places of yours will become so
many death-traps.'

The German laughed incredulously.

'Do you know what'll happen soon?' went on the English voice, 'there
will be bombing parties along here; you may be safe for the moment, but
you can't get out,--not one of you dare try. If you did, it would be
all up with you.'

'What are you getting at?' snarled the German. 'You are our prisoner,
anyhow, and if we are killed, so will you be!'

'Just so. But then I don't want to get killed, neither do you.'

'I know it's a beastly business,' said the German, 'and I wish this
cursed war would come to an end.'

'Yes, you see you were mistaken now, don't you?' and the Englishman
with the quiet voice laughed. 'You were told it was all going to be
over in a few weeks, and that it was going to be a picnic. "Bah!" you
said, "what can the English do?" But, my dear fellow, the English have
only just begun. You are just ramming your heads against a stone wall.
You won't hurt the wall, but your heads will get mightily battered. Oh
yes, we are your prisoners, there are just three of us left alive, and
you are thirty. But what is the good of it?'

'What are you getting at, Tommy?' asked another, 'and why are you
talking all this humbug?'

'Because I can get you out of this.'

'Get us out of it! How?'

'Ah, that is my secret, but I can.'

'What! Every one of us, unhurt?'

'Every one of you, unhurt.'

There was a general laugh of incredulity.

'You don't believe me, I know. But I swear to you I can do it.'

'How?'

'By taking you as prisoners to the British lines. I know a way by
which it can be done.'

As may be imagined, I was not an uninterested listener to this
conversation. Evidently another man had been taken prisoner; who I had
no knowledge, but we had somehow been brought together. But it was not
altogether the quiet confidence of the speaker which interested me, it
was the sound of his voice. While it was not familiar to me, I felt
sure I had heard it before. The light was so dim, that I could see
neither his face nor any marks whereby I could discover his rank; but
he spoke German so well that I judged him to be an officer. The
Germans laughed aloud at his last remark.

'Your prisoners!' they shouted, 'and we ten to your one!'

'Why not,' he asked, 'if I take you to safety? Now just think, suppose
you all get out of this, and we are lodged in one of your German prison
camps; you remain here at th