let the
guard come up to him.

Mad with rage the German kicked him, and beat him with his gun until he
broke it. The rest of the guards soon came up. Then they made Isaacs
walk the five miles into Baden, beating him now and then on the way.

On reaching the camp he was first taken to the officers' quarters and
threatened with death if he tried again to escape. After being
plastered with paper bandages he was put into solitary confinement for
three weeks. So poor was the prison food that had it not been for the
nourishment furnished by the American Red Cross, Isaacs never would
have recovered.

He had been threatened with death if he tried again to escape, but he
began at once to make plans and would have gained his liberty much
sooner than he did, had not the Russian prisoner attendants each time
betrayed his plans before he could try them. And now he and Lieutenant
Willis with fourteen other men decided to try again for freedom.

The prisoners were sometimes permitted to take walks with the guards
about the country. In this way the men who were to escape were able to
learn about the roads and the best hiding places. They managed to
secure maps and compasses by bribing some of the Russian attendants.

But these would only be of help when once outside the camp, and how to
get out was a serious question. Some believed that the best way was to
get past the guards through the big gate. To climb over the two wire
fences, so heavily charged with electricity, seemed entirely impossible.

But Isaacs discovered a way across that barbed wire.

He had seen two of the prisoners marking out the whitewashed lines on
the tennis court where the German officers played each day. The lines
were made by the use of two narrow wooden boards, eighteen feet long,
fastened together by crosspieces, allowing a small space of about two
inches between. While the boards seemed very light, they were so
fastened together that they were really quite strong. They could be
made even stronger by nailing on more cross-pieces. Then they would
form a sort of bridge over which the men could crawl from the barracks'
windows to the outer fence, where they could drop to the ground and run
from the sentinels.

For months the men gathered their necessary materials together. Many
of the prisoners, who were not to try to escape, were let into the
secret and helped as much as they could. They drew the screws out of
the doors and windows, and