CHAPTER VI 



MY ESCAPE 



With my health somewhat restored by the 

 elephant fat, I decided the time ripe for a dash 

 for liberty. It was now or never. One of my 

 fellow-prisoners, a South African wireless operator 

 and quite a boy, knew weeks before that I was 

 going to try and escape if chance offered, and 

 had said that he wished to go with me. He was 

 now told " to-night's the night," and was also 

 informed of my plans. We needed to take a 

 little rice and matama flour with us in order 

 to avoid, as far as possible for the first three or 

 four days, all intercourse with native villages. 

 We had to ask B., another South African prisoner, 

 for this food, because he had charge of all our 

 rations, then still drawn ahead from the Germans 

 for about five days. The Germans, to save them- 

 selves trouble, had made us draw our rations in 

 one lot for a couple of weeks ahead, and this, as it 

 happened, proved rather an unwise proceeding. 

 B., when asked for the food, of course, wanted to 

 come with us, and he also had a mate, M., who 

 wished to be included. So in the end we agreed 



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