go on till I dropped or was taken. I
shaped my course south with a shade of west in it, for the map showed
me that in that direction I would soonest strike the Danube. What I
was going to do when I got there I didn't trouble to think. I had
fixed the river as my immediate goal and the future must take care of
itself.

I was now certain that I had fever on me. It was still in my bones, as
a legacy from Africa, and had come out once or twice when I was with
the battalion in Hampshire. The bouts had been short for I had known
of their coming and dosed myself. But now I had no quinine, and it
looked as if I were in for a heavy go. It made me feel desperately
wretched and stupid, and I all but blundered into capture.

For suddenly I came on a road and was going to cross it blindly, when a
man rode slowly past on a bicycle. Luckily I was in the shade of a
clump of hollies and he was not looking my way, though he was not three
yards off. I crawled forward to reconnoitre. I saw about half a mile
of road running straight through the forest and every two hundred yards
was a bicyclist. They wore uniform and appeared to be acting as
sentries.

This could only have one meaning. Stumm had picketed all the roads and
cut me off in an angle of the woods. There was no chance of getting
across unobserved. As I lay there with my heart sinking, I had the
horrible feeling that the pursuit might be following me from behind,
and that at any moment I would be enclosed between two fires.

For more than an hour I stayed there with my chin in the snow. I didn't
see any way out, and I was feeling so ill that I didn't seem to care.
Then my chance came suddenly out of the skies.

The wind rose, and a great gust of snow blew from the east. In five
minutes it was so thick that I couldn't see across the road. At first
I thought it a new addition to my troubles, and then very slowly I saw
the opportunity. I slipped down the bank and made ready to cross.

I almost blundered into one of the bicyclists. He cried out and fell
off his machine, but I didn't wait to investigate. A sudden access of
strength came to me and I darted into the woods on the farther side. I
knew I would be soon swallowed from sight in the drift, and I knew that
the falling snow would hide my tracks. So I put my best foot forward.

I must have run miles before the hot fit passed, and I stopped from
sheer bodily weakness. There was no sound except the crush