had been hoarded from Corregidor.
 
     "Where are you going with the mosquito netting?" asked
 
an elderly lieutenant colonel, one of the occupants of my barracks.
 
              I wanted to tell the lieutenant colonel of our plans, and
 
 invite him to come along, for he was a personal friend. But we
 
 had all agreed that we would not involve any of the other American
 
prisoners in our escape plan: when questioned later by the Japs
 
they would be able to give honest and innocent answers. And, like
 
the majority of the other prisoners in the camp, the lieutenant
 
colonel questioning me was in such poor physical condition that he
 
could not have withstood the hardships which we expected to face
 
in the jungles.
 
     "This net? I'm going to wash it during the noon rest
 
hour today. It's full of bedbugs again."
 
     "But we don't work today--this is Sunday."
 
     For the moment I had forgotten.
 
     "I know," I replied lamely. I'm taking out a part of
 
my detail to build a rain shelter in the coffee plantation. We've
 
been coming in soaked every night."
 
     This latter statement was true; and if he suspected any-
 
thing he did not say so.
 
     One member of our party, Captain Shofner, was in charge
 
of a plowing detail. It was comparatively easy for him to get out
 
of the prison confines on the logical ground that he was going to
 
change the grazing location of the Indian steers used in plowing
 
                                            - 80 -