Greatest Escape Stories Ever Told Twenty-Five Unforgettable Tales

by Brown, Darren

• ISBN13: 9781592284801
• ISBN10: 1592284809
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-01
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

To reach freedom, the most famous escapers of all time have been willing to endure the most horrific conditions- -and the direst consequences if caught. The collection of tales in The Greatest Escape Stories Ever Told is gripping as only true life-and-death struggles can be: Papillon fighting through the jungles of Guiana only to commit himself to the open ocean in a sixteen-foot boat rather than face a life in exile; Rocky Gause dodging bullets as he swims through shark-infested waters to escape the Japanese at Bataan, while those around him simply quit; Latude battling against the dreaded Bastille; Baron Trenck--with chains covering almost every inch of his body--digging and digging to free himself from wrongful imprisonment; Andre Devigny, so weak from starvation and poor treatment that he could barely lift himself, shimmying across a rope only yards above a German sentry during WWII on the eve of his execution. These are just a few of the twenty-five bold and ingenious tales of escape included in this collection. It will hold readers captive for years to come!

Author Biography

Before becoming a freelance writer and editor, Darren Brown was the managing editor of Wilderness Adventures Press. He has edited several short-story collections, including For the Love of a Dog and Brag Dog and Other Stories: The Best of Vereen Bell. He lives in Montana, with his wife and two bird dogs.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION	1	(4)
Darren Brown
ESCAPE FROM THE TOWER OF LONDON	5	(6)
John Buchan
JACK SHEPPARD EARNS FAME	11	(8)
Phillip Alban
ESCAPE FROM LEADS	19	(10)
Casanova
THE BASTILLE	29	(10)
Henri Masers De Latude
TRENCK AT MAGDEBURG	39	(14)
Baron Trenck
LOUIS NAPOLEON	53	(12)
F.T. Briffault
THE CEMETERY OF THE CHATEAU D'IF	65	(14)
Alexandre Dumas
A QUESTION OF PASSPORTS	79	(10)
Baroness Orczy
THREE YEARS AMONG THE COMANCHES	89	(10)
Nelson Lee
GENERAL MORGAN'S FLIGHT FROM THE NORTH	99	(8)
Thomas Hines
COLONEL ROSE'S TUNNEL	107	(22)
Frank Moran
HOW WE ESCAPED FROM PRETORIA	129	(14)
Captain Aylmer Haldane
A GUNMAN BREAKS JAIL	143	(8)
Edward H. Smith
EAMON DE VALERA	151	(8)
Frank Kelly
GEORGIA CHAIN GANG FUGITIVE	159	(10)
Robert E. Burns
PAPILLON	169	(22)
Henri Charriere
A MAN ESCAPED	191	(14)
Andre Devigny
ESCAPE STRATEGY	205	(10)
Pat Reid
BID FOR FREEDOM	215	(12)
Walter Thomas
ESCAPE OR DIE	227	(12)
Paul Brickhill
THE WAR JOURNAL OF MAJOR DAMON	239	(10)
Major Damon Gause
"ROCKY" GAUSE DOWN IN KOREA	249	(12)
Ward Millar
ESCAPE FROM LAOS	261	(12)
Dieter Dengler
OUT OF A TURKISH PRISON	273	(10)
Billy Hayes with William Hoffer
DARK, DEEPLAID PLANS	283
Mark Twain

Excerpts

As midnight approached, Rose was nearly a physical wreck: the perspiration dripped from every pore of his exhausted body; food he could not have eaten if he had had it. His labors thus far had given him a somewhat exaggerated estimate of his physical powers. The sensation of fainting was strange to him, but his staggering senses warned him that to faint where he was meant at once his death and burial. He could scarcely inflate his lungs with the poisonous air of the pit; his muscles quivered with increasing weakness and the warning spasmodic tremor which their unnatural strain induced; his head swam like that of a drowning person.

By midnight he had struck and passed beyond a post which he felt must be in the yard. During the last few minutes he had directed his course upward, and to relieve his cramped limbs he turned upon his back. His strength was nearly gone, the feeble stream of air which his comrade was trying, with all his might, to send to him from a distance of fifty-three feet could no longer reach him through the deadly stench. His senses reeled; he had not breath or strength enough to move backward through his narrow grave. In the agony of suffocation he dropped the dull chisel and beat his two fists against the roof of his gave with the might of despair--when, blessed boon! the crust gave way and the loosened earth showered upon his dripping face purple with agony; his famished eye caught sign of a radiant star in the blue vault above him; a flood of light and a volume of cool , delicious air poured over him. At that very instant the sentinel's cry rang out like a prophecy--"Half-past one, and all's well!"

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Excerpted from The Greatest Escape Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Five Unforgettable Tales
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