He was discovered in close proximity to a rifle range by a German
sentry. He pretended to be intoxicated, and so escaped. But it was a
close shave._]
He could make nothing of me, and therefore gently but firmly conducted
me to the end of his beat and thrust me forth and advised me to go
home, which I did in great content....
A SPY IS SUSPICIOUS.
The practice of spying has one unfortunate tendency: it teaches one
to trust no one, not even a would-be benefactor. A foreign country
had recently manufactured a new form of field gun which was undergoing
extensive secret trials, which were being conducted in one of her
colonies in order to avoid being watched. I was sent to find out
particulars of this gun. On arrival in the colony I found that a
battery of new guns was carrying out experiments at a distant point
along the railway.
The place was by all description merely a roadside station, with not
even a village near it, so it would be difficult to go and stay there
without being noticed at once. The timetable, however, showed that
the ordinary day train stopped there for half an hour for change of
engines, so I resolved to see what I could do in the space of time
allowed.
We jogged along in the local train happily enough and stopped at every
little station as we went. At one of these a Colonial farmer entered
my carriage, and though apparently ill and doleful, we got into
conversation on the subject of the country and the crops.
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