e front, and be fodder for cannon. How
many of you will come through this war alive, think you? Perhaps one
out of ten. And the end of it will be that your country will be
beaten. I am as sure of that as I am that the sun will rise to-morrow.
Now supposing you adopt my plan, suppose you go with me as prisoners of
war; I will take you to the British lines unhurt, and then you will be
sent to the Isle of Wight, or some such place; you will be well housed,
well clothed, well fed, until the war's over. Don't you think you are
silly asses to stay here and play a losing game, amidst all this misery
and suffering, when you can get away unhurt and enjoy yourselves?'

In spite of the madness of the proposal, he spoke in such a convincing
way that he impressed them in spite of themselves. Indeed I, who am
relating the conversation as nearly word for word as I can remember,
cannot give anything like an idea of the subtle persuasion which
accompanied his words. It might seem as though he were master of the
situation, and they had to do his will; in fact, he seemed to hypnotize
them by the persuasiveness of his voice, and by some magnetic charm of
his presence.

'You may be safe here for the moment,' he went on, 'but I can tell you
what'll happen. By this time your trenches are nearly level with the
ground,--not a man in them will be alive. Your machine-gun
emplacements will be all blown into smithereens, for this is no
ordinary bombardment; it is tremendous, man, tremendous! In less than
two hours from now, either the outlets of these dug-outs of yours will
be stopped up, and you will die of foul air or starvation, or bombing
parties will come, and then it'll be all up with you. I tell you, I
know what I am talking about.'

'Yes, but if we are killed, so will you be!'

'And if we are, what good'll that do to any of us? We are young, we
want to live.'

Just then we heard a terrific explosion, louder even than any which had
preceded it. The ground shook; it seemed as though hell were let loose.

'Do you hear that?' he went on, when there was a moment's quiet.
'That's just a foretaste of what's coming. That's one of the big new
guns, and there are hundreds of them, hundreds. Well, if you won't,
you won't.'

'What do you want us to do?' and one of the Germans spoke excitedly.

'I tell you I know a way by which I can lead you out of this. I know
the country round here, inch by inch; I have made it my business to