After finishing their meal the boys sat waiting for their guide.
"He has to care for his horse and dispose of the hay," Sim explained.
CHAPTER IX
TRAPPED
The boys left the cellar very soon after finishing their meal. Their guide led them down a country lane. They hiked along steadily for several hours, then detoured through a field, making a wide circle.
"We have to go around the patrol stations on the road," Sim explained.
"It's nice to have a guide who knows the way," Stan said.
"I understand the patrol posts are cleverly hidden. Without a guide a man walking down the lane would trip an alarm wire and be caught in no time at all." Sim seemed to know all about the methods used by the Nazis to trap anyone fleeing the country.
They kept walking until midnight. Then they rested for a half-hour, lying in a hedge beside the road. After midnight they moved more slowly. Several times they dived into the fields along the road to avoid patrols moving swiftly along the lane on motorcycles. Once they almost ran into a bicycle patrol. The cyclists did not make any noise and were upon the boys before they had time to duck. A leafy hedge saved them from being sighted.