means succeeded
in getting over the inner fence, he surely could not climb the outer.
Moreover, guards were kept on watch between the fences, and outside,
sentinels were stationed about thirty yards apart. It seemed
impossible for the prisoners to get away by daylight, and at night the
barracks with their iron-barred windows were closely guarded.

The treatment of the prisoners, especially of those who had made any
attempts to escape, was shameful and often cruel. The food, in
general, consisted of sour black bread, soup made largely from tree
leaves, and some sort of drink made from acorns and called coffee.
Needless to say, the prisoners were half starved. Indeed, two American
girls who were in Berne, Switzerland, working among the released
prisoners, in a letter to America showed in what an awful condition
they found some of the men. Their letter read:--

"We have gone to the station three times at four o'clock in the morning
to help feed the English soldiers who were on their way home after
being exchanged for German prisoners. We had the privilege of giving
some of them the first white bread they had had in four years. The men
who had been kept working behind the lines were in a pitiable
condition. One such man happened to be at my table,--for they are
taken off the train for two hours, given hot tea and roast beef and ham
sandwiches,--and the poor fellow began taking sandwiches, eating a few
bites, and stowing the rest feverishly away in his pocket. He couldn't
realize that he was in a place where he would be fed."

All of the seventy Americans at Villingen wished themselves anywhere
outside the prison camp, and most of all back on the firing line,
helping to win.

So much did they wish this that a few more daring than the rest had
twice attempted to escape together. Their attempts had ended in
failure, but that had only led them to spend months in making still
more elaborate plans to gain their freedom.

Not all could leave the camp, they knew. Many did not care to risk it,
while thirty of the seventy Americans were doctors and thought they
ought to stay and do what they could for their weak and sickly fellow
prisoners. But in the final plan, sixteen men were to try this break
for liberty.

One of the men was Lieutenant Harold Willis of Boston, an aviator in
the famous Lafayette Escadrille. He had been captured after a battle
in the air. Not even fourteen months in a German prison could kill