The young lieutenant knew only too well that it would be foolhardy to remain long in that vicinity. The train had halted, and undoubtedly some sort of inspection would be made of the cars and the prisoners. The broken-open door would be discovered, and then would come an alarm.
“I’ve got to place distance between myself and this place,” he murmured, and, watching his chance, he sped along a line of low warehouses and then took to some open fields beyond. He kept on at his best rate of speed until he crossed a road and then came to a patch of woods, evidently that through which the train had recently passed.
By that time Dave was so out of wind he could run no longer, and, finding a comfortable resting place among the trees and bushes, he sat down and gave himself over to his thoughts.
It must be admitted that his mind was by no means at ease. He realized that in thus attempting to escape he had taken his life in his hands. Should the German guards make a search and discover him, his life would probably pay the forfeit.
“I’ll have to lie low in the daytime,” he told himself, “and do all of my traveling at night. And how I’m going to get anything to eat is a question.”
Having rested and at the same time listened in vain for some sounds of pursuit, the young lieutenant went on his way, coming out of the woods along the line of the railroad. Looking back, he made out the distant village where the train had stopped, and then hurried forward in the direction from which he had come. He reasoned that the train had been carrying him deeper into the enemy’s country, and what he wanted to do was to get back to the vicinity of the war front.
Our hero had traveled a distance of a mile or more when he heard a rumble behind him. Looking back, he saw a train approaching rather slowly. As it came closer he made out that it was a heavily loaded freight. It was going uphill, and the engineer had all he could do to coax the locomotive into hauling the load.
Our hero stood to one side and allowed a number of cars to pass him. Then, struck by a sudden thought, he watched his opportunity and boarded the freight-train.
Dave had supposed that the entire train was made up of cars filled with freight. But in this the young lieutenant was mistaken. Several of the cars in the center of the train contained soldiers on their way to the front. More than this, the train carried its regular guards, and as Dave stood between two of the cars wondering what he had best do next, he heard two of these guards talking in guttural tones.
“They say four or five of the prisoners got away,” he heard one of the men say, in German.