1958-06-14 — Page 6

THE

ONE of us had to die. We had

countless miles of the snow- covered Siberian plain to ourselves -but there was not enough room

for both of us.

The question

was:

Would I be able to kill

my crazy companion be- fore he struck? Or

would the maniac's cun. ning he too much for

me!

Death bad

shadow for

my

brem years, but now

he tramped beside me step by step across the frozen waste.

I ate with him, talked 10 him, slep; belde him and watched

and watched

and watched.

And Death.

In the shope of a blood-hungy bandit watched me, his great eyes full of madness.

One of us and to die..

and I did not menu Il fo be

me.

I had come 1,70 miles siner

my sepe from a Russian slave.

camp on Cape East, on the brink

of the Bearing Strait.

Thousands of miles lay attend

of me, and at the ent

G

journey was HOME, But would

I ever live to see Murdeh, which

I had left so cheerfully in I uniform of a Welmacht paras Froop offer? Not it Grupuri in! his way.

Grigori, n Husslan, had e- caped from another slave catnip

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1958-

MANIAC STRIKES

CLEMENS FORELL, the German who walked 8,000 miles to freedom from a Russian prison camp, has written the greatest real- life escape story of our time.

This dramatic sketch by Arthur Wragg illustrates one of the most terrifying incidents of his journey-when his companion went mad and pushed him over a cliff. Forell, by n fantastic feat of endurance, survived to tell the miraculous talo,

Glemens Farely escape story la "told by 7. H.. Baxter in '' As far as My Feet will Carry Ma" (Deutsch. 1543.

The next day we climbed ‘a small hand found ourselves guzing down a steep rocky slope -almost clin.

Could the reindeer, which we were leading, cross it, I won- dered.

Suddenly Grigor, who was just behind me. pointed to a spot about 200 yards away.

"Look." he whispered. "Tho sledge....

down there among the trees."

found no possible way in which 1 strained my eyes, I could he could double-cross me, see the trees, but not the sledge. We unloaded simultaneously I took a step right to the edge and I handed him the armu- of the slope and loaned forward

a while walked ou until

'I bounced from rock to on. He gave me the guns. For to get a better view.

rock like a rubber

Geipuri how off Sernyou's head

it gold miles For nine months, hr and two other escaped con- at clear range, vite, Anastas and Senyon, hati been my comrades,

GOLD LUST

ww

Unli

discovered that worrying a huge Grigori was gold aget he had stolen, were almost friends,

AND THEN THERE WERE that TWO....

Grigo and I looked at each other and realised there would have to be a mistlee. We were lost. In the battle we had straggled over a wide area away we from ir precious sledne.

We needed that slede 10 1. live. seized

There was time enough Rugged and to die when ver found it, tried in hee with our sledge and Besides, we were both armed.

"Come. Grannn," said Grigor followed, gruffly, "we'll search for the sht devel indired *

Then gold hast

Semyon tole the

reindeer..

In the battle that

Araslog

WIN

balldrig bed auther iden.

This isn't fair," he

azid. "Those guns are heavy. Give them to me and you can carry the ammunition for a while."

Then, with 4 shrick of triumph, Grigral pounced. His shoulder all me in the small or the back,

with which to use it, for the other hung quite imp.

A wave of bitter, black de- spair swept me. It had taken me a your to plough my way Berage one-third of Siberia. A1 least another 5,000 miles lny. between me and freedom.

Now I couldn't even ww.lk any more. For a momcat i wanted to die.

But only for a moment. After a while I drew my kandra and began crawling towards the dead sheep. I reached it, rested for a while, then sliced through the heavy lecce and cut a small plece of meat.

1 dragged myself to the fringe of some trees and collected some twigs. Slowly, painfully, I built a re and 11 it with the aid of my tinder box,

I

NO STRENGTH

coaxed the sparks

into

For mles we walked in

I poised for a second, then plunged over the edge, fell six Alience. Then Grigori suggented

I should cmply the I wasn't fooled by his sudden feet, crashed into a rock, and fames with cartridge powder

concern for me. I felt quite spun around, scrabbling fran- he had left me my ammunition magazine of my rifle.

certain that he had already hid- tically at the gravel to stop my -and began roasting the meat. 1-said I would-it he would den a couple of rounds, prob- fall.

The fire warmed me End empty, his.

bly in his cap.

J rolled faster, bead over brought

new. hope. The meat momentum, sizzled heels. gathering

and my stomach con- But I didn't want to bouncing from rock to rock, like traeted at the thought of a meal, flame him. I didn't want a

a ball on a pin-lable.

But then the twigs burned hand-to-hand fight

to the

low. I tried to collect more, but death in the KDO W while

found I hadn't the strength, The fre died out with the meat barely singed.

