of the
houses, for it was only about eleven o'clock, and some of the people
were still up. The houses looked to be rather good ones, and they
were built in a row. It was the backs of them we were approaching,
which we did with extreme caution, for we had no desire to have some
snarling dog discover us and give the alarm.

So intent were we, watching the houses for any sign of life, that we
did not see what was just before us until we had walked up to it.
Then we saw--

It was a railroad, single-tracked, with dirt ballast!

Without a word, Ted and I shook hands! We were in Holland!

CHAPTER XXIII

OUT

Immediately we set out to find a road. There would be no more
skulking through fields for us. We were free again, entitled to all
the privileges of road and bridge.

We soon found a good wagon-road leading to a bridge over the canal.
Across the bridge we boldly went, caring nothing for the houses at
our right and left, whose windows were lighted and whose dogs may
have been awake for all we cared. It seemed wonderful to be able to
walk right in the middle of the road again! Ted said he wanted to
sing, but I advised him to curb the desire. We were a little hazy as
to the treatment accorded prisoners by a neutral country.

We still kept west, thinking of the bulge in the German boundary to
the south of us. The road was smooth and hard, and we felt so good
that we seemed to be able to go as fast as we liked. Fatigue and
hunger were forgotten. A man on a bicycle rode past us and shouted
a greeting to us, to which we replied with a good, honest English
"Good-night," instead of the sullen grunt we had hitherto been using
to hide our nationality.

Cows were plentiful that night, and we got apples, too, from the
orchards near the road. The only thing that troubled us was that our
road had turned southwest, and we were afraid that it might lead
us into the little strip of Germany. However, we went on a short
distance.

Then we came to a place where there were many canals, some of them
very large, and the straggling houses seemed to indicate a town.
Afterwards we knew it was the town called Nieuwstadskanaal.

We took a poor road, leading west, and followed it over a heather
moor, which changed after a mile or two into a peat-bog with piles of
peat recently cut. We kept on going, until about five o'clock in the
morning we came to a house. It looked desolate and unoccupied, and
when we got close to it we found t