Fighting in Flanders | Page 5

family.
"How many languages do you speak?" I asked him.
"Three," said he. "English, American, and Yankee."
On one occasion he commandeered a motorcycle standing outside a
cafe and rode it until the petrol ran out, whereupon he abandoned it by
the roadside and pushed on afoot. On another occasion he explained to
the French officer who arrested him that he was endeavouring to rescue
his wife and children, who were in the hands of the Germans
somewhere on the Belgian frontier. The officer was so affected by the
pathos of the story that he gave Thompson a lift in his car. As a matter
of fact, Thompson's wife and family were quite safe in Topeka, Kansas.
Whenever he was stopped by patrols he would display his letter from
the Minister of Militia and explain that he was trying to overtake the
Canadian troops. "Vive le Canada!" the French would shout
enthusiastically. "Hurrah for our brave allies, les Canadiens! They are
doubtless with the British at the front"--and permit him to proceed.
Thompson did not think it necessary to inform them that the nearest
Canadian troops were still at Quebec.

When within sound of the German guns he was arrested for the eighth
time and sent to Amiens escorted by two gendarmes, who were ordered
to see him aboard the first train for Boulogne. They evidently
considered that they had followed instructions when they saw him buy
a through ticket for London. Shortly after midnight a train loaded with
wounded pulled into the station. Assisted by some British soldiers,
Thompson scrambled to the top of a train standing at the next platform
and made a flashlight picture. A wild panic ensued in the crowded
station. It was thought that a German bomb had exploded. Thompson
was pulled down by the police and would have been roughly handled
had it not been for the interference of his British friends, who said that
he belonged to their regiment. Shortly afterwards a train loaded with
artillery which was being rushed to the front came in. Thompson, once
more aided and abetted by the British Tommies, slipped under the
tarpaulin covering a field-gun and promptly fell asleep. When he awoke
the next morning he was at Mons. A regiment of Highlanders was
passing. He exchanged a cake of chocolate for a fatigue-cap and fell in
with them. After marching for two hours the regiment was ordered into
the trenches. Thompson went into the trenches too. All through that
terrible day Thompson plied his trade as the soldiers plied theirs. They
used their rifles and he used his camera. Men were shot dead on either
side of him. A storm of shrapnel shrieked and howled overhead. He
said that the fire of the German artillery was amazingly accurate and
rapid. They would concentrate their entire fire on a single regiment or
battery and when that regiment or battery was out of action they would
turn to another and do the same thing over again. When the British fell
back before the German onset Thompson remained in the trenches long
enough to get pictures of the charging Germans. Then he ran for his
life.
That night he bivouacked with a French line regiment, the men giving
him food and a blanket. The next morning he set out for Amiens en
route for England. As the train for Boulogne, packed to the doors with
refugees, was pulling out of the Amiens station, he noticed a first-class
compartment marked "Reserved," the only occupant being a smartly
gowned young woman. Thompson said that she was very good-looking.
The train was moving, but Thompson took a running jump and dived

head-foremost through the window, landing in the lady's lap. She was
considerably startled until he said that he was an American. That
seemed to explain everything. The young woman proved to be a
Russian countesss who had been living in Paris and who was returning,
via England, to Petrograd. The French Government had placed a
compartment at her disposal, but in the jam at the Paris station she had
become separated from her maid, who had the bag containing her
money. Thompson recounted his adventures at Mons and asked her if
she would smuggle his films into England concealed on her person, as
he knew from previous experience that he would be stopped and
searched by Scotland Yard detectives when the train reached Boulogne
and that, in all probability, the films would be confiscated or else held
up so long that they would be valueless. The countess finally consented,
but suggested, in return for the danger she was incurring, that
Thompson lend her a thousand francs, which she would return as soon
as she reached London. As he had with him only two hundred and fifty
francs, he paid her the balance