
at the side of a rough track.
Setting out at 10 p.m., before it was really dusk, we followed a grass
track westwards and very nearly got ourselves caught by a piece of
carelessness.