The orderly officer, accompanied by a sergeant, walked through all the rooms and satisfied himself that no one was missing. By observations carried on for weeks I had made sure that the orderly officers always chose the same route in order to return to their quarters, after their rounds, by the shortest way. So it was to-night. The round began with the room from which Trefftz was missing. Of course his bed was already occupied by some one. “All present?” “Yes, sir!” “All right! Good-night, gentlemen.” And so forth. As soon as the orderly officer had turned the corner, two other comrades ran in the opposite direction and into my room, so that here also all could be reported “present.” It is difficult to conceive our excitement and nervous tension whilst this was in progress. We followed all the proceedings in our minds, and when suddenly silence supervened for an unconscionably lengthy period we feared the worst. With ice-cold hands, ears on the alert for the slightest sound, we lay, hardly daring to breathe. At last, at 11 p.m., a lusty cheer broke the stillness. It was our concerted signal that all was clear! CHAPTER XIII BLACK NIGHTS ON THE THAMES ALL was silent around us. The rain ceased. The park lay wrapped in darkness, and only the light of the huge arc-lamps, which lit up the night-boundary, streamed faintly towards us. The dull sound of the sentries’ footsteps as they paced up and down in front of their boxes, and their calls to each other every quarter of an hour, sounded uncanny in the stillness. At midnight the guard was changed, and I followed it with strained attention. Upon this, the orderly officer flashed his lamp over the day-boundary, and at 12.30 a.m. quiet reigned again. The moment for action had arrived. I crept softly as a cat from my hiding-place, through the park up to the barbed-wire fence, to convince myself that no sentries were about. When I saw that everything was in order and had found the exact spot where we wanted to climb over, I crawled back again to fetch Trefftz. Thereupon we returned by the same way. When we reached the fence, I gave Trefftz my final instructions and handed him my small bundle. I was the first to climb over the fence, which was about 9 feet high, and every 8 inches the wire was covered with long spikes. Wires charged with electricity were placed 2½ feet from the ground. A mere touch would have sufficed to set in motion a system of bells that would, of course, have given the alarm to the whole camp. We wore leather leggings as protection against the spikes; round our knees we had wound puttees, and we wore leather gloves. But all these precautions were of no avail, and we got badly scratched by the spikes. However, they prevented us from slipping and coming in contact with the electric wires. I easily swung myself over the first fence. Trefftz handed over our two bundles and followed me with equal ease.