20 
LAND & WATER 
August 17. 1916 
Schenk. It's almighty luck we've struck him. He's old and 
not very strong in the head, but I'll go bail he's a good worker. 
He says he'll come with us and I can use him in the engine- 
room." 
" Stand up," said the Captain. 
Peter stood up, light and slim and wiry as a leopard. A 
sailor does not judge men by girth and weight. 
" He'll do," said Schenk, and the next minute he was 
readjusting his crews and giving the strayed revellers the 
rougn side of his tongue. As it chanced, I couldn't keep 
Peter with me, but had to send him to one of the barges, and I 
had the chance of no more than five words with him, when I 
told him to hold his tongue and live up to his reputation as a 
half-wit. That accursed Sylvcstcrahtn'i had played havoc with 
tlie whole outfit, and the Captain and I were weary men before 
we got things straight. 
In one way it turned out well. That afternoon we p ssed 
the frontier, and I never knew it till I saw a man in a Strang; 
uniform come aboard, who copied some figures on a schedule, 
and brought us a mail. With my dirty face and general air 
of absorption in duty, I must have been an unsuspicious figure. 
He took down the names of the men in the barges, and Peter's 
name was given as it appeared on the ship's roll — Anton Blum. 
" You must feel it strange, Herr Brandt," said the Captain, 
" to be scrutinised bv a policeman, you wlio give orders I 
doubt not to many policemen." 
I shrugged my shoulders. " It is my profession. It is my 
business to go unrecognised often by my own servants." I 
could see that I was becoming rather a figure in the captain's 
e\'es. He liked the way I kept the men up to their work, for 
I hatin't been a nigger-driver for nothing. 
Later on that Sunday night we passed through a great city, 
which the captain told me was Vienna. It seemed to last 
for miles and miles, and to be as brightly lit as a circus. After 
that we were in big plains and the air grew perishingly cold. 
Peter had come aboard once for his rations, but usually he 
left it to his partner, for he was lying very low. But one 
morning — I think it was January 5th, when Sve had passed 
Buda, and were moving through great sodden flats just 
sprmkled with snow — the Captain took it into his head to get 
me to overhaul the barge-loads. Armed with a mighty type- 
written list, I made a tour of the barges, beginning with the 
hindmost. There was a fine old stock of deadly weapons — 
mostly machine guns and some field-pieces, and enough shells 
to blow up the Gallipoli peninsula. AU kinds of shell were 
there from the big 14-inch crumps to rifle grenades and 
trench mortars. It made me sick to see all these goods things 
preparing for our own fellows, and I wondered whether I 
would not be doing my best service if I engineered a big 
explosion. Happily I had the common sense to remember 
my job and my duty to stick to it. 
Peter was in the middle of the convoy, and I found him 
pretty unhappy, principally through not being allowed to 
smoke. His companion was an o.x-eyed lad whom I ordered 
to the look-out, while Peter and I went over the lists. 
" Cornells, my old friend," he said, " there are some 
pretty toys here. With a spanner and a couple of clear hours 
I could make these maxims about as deadly as bicycles. 
W^hat do you say to a try ? " 
" I've considered that," I said, " but it won't do. We're 
on a bigger business than wrecking munition convoys. I 
want to know how you got here." 
He smiled with that extraordinary Sunday school docility 
of his. 
" It Wcis very simple, Cornehs. I was foolish at the cafe, 
but they have told you of that. You see I was angry and 
did not reflect. They had separated us and I could see would 
treat me as dirt. Therefore my bad temper came out, for, 
as I have told you, I do not like Germans." 
Peter gazed lovingly at the little bleak farms which dotted 
the Hungarian plain. 
" All night I lay in tronk with no food. In the morning 
they fed me, and took me hundreds of miles in a tfain to a 
place which I think is called Neuburg. It was a great 
prison, full of English officers. ... I asked myself many 
times on tlie journey what was the reason of this treatment, 
for I could see no sense in it. If they wanted to punish me 
for insulting them they had the chance to send me off to the 
trenches. No one could have objected. If they tliought me 
useless they could have turned me back to Holland. I could 
not have stopped them. But they treated me as if I were a 
dangerous man, whereas all their conduct hitherto had shown 
that they thought me a fool. I could not understand it. 
" But I had not been one night in that Neuburg place 
before I found out the reason. They wanted to keep me 
under observation as a check upon you, Cornells. I figured 
it out this way. They had given you some very important 
work which required them to let you into some big secret. 
