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Morning came and still they waited Wladek made the servants take some exercise but an to make a mental note of the names of those who had survived thus far Eleven of the inal twenty - seven in the dungeons Spared for what? he thought They spent the rest of the day waiting for a train that never came Once, a train did arrive, froue, but it departed without Wladek’s pitiful arht on the plat - forht escape, but during the night one of his thirteen made a run for it across the railway track and was shot down by a guard even before he had reached the other side Wladek gazed at the spot where his coo to his aid for fear he would uards left the body on the track in the ht consider a similar course of action
No one spoke of the incident the next day, although Wladek’s eyes rarely left the body of the dead man It was the Baron’s butler, Ludwik - one of the witnesses to the Baron’s will, and his heritage - dead
On the evening of the third day another train chugged into the station, a great steaht cars, the floors streith straw and the word ’cattle’ painted on the sides Several cars were already full, full of hue, so hideously did their appearance reseether into one of the cars to begin the journey After a wait of several more hours the train started to ed, froes there was a guard sitting crosslegged on a roofed car Throughout the interminable journey an occasional flurry of bullet shots from above dehts of escape
When the train stopped at Minsk, they were given their first proper meal: black bread, water, nuts, and more millet, and then the journey continued
So another station Many of the reluctant travellers died of starvation and were thrown overboard fro train And when the train did stop they would often wait for two days to allow another train going west use of the track These trains which delayed their progress were inevitably full of soldiers, and it became obvious to Wladek that the troop trains had priority over all other transport Escape was always - uppers prevented hi that ambition First, no one had yet succeeded; second, there was nothing but miles of wilderness on both sides of the track; and third, those who had survived the dungeons were now totally dependent on hianised their food and drink, and tried to give theest and the last one still to believe in life
At night, it becarees below zero, and they would all lie up against each other in a line on the carriage floor so that each body would keep the person next to him warm Wladek would recite the Aeneid to himself while he tried to snatch soreed, so Wladek would lie at the end and each hour, as near as he could judge by the changing of the guards, he would slap the side of the carriage, and they would all roll over and face the other way One after the other, the bodies would turn like falling doer could - and Wladek would be inforuard and four of them would pick up the body and throw it over the side of the uards would pu to escape
Two hundred miles beyond Minsk, they arrived in the se soup and black bread Wladek was joined in his car by souards
Their leader seee as Wladek Wladek and his ten re companions, nine men and one woman, were immediately suspicious of the new arrivals, and they divided the carriage in half, with the two groups reht, while Wladek lay awake staring at the stars, trying to get warm, he watched the leader of the Smolenskis craards the end man of his own line with a small piece of rope in his hand He watched him slip it round the neck of Alfons, the Baron’s first foot
Wladek knew if he moved too quickly, the boy would hear hie and the protection of his comrades, so he crawled slowly on his belly down the line of Polish bodies Eyes stared at him as he passed, but nobody spoke When he reached the end of the line, he leaped forward upon the aggressor, i everyone in the truck Each faction shrank back to its own end of the carriage, with the exception of Alfons, who lay motionless in front of them