of small sticks for firewood, and the girls' job was to collect
these and carry them to a road some three hundred yards distant. The
young ladies kept up a continual chatter, and perhaps it was this that
kept them from discovering our hiding-place, for they came within two
or three yards of us. At twelve o'clock they started home, and as soon
as they were out of sight we got up and stretched ourselves. It was so
good to move after lying still for four hours. However, we didn't dare
stay up very long, and we were "tucked in" once more when the girls got
back. This time there were three, and they worked away until about
four o'clock. We had to lie like mice, and we were in constant terror
lest one of us should sneeze or cough. Just about four we heard one
girl say "Fertig" (or "finished"), and the three went out and sat on
the side of the wood to continue their chat. We felt very much
relieved and were congratulating ourselves on another escape when we
heard a man's voice, and looking out of our hiding-place we saw an old
man in conversation with the girls. He had evidently counted the
bundles and was insisting that there were still some left in the bush.
They argued for quite a while, and then to please the old man the girls
came back. But it was evident they felt sore over having to come, for
instead of searching for wood, they walked right through the bush and
out to the road on the other side. There they sat down and after
awhile moved on home, or at any rate out of sight. We were glad to be
able to move again and to be relieved of our uninvited company. As
soon as we were sure they were not coming back we got up and moved
around to get the ache out of our bones. We also had some preparations
to make for our final effort that night. As I mentioned before, we had
carried our prison overalls with us, and now we were to put them to
use. Our only chance of getting over the border lay in our being able
to move so quietly that the sentry could not hear us. So we started to
make moccasins out of our discarded overalls. We had neither scissors,
needles, nor thread, but our experience had taught us that in all
circumstances we must make _what we did have_ serve our purpose. Our
jackknife cut out our moccasins, and it also made a small stick into an
implement that could punch holes, while some pieces of cord that we
happened to have did fine in place of thread. It took quite a while to
get our moccasins made,