Mars Goes Under Ground

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 282, 27 November 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

Mars Goes Under Ground

By EDWARD HUNTER.

1 TRIED to look wholly natural But I knew that if that sentry at the crossroad* stopped us, the best I could hope for would be a speedy trial after much unpleasantness, including time spent in a French cell aa a suspected spy. If he did not demand to see our past, I would be the only American to wander about in a secret fortified zone on the Franco-German frontier. Would lie? Wouldn't he? He let us go by! I had not asked my chauffeur to take me into any concealed military zone, particularly in view of the grave penalties attached to being found within one without full army permission—which it is almost impossible to obtain. There wiw nothing to indicate that a city built exclusively for army people and their families was hidden in the forest at the «ido of this road. I thought it wan just another subterranean fortress of the type that I had been seeing for some days already.

The military road that I had blundered into was in that historic corner of Europe where France, Belgium and Luxemburg converge.

As this was to \> e something of an excursion my chauffeur asked if he might invite a lady friend to occupy the ear seat. It was her presence, I was to And out later, that saved me from arrest and imprisonment. The chauffeur told mo how he had fought m the World War. We were passing a thick grove of trees, when he suddenly branched off the main road and went directly into the forest. This rn.Hlway was plainly enough marked: Military /one; Trespassing Forbidden." For heaven's sake, don't you see those military signs?" T shouted to the chauffeur, pointing to them.

"But, thin in such a convenient shortcut." he protested. "T always take it when Vfn up thin way." 1 frit nnromrortnTiTe. hut nevertheless let him have hi* way. He then