It did not take them long to get some distance away, and that night they approached the river Aller with the object of effecting a crossing.
On nearing the railway bridge they had discovered an ambush waiting for them, and consequently cleared away from that area.
Striking the river some distance up-stream, they made a rough raft from wooden palings, and putting their food and clothes on it swam it across. It was here that Fox discovered that his companion was far from being a strong swimmer. Therefore Fox, who had not entirely recovered from the injuries he had received in a previous attempt to escape by jumping from a train, had to swim the raft backwards and forwards several times by himself until all the food and clothing had been transported across. The raft was not a large one or very buoyant, which resulted in much of the food being destroyed. Fox also assisted Blank to cross, so had plenty of swimming to do.
After crossing this river, they had pushed rapidly on and crossed another by a bridge, without apparently getting into any trouble.
They reached their hiding-place during the early hours of Thursday morning and had remained there all day, drying their goods and chattels.