ere are many
whirlpools in the river and the current itself is very swift. The men
besides were tired and weak from lack of food. But they could not
think of turning back, and there was no other way of getting across.
So they removed their shoes and outer garments.

Isaacs stood talking softly with Willis, when suddenly there was no
answer to one of his questions. He moved toward the spot where Willis
had been standing, but his feet went from under him and he was carried
by the current out into the river. Then he knew that the same thing
must have happened to Willis, and that he had not called to him for
fear of being heard by the sentry.

If the water was cold near the shore, it was colder in the river
itself. The men had to fight hard against the current.

When about halfway across, Isaacs was caught in a whirlpool which spun
him round and round until it left him nearly exhausted. Just as he was
thinking that he would have to give up, he made one last mighty effort
and reached the shore.

When he could gather himself up he discovered that he had landed on the
Swiss shore, near Basel. Soon he found a family willing to get up in
the middle of the night to give him food and a warm bed. One of the
men started out to find Willis, but met a messenger who had been sent
by Willis to find Isaacs. The messenger said that Willis had succeeded
in reaching the Swiss shore, although some distance from the spot where
Isaacs landed. The next day the men went on and finally walked into
the French lines.

They received a welcome that would warm the coldest heart, and learned
that another aviator, Lieutenant George Puryear, who was also one of
the men to make the break with them from the prison camp, had arrived
before them.

They told of the awful conditions in the German camps, of how the
officers themselves did not seem to favor Prussia, and of many serious
strikes which had occurred in that country, about which the Allies knew
nothing.

Isaacs had been treated so badly and was so exhausted that he was soon
sent to London to rest, and later to his home in the United States
where he landed on the day before the armistice was signed,--the first
U-boat prisoner to escape.

Willis was anxious to get into actual service again and make up for
lost time, although he was joyfully informed that peace at last seemed
near. He was obliged to wait in Paris until certain formalities were
attended to, before he could fight onc