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At a railway junction, 40 miles south of Cambrai, Henry found a place in an auto mobile bound for Paris. Thin, tall Scots man Philip waited for a train, caught one four hours later. A few miles down the line the train halted while customs officers examined his credentials. Cried one, noting Timesman Philip's strange uniform, his blue eyes and sandy hair: "You're a dirty German parachutist!" A crowd collected, screaming imprecations. Ordered to undress, Percy Philip stripped to his under wear while soldiers inspected the soles of his boots, felt the lining of his tunic. Then a space was cleared beside the train. While a messenger went to look for gendarmes, two soldiers with cocked rifles, an old peasant with a shotgun made ready to execute him on the spot.
Said Newsman Philip: "At least let me die with my boots on." While he struggled with his boots, stalling for time, gendarmes arrived and put him under arrest. Through lines of indignant peasants, spitting insults at "the Boche assassin," the gendarmes marched him to the police station. There his credentials were examined again, found in order. Two young lieutenants took pity on the Times'?, Philip, escorted him back to the railway, and turned him over to the stationmaster's wife. She took him up to her kitchen while he waited for another train, made him an omelet, gave him wine and coffee. Two hours later Percy Philip was on his way to Paris, safe in a compartment.
*In a story featured by the Herald Tribune on page 1, Beach Conger wrote in November:
"Certain persons have been firmly convinced that Germany intended to invade The Nether lands. ... It was learned today that the con servative Army high command flatly refused to countenance any such action."