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[Page 27]
Prisoner's money is xxx mainly paper notes with the name of the camp on them and is not valid outside of it, and the coinswere are of tin from one to fifty pfennig, and the notes were ofto the value of 2 marks. To get as much money as possible, we raffled our instruments, amongst the boys, and realising sufficient for our needs.
Our plan of travelling was to form two parties of three, and to separate as soon as we got away from the Lager. On the sentry going upstairs we got through the barbed wire and were then in the open and free. Our next move was to reach the nearest town as soon as possible, as we might be missed any minute, and a hue and cry raised after us. I had not been able to procure a compass, so had fosicked around and found a magazine with a chart of the Northern Hemisphere in it, which I tore out and studied until I could see it in my dreams, and would spend hours sitting by the window looking at the stars, just as you may have seen love struck couples looking at each other, but I think my sittings were even longer than theirs, and without a doubt, more beneficial.
The most confusing fact of all was the sun of the Northern Hemisphere is always in the South and in my school days had always been taught that the sun never appeared there, but that information was meant only for Australia, so it took me a long time to realise that the sun at mid-day was in the South, but this was mastered at length, and it was just as useful to me as if it had been in the North. Of course, the moon took the same course, and as we did most of our travelling by night, we used it more than the sun.
Our plan was to reach the city of "Dusseldorf" as soon as possible, and take the last train Westward bound. The greatest obstacle of all was the River Rhine, which is too wide and swift for the average swimmer, and the foot
bridges are all well guarded. There then remained one of two alternatives, to go down the banks and "pinch" a boat, or chance the train journey. The latter seemed to be much more comfortable, so we purposed taking tickets in a train over the Rhine and to travel as passengers, and to pose as Belgian workmen. On reaching the city, our next difficulty was finding the Railway Station, at length I came to the conclusion that a Policeman would know as much about the town as anybody, so sent my two mates on ahead while I walked up to him and asked my direction, on which he asked me why I wanted to go there, so at once I answered in an aggrieved tone of voice that I was going home, and had missed the car. He directed me to my goal, but on arriving there found to our consternation the last train had been gone 10 minutes, and the next was not till 5.30 the next morning, so that we had five hours to spend somewhere. Of course we could not stand around, so set off through the town to see if we could find an open field where we could rest for the necessary time. We walked for two hours and were still in thickly populated suburbs. On turning a corner we saw the Rhine bridge, and knew for a certainty that there would be several sentries there, so we turned in the opposite direction, and presently came to a vacant allotment between two houses perhaps sixty yards wide, and with a friendly hedge growing by the footpath