36
THE YPRES TIMES
fellow-prisoner, who stared at me in an enquiring manner, and, farther in the
town, I passed a German officer who looked at me curiously, but I simply returned
his gaze in a fed-up" sort of manner and continued my way to the end of the
town, where open country with woods and valleys came into view. Progress was
now more difficult, as I had to avoid being seen, so I cautiously dodged my way
through a wood (having to make a detour around some Germans who were working
there) and came out to open fields that sloped downwards making a broad valley,
where in the hollow I encountered a marsh hidden in long grass and reeds, which
made my feet considerably wet going through it, but I continued up the other
slope and rested in some old trenches just over the ridge. After a few minutes I
heard voices close at hand, and, peeping over the top, saw a group of Germans
p£ ReN N e P RISoH - C F) M P
route OF? ESCAPE.
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not ioo yards away in a small shanty rigged up in another trench, so I moved away
from that area quickly and cautiously, taking advantage of what cover there was
in the form of old trenches, and reached the top of another ridge, where I entered
an old concrete pill-box" that stood by a roadside. This made an ideal resting-
place, and, looking through an aperture at one side, I watched one or two motor
cars with German officers in them being driven up to the lines. I now decided to
cut across the road when traffic had stopped, get to the top of the next ridge, and
then lie low until about 10.30 p.m. Alasthis proved my undoing, for hardly had I
gone fifty yards when up drove a lorry with two Germans seated in the front.
I scrambled up the steep bank at the side of the road and got into the field at the
top, but my weakened condition made me an easy catch, so I was made prisoner
once again, put into the lorry between the two Germans, and driven about a mile
farther along the road to a small German encampment amongst trees, occupied by
a detachment of the famous Death's Head Hussars.
Here I was taken before the officers, who behaved towards me in a most
