an
average list. These lists take no account of those who "died of
wounds," and "missing" is usually a polite way of saying "dead." It
means that the man was too badly hurt to escape, to be helped by his
comrades, or to crawl back, and probably was left "between the lines"
to die. This explains what at first appears to be a singularly small
percentage of killed.

* * * * *

_Berlin, Wednesday, December 9th._ This afternoon I made my final
arrangements for the trip to London. Whenever a special messenger
departs with dispatches from the Embassy a Jaeger accompanies him to
the train, carries the mail-bags and pouch, and sees him safely
settled in his compartment. When he arrives at his final destination
another Jaeger from the Embassy to which he is going meets him at the
station.

CHAPTER IX

CARRYING DISPATCHES FROM BERLIN TO LONDON

_Thursday, December 10th._ Soon after the train left Berlin this
morning I judged that I was being shadowed. When it pulled out of the
station there were four people, including myself, in the six-place
compartment, the two middle seats being vacant, one on my left as I
sat next the window and the other diagonally facing me. Soon after the
train was well started two men came in and occupied these seats. This
in itself was suspicious, since people do not seek seats while a train
is in motion. Both moreover had the air of being detectives. I, by
this time, know the type well, for I have been constantly shadowed
ever since my arrival in Germany and am perfectly certain that my
rooms have several times been searched while I was absent. I simply
continued to behave with the greatest possible circumspection, the
two detectives meanwhile staring at me constantly with fixed
intensity.

It was a bit unpleasant because I did not certainly know the nature of
the dispatches I carried, but realized that they were extremely
important. They were in a small leather mail pouch, padlocked and
sealed, which I had set on the floor between my feet and knees.
Everything went quietly for some two hours. I could not look out of
the window in towns and yards because I might have seen troop-trains,
factories, etc., and that would have been "indiscreet." The part of
Germany from Berlin to Holland is utterly flat and uninteresting, so
that there was no pleasure in looking at the countryside between
stations. I pretended to doze, or read three German weeklies which I
had