"About sixteen hundred miles to one of the nearest
 
points,"  I answered   "Melville, for instance."
 
     "And you mean, if we can find a sailboat, you can take
 
us there ?"
 
" Within ten or fifteen miles of any place on the map.
 
Provided, of course, that we can rig up some half-way decent
 
navigating equipment."
 
     And provided, of course, that we had a lot of luck with
 
the weather, and the Japs didn,t stop us. But I kept these
 
thoughts to myself.
 
 
Lieutenant Colonel Mellnik:
--------------------------------
     
     McCoy, as senior officer, was to lead our escape group,
 
and was to do the navigating once we were able to steal a boat.
 
When, and if, we reached the coast and could steal a boat. Mean-
 
while, I was doing much of the planning, and was responsible for
 
executing most of the preparatory detail.
 
     The first step decided upon was to put ourselves in as
 
good physical condition as possible, sergeant Spielman had earned
 
a reputation as a food thief deluxe, so he and McCoy and I now
 
turned our combined talents and attention to the chicken farm kept
 
by the Japanese for their own exclusive use--they thought. There
 
were some 3000 of these chickens, and we made it a point of honor
 
never to take less than two on a single raid, and including as
 
many eggs as could be safely carried. By an elaborate system of
 
watchers, McCoy and Spielman and I relieved the Japs of a total
 
of 133 of their plumpest fowls over a period of three months.
  
 
 
 
                                              -69-