I could no longer go about like this. I therefore repaired to the fore-deck, fetched my boots (my best hockey boots, kindly gifts from the English), and, though a Dutch sailor blew me up gruffly, I calmly put on my beloved boots, and wandered off to the gangway.
The steamer had made fast directly to the pier.
The passengers left the ship, bidding farewell to the Captain and the ship’s officers. At first I had intended to make myself known to the Captain, in order to avoid any trouble to the Dutch Steamship Company. But more prudent counsels prevailed, and with my hands in my pockets, looking as unobtrusive as I could, I slunk down the gangway.
Nobody paid any attention to me, so I pretended to belong to the ship’s crew, and even helped to fasten the hawsers. Then I mixed with the crowd, and whilst the passengers were being subjected to a strict control I looked round, and near the railings discovered a door, on which stood in large letters “Exit Forbidden.”
There, surely, lay the way to Freedom! In the twinkling of an eye I negotiated this childishly easy obstacle, and stood without.
I was free!
I had to make the greatest effort of my life to keep myself from jumping about like a madman. Two countrymen of mine gave me a cordial welcome, though they would not believe that I was an officer, and, above all things, that I had achieved my escape from England.
How horrible the water in my bath looked!
I also ate enough for three that night.
After I had bought a few small necessaries on the next day, I boarded a slow train for Germany, wearing workman’s clothes.