We walked on without a

¥100% word, with

SIRI our loaded, and it was

on hour before he spoke`again,

"German," he said, "I carry the ammunition and you carry the guns."

I studied the proposition care- fully, sifting it for a trick, but

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there was still a chance of haueuring him and winning his confidence.

burdens.

Slowly, carefully, we swapped our

And after chat Grigori walked a few paces be hind me. Every time I glanced over my shoulder his mad ejes were boring into my back,

Pais lanced my legs, my ribs, my shoulders. The world swirled around me and disappeared. awoke in agony.

I

Every movement made me One gasp. It hurt to breathe. fool was twisted and limobbed heavily, My fingers were broken.

THE KILL

At dusk we decided to make I saw a grey sky above me our camp for the night. We and ground sloping away from For a moment I hadn't were both starving. But neither me.

of us would trust the other with any iden who I was, where

a loaded gun to shoot something

to eat.

WE PRETENDED

We 1 a Bre. But even this took a long time, because we were watching esch other all the time. Then we lay down, hungry, beside it and pretended to sleep.

Next morning the hunger NUS unendurable. For a long time

I studied Grigori's face and then

was, or what had happened.

Į

Then I stw Grigori silhouetted on the hill above me. The vidicus memories surged back and I tried to brace myself as

him slithering I saw me.

towards

He was moving in for the kili. of that I was certain. The blurred in front of zur and disappeared in P wave of blackness.

There was no sign of Grigori

1 decided to take a chance. I when I came lo. I tried to stand dipped into my pocket and and found I coukin't. slowly bunded him cartridge.

But al over one least I was alive-and that was

a miracle.

He took it without a word,

I loverod myself on to my picked up his gun and went elbow and looked around. A few Away. A few minutes inter 1 yards away i saw a sheep, so heard shot. Grigori

came through the hourt, Grigori must buck with a dove and I roasted have left it for me.

it.

Exhausted, Emblitered, frus- trated, I lay down, turning my face away from the winking stars, I was too cold to sleep.

Next morning, every joint" 'in' my body was swollen and rigid ard I was swamped with pain. I tried to stand but I folded a jack-knite and fell, up like

know that several ribs must be broken.

sweating, desperate, tearing the birk wilib my boots, whipped on by lerrar.

I began to dread the night und the darkness it brought. I sat over my fire, 'gazlag Jāto the solid blackness, "straining my The leader leaped, a streak of eyes until they,huri,

steel grey. The Jawa clashod inches from any hecis. He fell backt, twisted as he fell, and lespl again.

I would focus on e shadow and sit for hours staring at it, until it began to sway and shift and take form before me.

MY FEARS

'when

And the stronger I grew. the stronger grew my fears, Even

} In daylight,

lay exhausted after carrying my pack a few hundred Partis, my brain would lie self in a kaut of fear.

2.

Again be missed, I was six feet up now and managed to pull myself another three feet higher. And there, I hed to stop.. because 1

didn't dare go any. further.

Already the tree was swaying under my weight, Ila trunk was no thicker than a flag pole and the lower branches were nol strong

enough to bear the

elung there, supporting

I found myself gazing back weight of my feet.

I

over the way

I had coine.

hypnotised by the dark mark myself mainly with my hands,.

turning the sales of my bools inwards, striving to pinch them

the

of a bush. Jutting frem snow, waiting tense and woak

me.

for it to start crawling towards into the bark. My muscles bined with the pain and I Early 0110 morning, just knew I could not hold on for before dawn, I woke to face long.

The whole pack was

below real danger. I couldn't see it, but

could Anell "il me now....20 of them, 25. Numbers didn't

a strange, acrid, animal smell maybe mure,

BMELL OF matter, anyway, for 1 knew ....THE

there were more than enough to rip me to pieces in the space of

few seconds.

WOLVES.

It was not new to me. But had been int last time there four of us-Aduetas, Grigori, Semyon and myself. And we had been smod.

We had killed the leader of the wall pack and sent the rert flying. Now it was very different.

For o moment they, held back, swiring, anarling, jockeying for position, gathering strength for the Just assault, Then three of them leapt simultaneously.

They collided to mid-air end

gling, howling mass tumbled back into the strug-

And then "the tree began to bend.

I was alone. I had only krite. 1 could barely walk. But instinctively my broken Angers closed painfully round BIY andra and I sat down to wall, 1 knew exactly what the

Slowly it kocled aver, arching wolves would do. They feared men. So they tried to surround wwards the ground. Hypnotised, gracefully, lowering me, gently them noiselessly, and launch a surprise attack.

