one of the old prisoners came to
us and told us to be careful, for he had heard two of the sentries
planning to shoot the first one they found trying to escape. They
figured that if they made an example of one, all the others would be
afraid to make an attempt. We were not frightened, but they watched
Mac and me so closely that we had no chance to get away. This was kept
up for five nights, but on the fifth our opportunity came.

But first I must tell you what preparation we made in regard to
clothes. It would not do for us to get away with only our prison garb,
for it was grey, with wide red stripes down the centre of the coat, on
the trouser legs, and on our caps. The only other clothes in our
possession were those furnished by the Red Cross; namely, a brown
sweater coat and black trousers. Now, each night before going to work,
we were lined up and the officers looked us over to make sure no one
had any Red Cross clothing on him. But this is how we fixed it. The
black trousers had brown stripes, because the Germans insisted on our
wearing stripes of some sort. When the Red Cross sent over the first
parcels the Germans cut open the trouser legs and inserted red stripes.
This work was so roughly done that the garments were spoiled, so the
Red Cross put in brown stripes.

Now, in preparing for escape we cut this stripe out and sewed up the
trousers so that they were all black. Then we cut the sweater coat up
to the size and shape of our prison jacket and sewed it in. And when
we lined up for examination, instead of throwing open our coats we
thrust our hands in our pockets, and this opened our coats without
turning back the corners. We had pulled on the prison overalls over
our black trousers, so if we got away all we had to do was wear our
prison jacket inside out, drop our overalls, and we were in civilian
clothes. Still, each night as we lined up our hearts almost stopped
beating lest they should discover our preparation. We couldn't lay in
a supply of food, for just at this time there was a movement of troops
at the border and the Germans were not bringing any parcels, so if we
got away we must trust to what we could pick up in the fields.

But now to go back to the fifth night. As we went to lunch at twelve
o'clock Mac said, "Now, Jack, we must make it tonight, for tomorrow we
go on day shift." I said, "All right, Mac, I'm game; and we shall try
for it just as soon as we go on duty again." We had