rows which had been allowed to grow wild,
the unrepaired roadways, sunken and marked by deep holes and ruts and a
hundred other pitfalls made my progress agonizingly slow.

As the moon rose I had a sudden feeling of being near water, and coming
out from a thicket I was confirmed in this by seeing the light break
into ripples on an uneven surface. But tragically, it was not the
Channel I had come upon, merely a river, too wide to cross, which though
it undoubtedly led to my goal, would increase the length of my journey
by many miles. I'm afraid I gave way to a quite unmanly weakness as I
threw myself upon the hard ground and thought of my miserable fate.

I may have lain there for ten minutes, or twenty. The moon went behind a
cloud, the air grew chilly. I was nerving myself to get up and resume my
journey--though to what purpose I could not conceive for I would be
little better off on a Norman beach than inland--when a timid hand was
put upon my shoulder and someone said questioningly, "Angleterre?"

I sprang up. "England. Oh, yes, England. Can you help me get there?"

The moon stayed covered and I could not see his face in the dark.
"England," he said. "Yes, I'll take you."

I followed him to a little backwater, where was beached a rowboat. Even
by feel, in the blackness, it seemed to me a very small and frail craft
to chance the voyage across the choppy sea, but I had no choice. I
seated myself in the stern while he took the oars, cast off and rowed us
down the river toward the estuary.

I decided he must be one of that company of smugglers who were ferrying
refugees into Britain despite the strictest watch. No doubt he thinks to
make a pretty penny for tonight's work, I thought, but no coastguard
would turn back Albert Weener. I would pay him well for his help, but he
could not blackmail me for fabulous ransom.

Still the moon did not come out. My eyes, accustoming themselves to the
dark, vaguely discerned the shape opposite me and I saw he was a short
man, but beyond this I could not distinguish his features. The river
broadened, the air became salty, the wind rose and soon the little boat
was bobbing up and down in a manner to give discomfort to my stomach.
The water, building terraces and battlements, reflected enough light to
impress me with the diminutiveness of the boat, set in the vastness on
which it floated.

Behind us the French coast was a looming mass, then a thick blob,
finally a thin blur hardly