The difficulties of keeping direction were now fully brought home to us. For instance, we would approach a block of farm buildings, and, in order to prevent attracting the attention of any dogs, we would make a half-circle round the buildings and strike off west by the stars on the other side. In this manner we must have dropped a tremendous distance southward, as was afterwards proved, although we were always travelling west. It is practically impossible to tell when you have made a circle round a village or building without sufficient landmarks to guide you, and at night it becomes an impossibility. We would walk round a village or other obstacle which we wished to avoid, till it seemed to us that we had more than half-circled it; but in reality we probably only went about a quarter the distance round. At one place a dog followed us up almost to the top of one of these rolling fields, and barked until we thought he must alarm the whole of Germany. Meanwhile we lay with our noses pressed to earth; the moon was at her brightest; and we were on the highest ground, and could certainly be seen from a great distance. Consequently we did not appreciate the attentions of the dogs in advertising our presence in the neighbourhood.
In order to avoid the chance of our figures being seen against the skyline, we crawled over the hilltop until we were well over and down the other side, which brought us to more plough, ending in a densely wooded region of thickets, through which we at first essayed to pass, but found it no easy matter without making a lot of noise, caused by the snapping of the dried undergrowth through which we tried to force a passage. Withdrawing from what seemed a dangerous area, we held a hurried consultation, which ended in our deciding to split up into pairs and make our way through this region of undergrowth at two different points, some distance from each other, and meet on the other side if possible. Should we fail to meet directly, it was no good wasting time looking for each other.
Anyhow, we were rapidly approaching the spot where we might find it necessary for the safety of our project to split up into pairs, as four people are much more likely to be seen than two. And we had no intention of essaying the actual frontier or its immediate environment at our present strength, though we might probably attempt it singly or in pairs.
CHAPTER XIII
WE HIDE IN A DRAIN
It must have been a good hour before we eventually got clear of the thickets, and our passage through them had been a pretty noisy one. No sign of the other pair could be seen, so that after scouting round for about twenty minutes we moved off again.
My companion was Captain Stewart of the R.F.A., and a more staunch fellow in a hazard of this kind could not possibly be desired. From this time on we made excellent progress through the night, and nothing of note happened until just before the break of dawn, when we had great difficulty in finding a suitable place to hide in during the day. Eventually we discovered a ditch between two fields, in which we passed the day without incident. The extreme cold, coupled with the want of food, was beginning to tell on us, as we lay too weary to care very much what happened, so long as only the night would come, that we might push on again and get some circulation in our limbs. At about 7 p.m. we started to rub our feet and legs, which appeared quite dead, and at 7.30 pushed off at a good pace. Before long we felt quite warm and comfortable, with the exception of a gnawing sensation in the vitals, owing of course to lack of food.
From here on till about one in the morning no incident worthy of record happened—only the same careful skirting of villages and farms, keeping always to the open country, and avoiding all paths and roads like the plague. About one o’clock, to our surprise, we struck a railway line running south-west. This we followed, not on the line, but parallel with it, at a distance of about a hundred yards. Once or twice we heard voices on level crossings. The reason of our following the railway was that we had not expected to meet one so soon—in fact; not until the following night, and then we calculated we should have to turn south for quite ten miles in order to find it. This railway would be of enormous importance to us, as it ran over an artificial embankment, constructed through the centre of a lake, and thus dividing it in two, both of which portions were connected on either side by a series of small lakes, stretching north and south respectively, and were, I presumed, the means by which the surrounding low-lying country was inundated.
These small lakes, which should run parallel with the frontier, according to the maps we had seen, formed a very serious obstacle to our advance. It was therefore of the greatest importance to find some means to help us over the difficulty, and this railway seemed to be the only one. If the railway we were now following passed between two small towns situated nearly opposite to one another, and then passed through a third within a mile or so of the last two, then this was the line running through the lakes which we had hoped eventually to strike, in which case we had inadvertently come across it, and were a great deal nearer the frontier than we had thought possible. However, we did not credit such good luck for a moment; for, in reasoning the matter out, we must have dropped a good ten or twelve miles south from where we had started the previous night in order to be anywhere near this railway line. To our great satisfaction, in carrying out our intention of following this chance line, at about 3.30 a.m. we passed between two small towns, this time walking on the track itself, and leaving it again when we were well clear of the outskirts.
Pushing forward at our very best speed till about four o’clock, we found ourselves approaching another town, through which the railway ran. A careful survey showed a station and several sidings. During this investigation we found the inhabitants were preparing for the coming day, and, looking at our watches, discovered, to our consternation, that it was nearly five o’clock. Where could we find a suitable hiding-place? We hadn’t passed anything on the way that would give shelter to a rat, so there was nothing to be gained by retracing our steps. To try to walk round the town might end in our being caught by the daylight, having found no place of concealment. The only possible procedure in these circumstances was to pass through the town on the track as best we could. Accordingly we moved off, sometimes crawling on hands and knees wherever we saw anything that we were not quite sure of. We tried to get under big heaps of timber and steel rails lying beside the track, but no consolation in the shape of a hiding-place of any sort offered itself.
We had proceeded through the town in safety, but were brought up sharp by a party of workmen coming along the line from an opposite direction. Fortunately we were practically on the outskirts, so that we were able to dodge into a small garden till they passed. By this time the whole town seemed to be awake, the usual warning lights springing up in the cottages all round us, and day was just about to break. Passing through the garden in our frantic endeavours to discover some place, we found ourselves in a small fir wood, through which we rushed, heedless of the noise we were making. Anything to get away from this dangerous spot! Why had we come near the beastly town at all? What fools we were to be caught by the oncoming daylight in such a dangerous place! These and other thoughts crowded through our minds as we rushed ahead.