So far good. They evidently thought much of you, even 
yon Stumm man, though he was as rude as a buffalo. But 
they did not know you fully and they wanted a check on 
you. That check they found in Peter Pienaar. Peter was 
a fool, and if there was anything to blab, sooner or later 
Peter would blab it. Then they would stretch out a- long 
arm and nip you short, wherever you were. Therefore they 
must keep old Peter under their eye." 
" That sounds likely enough." I said. 
" It was God's truth," said Peter. " And when it was 
all clear to me I settled that I must escape. Partly because 
I am a free man and do not like to be in prison, but mostly 
because I was not sure of myself. Some day my temper 
would go again, and I might say foolish things for which 
Cornelis would suffer. So it was very certain that I must 
escape." 
" Now, Cornelis, I noticed pretty soon that there were two 
kinds among the prisoners. There were the real prisoners, 
mostly English and French, and there were humbugs. The 
humbugs were treated apparently Hke the others, but not 
really, as I soon p)erceived. There was one man who passed 
as an English ofiicer, as a French Canadian, and the others 
called themselves Russians. None of the honest men sus- 
pected them, but they were there as spies to hatch plots for 
escape and get the poor devils caught in the act, and to worm 
out confidences which might be of value. That is the German 
notion of good business. I am'not a British soldier to think 
all men gentlemen. I know that amon;;st men are desperate 
skellums, so I soon picked up this game. It made me very 
angry but it was a good thing for my plan. I made my 
resolution to escape the day I arrived at Neuburg, and on 
Christmas day I had a plan made." 
" Peter, you're an old marvel. Do you mean to say you 
were quite certain of getting away whenever you wanted ? 
" Quite certain, Cornelis, You see I have been wicked 
in my time and know something about the inside of prisons. 
You may build them like great castles, or they may be like 
a backveld tronk, only mud and corrugated iron, but there is 
always a key and a man who keeps it, and that man can be 
bested. I knew I could get away, but 1 did not think it 
would be so easy. That was due to the bogus prisoners, my 
friends the spies." 
" I made great pals with them. On Christmas night we 
were verj' jolly together. I think I spotted every one of them 
the first day. I bragged about my past and ail I had done, 
and 1 told them I was going to escape. They backed me up 
and promised me help. Next morning I had a plan. In the 
afternoon, just after dinner, I had to go to the Commandant's 
room. They treated me a little differently from the others, 
for I was not a prisoner of war, and I went there to be asked 
questions and to be cursed as a stupid Dutchman. There 
was no strict guard kept there, for the place was on the second 
floor, and distant by many yards from any staircase. In the 
corridor outside the Commandant's room there was a window 
which had no bars, and four feet from the window the limb 
of a great tree. A man might reach that limb if he were active 
as a monkey and might des(5end to the ground. Beyond tliat 
I knew nothing, but I am a good climber, Cornelis." 
" I told the others of my plan. They said it was good, but 
no one offered to come with me. They were very noble ; 
they declared that the scheme was mine and I should have 
the fruit of it, for if more than one tried detection was certain. 
I agreed and thanked them— thanked them with tears in 
my eyes. Then one of them very secretly produced a map. 
We planned out my road, for I was going straight to Holland 
It was a long road, and I had no money, for they had taken 
all my sovereigns when I was arrestecl, but they promised 
to get a subscription up among themselves to start me. Again 
I wept tears of gratitude. This was on Sunday, the day after 
Christmas. I settled to make the attempt on the Wednesday 
afternoon." 
Now, Cornehs, when the Lieutenant took us to see the 
British prisoners, you remember, he told us many things about 
the ways of prisons. He told us how much they loved to 
catch a man in the act of escape, so that they could use him 
harshly with a clear conscience. I thought of that and 
calculated that now my friends would have told everything 
to the Commandant, and that they would be waiting to bottle 
me on the Wednesday. Till then I reckoned I would be 
slackly guarded for they would look on me as safe in the net. 
" So I went out of the window next day. It was the 
Monday afternoon. . . 
" That was a bold stroke," I said admiringly. 
" The plan was bold but it was not skilful." said Peter 
modestly. " I had no money beyond seven marks, and I had 
but one stick of chocolate. I had no overcoat and it was 
snowing hard. Further I could not get down the tree, which 
had a tnmk as smooth and branchless as a blue gum. For 
a little I thought I should be compelled to give in, and I was 
not happy. 
" But I had leisure, for I did not think I would be missed 
before nightfall, and given time a man can do most things. 
I 
