He ran across the road into the house and came back at once with the news that his mother was at home and asked us to come in. W. pretended to be deaf and dumb, so I alone accompanied the boy, telling him at the same time that as the weather was so fine we intended to picnic in the open air, a plan of which the youngster thoroughly approved. His mother received me with a friendly 'Good-afternoon, sir,' and invited me to sit down in the kitchen. Then a long conversation about the war and the 'damned Germans' ensued, while the good woman was busy making some excellent tea. Then she made up a parcel of cream-cheese and bread and butter wrapped in lettuce leaves, and gave me a big bottle of tea. I paid a shilling for the whole lot, expressed my thanks, and took leave of the good people, and then hurried off with my rich booty to W., who was waiting anxiously for me under a tree. Only at one other time have I eaten so greedily and so much at one time. That was the day a year later, when I was released from captivity and a proper meal was put before me for the first time!
Thus fortified, we continued our journey. But I, first of all, called the boy in order to get some information from him. I learned in the course of the conversation that there was a large aerodrome north of Nottingham, on the other side of the Trent. This was probably correct, for we had seen several machines flying in this direction. 'Oh,' I said in astonishment, when he spoke of the big biplane which we had recently seen and which he said was stationed at Nottingham, 'I thought it was from the small aerodrome by the side of the railway.'
'Oh, no, sir,' the boy answered, with a smile at my ignorance, 'the place you mean has been closed for a long time. It was closed about six weeks ago.'
I very nearly swore. But I restrained myself in time, and took leave of the boy, saying we still had a long tramp in front of us.
So all our wanderings had been useless. The last news about the aerodrome had come to the camp about eight weeks previously. It was undoubtedly correct then. It was our misfortune that the aerodrome had been closed down in the meantime. Who could have foreseen it? But there was no time for vain regrets. Besides, we had other information now; so, up, and on to Nottingham!
CHAPTER XXIX RECAPTURE
We studied the map and found that practically in the centre of Nottingham there was a bridge over the Trent which was, at this point, about twice as broad as at Donington. We had to cross by this bridge in order to get to the aerodrome, for it was out of the question to think of swimming across the river, as I could hardly raise my arms now as high as my chest. With new courage and new strength we looked round for a sleeping place in a neighbouring field, so that we could walk into Nottingham at dawn next morning. But we had hardly slept two hours when water began to trickle through the thin layer of hay with which we had covered ourselves. Damnation! A thunderstorm was in full swing and we had been so tired that we noticed nothing till it was too late. Sleep was now out of the question, for everything was wet and clammy. So we got on our legs again and followed the lights of Nottingham, which we could see reflected in the sky.
As the morning dawned we were almost at the entrance to the town. The streets were thronged with workpeople flocking to their factories. From the left came a crowd of about fifty workmen and women who turned down the way we were going. We joined these. As we went along we met numerous policemen, but they fortunately gave us only a cursory glance.