go home. We would be allowed to return by the same boat and 
the steamship company would hear the expenses. We ignored his 
advice. He threatened us with jail and deportation. 
We realized that there were many Fascists in France, therefore 
we dared not expose ourselves. We separated into small groups of no 
more than ten in a group. In total there were 250 of us. We traveled 
acting and dressing like tourists, refraining from singing revolution- 
ary songs, and appeared as inconspicuous as possible. We did not 
know how we would eventually get into Spain but we had confidence 
in those who had taken the responsibility of directing us. Because, after a 
week, our presence in Paris was becoming noticeable we traveled 
south to the Spanish border. 
We drove into the Pyrenees Mountains. We were a group of city 
workers, intellectuals, mechanics, etc., riding into the gloom of the night. 
Then the time came for us to start walking. 
Farther on our trip we came across an irrigation ditch seven 
feet wide. In the darkness we jumped across it. I took a running leap 
into the dark and landed with both my shins against the rocky bank. 
Luckily two comrades grabbed my arms and prevented me from falling 
into the stream. 
No lights or cigarettes were to be used, so as not to attract attent- 
ion. We traveled up a steep mountain into the night. For every hour 
we climbed, we rested a few minutes. The pace was rapid, but we 
had to go on if we wanted to cross the border before daybreak. To 
delay meant defeat and arrest! 
Tired and panting we struggled upward. The strain proved too 
much for one of our group who collapsed. Some of the stronger fellows 
took turns carrying him through the winding mountain paths. We 
thought that he would recuperate in time for the most difficult part 
of the climb. He did not. When we got to a point where it was imposs- 
ible and foolhardy to attempt to scale the mountain with a sick man, 
without ropes, lights or anything, we found a place where he could 
rest and remain concealed until he recovered completely. 
The night grew cold and the peak did not seem to have gotten 
any closer. Though slipping, cursing, bruised and footsore, we contin- 
ued. Blackness! A strong wind had begun to blow. Thousands of feet 
above the sea level we followed the guide. We walked through deep 
snow-drifts. It was more than physical stamina that carried us on, it 
was the determination to defend to the utmost the democratic People’s 
Government of Spain. 
We had walked for hours when suddenly the peak loomed before 
us. The wind had reached the proportion of a gale and the clothes were 

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