“Here, here!” The voice was almost at my elbow. Then I saw the white patch of a face above a bush. He came up to me, putting his pistol muzzle in my stomach. “Who are you?” I was a bit dizzy and shaken, but not quite done yet. “Who are _you_?” I asked. “I’m a frontier guard.” “Dutch or German?” I could not see his uniform. “German!” I groaned aloud; then: “What the ---- are you stopping me for? What are you doing here, anyway? Leave me alone; I’m on Dutch soil.” For answer he stepped back, saw the cudgel in my upraised hand, and said sharply, “Drop that stick.” I obeyed. He whistled, and got an answer from close by, followed by the breaking of branches and footsteps, as somebody else moved toward us. My captor put his automatic into his pocket, keeping his hand on it. “Who are you?” he demanded again. “That has nothing whatever to do with you. I crossed the frontier about fifty yards down there. Good night!” “Stop! You’re over an hour from the frontier yet.” For a moment I wondered whether I could get my weight into a blow on his jaw and make a break for it; but, as I swung slightly forward, lowering my left a little at the same time, I reflected that I could not possibly tell whether he was in reach; it was too dark. Now I believed that I was still far from the frontier. Even if I could down him, there was the second man close by. And if a bullet did not bring me down, they could easily catch me in a race, knowing the country as I did not, or bring any number of soldiers about my ears. If I were caught after having struck him, it would merely mean a blank wall and a firing party. Not good enough! All this passed quickly through my mind, the ideas being only half formed. In the long days of solitary confinement, by which I expiated my offense, I sat in judgment upon myself again and again, every time condemning myself for a slacker. But I knew much more about the actual position later than at the moment of capture, and when one is brooding in cells, ready to barter half one’s remaining life for a glimpse of the open, it is difficult to come to a just judgment. To-day I cannot see that I could have done anything but give in. Had I had money on me I should have tried offering a bribe, but I had not even a farthing piece in my pocket. The “noes” had it. My two captors took me between them and marched me off for some time along wood-paths. The reaction had set in now, and my senses were dulled. I kept stumbling and falling until they took my arms, when we made better progress. “Did I come straight toward you or what?” I asked dully, after a time. “No. We were close to the place we got you at. I heard something, and walked toward the sound. Then I saw you,” was the reply of the first man. After an indefinite time, we struck the railway and turned down it toward Germany. We walked and walked. I was beginning to collect my thoughts, and with them my suspicions of foul play were returning, when we were challenged.