same for me! What could I do? Should I save the last bullet for myselt'7 A permanent solution to a temporary problem. I agonised over the decision.
My faith and upbringing taught me that suicide was wrong and a cowardly way out. I dreaded torture. Then I remembered that somewhere in scripture it was said that God would not permit a person to be tempted beyond his will or capability to resist, and that even Christ was tempted. So, I decided to continue to fight to the end or escape. It was comforting that I had weathered that temptation trial. After about an hour, the ceremony stopped, and the natives went down into the lower end of the camp. Everything got really quiet-no fires, no voices, nothing - it was still as death. A little hope trickled through my veins, but at about 2 am the natives came alive again. Up the hill they came with torches. This time the light seemed to penetrate my little hideout, and I thought surely they would see me. But they did not. They went through their ceremony again, beating sticks on the ground, and all of that. From the shadows, I spotted the figure of a woman coming toward me. It seemed as if she had guessed where I was. She walked straight at me, closer and closer. I could not bring myself to shoot her, so I thought I would shoot at the ground, get up, and run. She was now about two or three feet from me. I could have reached out, stretched, and touched her toes. She stood right over the top of me, sobbing and wailing her heart out. After what seemed an eternity, she turned and walked back to the camp. By 4:00 a.m. everything became very quiet again. It was totally dark, no fires, no moon. Dawn was coming, and I had to get out before light.
With a great deal of fear and trepidation I stood up, fully expecting to become a human pincushion. But nothing happened. So, I took a couple of steps yet still nothing happened. Then I really began to feel that I might get out of there after all. I tiptoed across an open area and climbed over a couple of little stone walls. I made up my mind to head for Port Moresby. I had two compasses (one with a luminous dial, readable at night). Having two compasses was a great consolation, because a person in my predicament can get to a position where he doesn't even trust a compass. I ran the gauntlet past two open huts, but nothing happened. After I got by those, I then went down a path. It was beginning to get light, and as I looked down the valley I saw a couple of natives hunting. I immediately withdrew from the path, but as I did, I stepped on a twig, and it snapped and reverberated like a shot across the valley. The two hunters just froze in their tracks, like a couple of hunting dogs on point. They just stared on the spot where they had heard the noise. They could not see me, but they had the place pinpointed. When one of them dropped out of sight, I knew I had to get out of there quickly because they were going to either circle around to investigate or go back to the village and get help. I pulled off the path and took off my shoes. I hung them around my neck and started crawling. I crawled all morning. By now I was in a desperate frame of mind. I hid the shoes under some bushes because they were making a clumping sound. I put them in there neatly, like someone would place them in a closet or under a bed, figuring I would come back for them later.
I was determined to make it difficult for the natives to follow me. I would crawl for three minutes and listen for two minutes. I did this for about two hours, and I figured that if they were getting close, I would hear them during my rest interval. I found a mountain stream that had several waterfalls and which was clogged with bushes and fallen trees. Remembering my Boy Scout training and lore, I walked in the water to cover my tracks. About midway in my trek, I reached a rushing mountain stream. It took me about a half hour to decide where to cross it so as not to leave any footprints for the natives to pick up. When I crossed the stream, I began to nearly run to get away from the area. My feet felt like they were cut to ribbons, and I put some Sulphanilamide powder on them. After my escape, I stopped, built a shelter, and rested for a couple of days. I couldn't afford the time required to build too good a shelter because I might still be in the jungle building shelters. This went on for about three weeks, and I was getting pretty weary. One time I built a big fire, hoping that someone from our squadron was still looking for me. I gathered a huge pile of logs and started a fire. It burned all night, like a prairie fire, and it must have burned off about half of New Guinea. In fact, I had to get down into a ditch to get away from the fire. The next day I had to walk through the burned stubble. One day I saw a shadow and then a figure coming down a path. It was a native woman, and as soon as she spotted me, she started running like a deer. I took off after her, figuring that if I got to the camp first, I could explain as well as she did. But she left me in the dust. Then I spent a very uncomfortable night in an abandoned hut. I'm sure the natives also were uncomfortable that night, knowing that I was out there. This went on for about three days. One of my few possessions was my toothbrush, which was a great consolation. I’d brush my teeth, but I didn't have anything to eat. I also had a pamphlet that they gave us about native foods. But it had gotten wet and the ink had run, so I couldn't read it. I did eat some papaya fruit, bananas, and even grass. One of my favourite respites each day was to climb a hill and try to figure out where I was. I wanted to get up into the mountains, but every time I got to the top, there was just another mountain, another valley, and another mountain. Finally, I left the mountains and went back down into the plains again. On my way down, while contemplating the panorama and the beauties of New Guinea, I saw a glimmer of light a few miles away. It turned