hat
this man had dodged the British authorities and was now giving his
information to a French interpreter to transmit it at the earliest
possible moment to the Germans. I told my young friends to carry on as
if nothing had happened, and excusing myself, said I would come back
in a few minutes. I went out and inquired my way to the Town Major's
office. There, I stated the object of my journey and asked for two
policemen to come back with me and mount guard till I identified a
suspicious looking officer. I then returned and finished my lunch.
When the officer and the interpreter at the conclusion of their meal
went out into the passage, I followed them and asked for their
identification. The officer made no attempt to disguise or check his
temper. He said that there must be an end to this sort of work. But
the arrival of the two policemen in the passage showed that he had to
do what I asked him. This he did, and the interpreter also, and the
police took their names and addresses. Then I let my friends go, and
heard them depart into the street hurling denunciations and threats of
vengeance upon my devoted and loyal head.

It was about a week or ten days afterwards that I was called into our
own Brigadier's office. He held a bundle of letters in his hand stamped
with all sorts of official seals. The gist of it all was that the G.O.C.
of the Indian Division in France had reported to General Alderson the
extraordinary and eccentric conduct of a Canadian Chaplain, who (p. 089)
persisted in arresting a certain British officer whenever they happened
to meet. He wound up with this cutting comment, "The conduct of this
chaplain seems to fit him rather for a lunatic asylum than for the
theatre of a great war." Of course explanations were sent back. It was
explained to the General that reports had reached us of the presence
in our lines of a German spy in British uniform, who from the description
given, resembled the Indian officer in all particulars.

It is needless to say that every one was immensely amused at "the
Canon's spy story," and I mentally resolved that I would be more
careful in the future about being carried away by my suspicions. I
told people however that I would rather run the risk of being laughed
at over making a mistake than to let one real spy escape.

Festubert made a heavy toll upon our numbers, and we were not sorry
when we were ordered out of the line and found ourselves quartered in
the neighbourhood