ut for the country, Edwards ahead, I next, and Bromley
behind.

I heard some one whistling and thought it was Bromley, and waited for
him to come up to tell him to keep quiet, but when he came beside me,
he whispered, "They are following us."

We went on.

Soon a voice behind us called, "Halt!"

"It's no use, Sim--they have us," Bromley whispered.

Ahead of us was a little bush, toward which we kept going. We did not
run, because we thought that the people who were following us were
not sure who we were, and therefore would not be likely to shoot.
Bromley knew he could not stand a race for it in his condition, but,
knowing him as I do, I believe he would have made the effort; but I
think he saw that if he went back and surrendered, it would give us
more time to get away.

"Go on, Sim," he whispered to me.

We had agreed that if anything happened to one of us, the others were
to go on. We could not hope to help each other against such numbers.

When we got opposite the wood, we made a dash for it.

I think it was then that Bromley went back and gave himself up. I
often wondered what he told them about the other men they had seen.
Whatever he thought was best for our safety, I am sure of that, for
Bromley was a loyal comrade and the best of chums.

* * *

We lay there for a while, wondering what to do. We were about in the
middle of a very small grove, and knew it was a poor place to stay
in, for it was a thin wood, and the daylight was not far distant.

Edwards, who was right beside me, whispered that he had just seen a
soldier climb a tree and another one handing him a gun. This decided
us to crawl to the edge of the wood again. But when we reached it,
Edwards, who was ahead, whispered back to me that he saw three
civilians right in front of us.

This began to look like a tight corner.

We determined to take a chance on the civilians' not being armed, and
make a dash for it. We did, and "the civilians" turned out to be a
group of slim evergreens. We saw a forest ahead, and made for it. The
ground was sandy and poor, and the trees were scattered and small,
and grew in clumps. The going was not hard, but the loss of Bromley
had greatly depressed us.

Once we met a man--ran right into him--and probably scared him just
as much as he did us. He gave us a greeting, to which we grunted a
reply, a grunt being common to all languages.

We saw the headlight of a train about three o'clock i