I saw the wolves come clonez, -

couple of shots usually quiet and tense, scattered Chem-but, if they found one man alone and with- but a

HELPLESS

gun, they would forget about caution and hurl them- I tensed, too.

sprang

The

gap

Ra

selves at him, relying on weight narrowed. As the wolves aprang

I thrust with my feet, felt them of numbers.

Slowly

altered crack on a wolf's back, heard a daylight through the forest, I sat quite yelp of pain and shot myselt motionless, almost afraid to up in the air again. breathe in

The arch case the noise be-

up trayed me.

straight aS A Guardsman-but On the far side of a clearing It was too supple. omong the trees I saw shadows shifting close to the ground and this time was not imagination, The first Now! came from the clearing....long, Toot

CLLEVI

Slowly It began to again--Cbn other way ไปฟ time.

Helpless, pelrified, 1 ammo. down. I heard the slender trunk some, terrifying, My pine creek and saw the wolves come turned to ice.

up to meet me. I thrust down Another howl-nearer this savagely with my boots end lime and I was running. I was catapulted back to safety once.

the more. stumbling, loping across I know, too, that I had to melting snow, though a few keep moving to live. I saw my minutes earlier I could barely haversack 60 yards away and walki began crawling towards it.

PANTED

For a second the tree poised

if it right again, as drawing a breath.

Then over I went Wird time.

were

for the

This time the crack from the trunk was even louder.

1 was panting and sweating by the time I reached B. Before I could drag it to the tregs

1 pelted towards the only And this time my Idelt there was where

wood for a climbable tree

weaker, a last desperate, fire and shelter from the wind small arch that was not much

spairing effort, I had to rest for a few hours.

Thon

had a meal.

acother

I could see-ma

fangs

AVILS

das

Up I soared. But there was more than a sapling.

no breather, because I wasn't eganising As I panted towards R I journey. Apain I made -II. heard the pad-pad-pad of the strong enough to thrust the tree got my fire going, finished pack.

upright. And then I saw them,

Switly it sagged again, as if ring the piece of sheep and closing in for the kill, pounding it wanted to act the

whole towards me, snarling, Every Bellon wns in slow bared,

ghastly business over.

I felt my numb, twisted I felt my smonth bark. I glanced at the Angers parting.

ching palms" ripping on the sparing sea of grey as it rushed towards me.

Then I fell into a 】 saw his

blackness.

I

leader

motion-but I was action and that was all that mattered.

spurled. Their Day after day I struggled on. the rest with huge, ellent strides, spurted, too, surging ahead of There are gaps in my many striving to head me off before about this period, because times I fell unconscious.

of reached aziety.

But cach day I set myself target--somethues it would

be tree only 100 yards away-and most days. 1 reached 11.

I saw his long back, with Its. Frizzled fur. fiery ye I saw his fangs and his faven and the wispa of vapour from them. Then I leapt

The tree shuddered on. I hit

nt p a while nothing else I. I clutched

branch,

But it was not a gli I had And that was the way we Leen made to pay dearly for worked for three days-one that sheep. He had stoler my cartridge

One ahel, vife, the pistol I had smuggled a day. One mtal.

out of the slaye camp, and the

of the gold dust Fer On the fourth day we found little pouch tracks of the two reindeer we we had panned from a Siberian worried me except that target. strained upwards, kicking madly had stolen many months back stream,

I seemed to forget that 1 was with my feet for a hold. There

defenceless, wide almost

man Gr beast.

open was no, hold,

to pull the sledge. We followed All I had left to defend Dy- them

I tried the other side, wheré and

up the self now was my kandra, a lang, to atluck by rounded animals. But still we had not slim, dangerously sharp Siberian But L I grew stronger, fear the thin trunk sloped away

knife. And I had only one arm returned. found the sledge.

from me. 1 scrambled up it,

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

JOHNNY HAZARD

YOU HAVE PONE WELL..

COBRO! AVIJE, MOONRA INSTANTLY, WHEN THE AMERICAN JOURHAUSTS:

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THE FOOLS! HOW DAT TRANSPARENT THEIR PLAN 101 THEY HAVE

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TROUBLE AND EXPENSE...

CAREFULY

By Lea Falk and Phil Davis.

I CAN SEE DOWN THERE NOW! WHY?- HE'S PLAYING WITH

"ATRAIN-AS THOUGH IT WERE A TOY!

NARDA, I THINK OUR

GIANT IS A CH}}

A LITTLE BOY,

By Frank Robbins

IN ORDER TO AWGWFT A LANDING HERE IN NEPISTAN UNDETECTED! SO I SHALL BE READY. FOR THEME

swirl of

NEXT WEEK:

I am saved by huntsmen as the wolves pounce; I reach the Mongolian border and am fired on by patrolling contries.

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