Had they noticed something? Instinctively, as if to conceal ourselves, we buried our faces so deep in the muddy soil that we could hardly breathe.
A regular ostrich-trick! All the same, it comforted us somewhat. In a few minutes the voices ceased and the steps retreated again. We gave a sigh of relief. But next moment we had another fright. Something was rustling in the grass near us. From time to time the noise stopped. We both had the feeling that some one was stealing upon us. Perhaps it was one of the men who had just been speaking to the sentry? The rustling noise came nearer and nearer.
As if to torture me to the utmost, a black beetle at this moment crawled over my face and walked into my left ear. I suffered agonies. What was I to do? All my limbs began to tremble. The wretched beast was burrowing further. Damnation! I could stand it no longer. W. was anxiously pressing his head against my feet to keep me from moving. But it was no use. I had to turn round slightly in order to shake the pestilent beetle out of my ear. As I did so I saw something that almost made me burst out laughing. Instead of the soldier's head which I expected to see, I saw a fine buck rabbit looking down at us full of curiosity. Another false alarm.
In the course of the evening many more of these ill-mannered quadrupeds came to our hiding-place and jumped over us or stared at us with astonishment. Some of them scooted away when they caught sight of us. Perhaps they, too, had been infected with the Daily Mail disease and saw a terrible danger in the 'Hun officers.'
Very slowly the time passed. And it would not get dark, much as we longed for nightfall. In the distance we heard the first sounds of the concert. The silence was not so marked now, and we could move very slightly without danger. Every tiny fraction of an inch that we altered our position was a blessing. In the wet, clayey soil of the drain our limbs had long become stiff and unmovable. Partly in order to avoid attracting the sentry's attention by whispering, partly in order to pass the time, we carried on a conversation in Morse code, making the signs by gently tapping with our lingers on the side of the trench.
Our conversation was going on nicely when we were suddenly interrupted by the shriek of the camp siren. Involuntarily we started. Was it an alarm signal? As we had put our watches in our inside coats we could not tell what time it was. We strained our ears to hear if anything was happening. We had not long to wait, for the band immediately struck up the final march, 'Good-bye, friends! To horse! to horse!' A load fell from our minds.
The evening muster was now due, and if this also went off all right a small red lamp was to be shown in the lop middle window of the castle. It was now slowly becoming twilight; but the minutes still seemed hours, and it was a long way from being dark enough to leave the trench. We wondered if the sentry had gone to sleep. The sound of his footsteps had long ceased, but other noises now began. Cattle grazing in the surrounding meadows, and numerous deer which came to the neighbouring drinking place, would rub themselves on the posts which carried the wire entanglement. In doing so they often entangled their horns in the barbed wire, causing it to rattle and shake throughout its length. The sentries had long got accustomed, to these noises (for they occurred every night), a fact which was extremely favourable to our design. I reckoned heavily on the negligence of the sentries, for during my numerous nocturnal excursions I had observed that when it was near midnight and the orderly officer had visited his sentries, the latter usually put down their rifles in a corner and either leant against a post and slept or walked over to the next sentry, fifty yards away. Then they usually put on a pipe and chatted till the relief came.
The tower-clock struck eleven; so we had already been three hours in this damnable hole. Another half-hour and we might perhaps risk it. We carefully raised our heads from time to time above the edge of the ditch in order to have a peep round. It was now getting dark rapidly. The neighbouring trees could be seen only very indistinctly. We made careful 'soundings.' All was quiet. In the top story of the main building a tiny red lamp burned. We gave each other a nudge of intelligence.
The sentry who ought to have been keeping watch just above our hiding-place had either disappeared or gone fast asleep. At least we could see no trace of him. No need for reflection now. Carefully we rose and crawled over the edge till we lay full length on the grass, keeping as low as we possibly could. The numerous electric lights which surrounded the camp threw their glare far beyond us.
At first we lay like logs and listened. We were not sorry to have a good stretch, for our limbs were almost paralysed from lying so long on the cold, wet earth, and it was a long time before the blood began to circulate. Like Red Indians on the trail we crept forward inch by inch, pausing every now and then in order to look round and regain our breath; for with our two suits of clothes, and the thick leather waistcoats which we wore under our tunics, this creeping was very heavy work. It was therefore a good half-hour before we reached the wicker chairs and could unfasten our kits. And this, too, had to be done slowly and carefully, for the canes of the chairs creaked at every touch.