the wrong side of the wire.

It was with both pleasure and anxiety that I watched the darkness
slowly closing in, though I felt inclined to disbelieve that "Time and
tide wait for no man." Half-past ten did eventually arrive, and with
it the now unwelcome time for action. Slowly, and with infinite
caution, I stepped out into the room, and replaced the wall to give
some one else a chance later on. Most of my kit was in the stove, and,
as there were no fire-irons about, considerable noise was made lifting
the iron top and extracting the contents with my fingers. Everything
was now squashed into a sort of pack, and I approached the window on
tip-toe. Within the camp all was quiet, but there, just outside,
passing and repassing on his beat, often not ten yards away, was a
particularly young and active German sentry, stepping quietly, with an
elastic tread. He held his rifle in his hands, and gazed intently into
the camp, as if expecting some shooting practice. When he reached the
end of his short beat, I opened the door with many misgivings, and
crept along a passage to the back of the hut. Entering the empty
wash-room, I saw that my information had been correct, the windows
were not barred. In an adjoining room several Huns were settling down
for the night, their light showing under the door.

I had almost reached the nearest window when, with a most appalling
crash, I overturned an empty bucket in the dark. Listening an instant,
I heard surprised voices and waited for no further developments, but,
coat, pack and all, jumped through the half-open window and fell into
a ditch below. Struggling up and tripping over another wire, I landed
in another ditch. After leaving this my way lay beyond the shadow of
the hut across a cultivated patch of moor, planted with potatoes,
which was illuminated by the arc lamps. I covered this in record time,
everything rattling and seeming to make a most deafening noise, as
though all the devils in Hell were after me with red-hot pitchforks,
expecting to hear a bullet whistle by every moment. However, nothing
happened, and when several hundred yards away, I halted for about ten
minutes to listen for the bugle sounding the alarm. It would have been
some satisfaction to know that the camp was buzzing like a bee-hive,
and all on my account! But, owing to the clever way in which my room
mates worked it, my absence was not noticed, and so this pleasure was
denied me.

I shouldered my heavy pack