Once back in my room I banged the door and turned the lock. I knew I had not a moment to spare; for with the hundreds of troops they had apparently brought on the raid they were bound to make another attack. I sprang to the window. A searchlight played for a moment on the back of the house and a shower of bullets came whizzing through the glass. A few of them struck me, but a couple of wounds more or less did not matter very much, for I had already been hit more than once in the exchange. The lower half of the window was already open. Sean had got out that way. I stepped on to the window-sill, and dropped into the roof of the conservatory. In the clear moonlight I could discern countless steel helmets all round the house. The Tommies were blazing at me. Before I could drop from the conservatory I saw I would have to get away through them. With the revolver which I held in my left hand I smashed a hole in the roof of the conservatory. Then I gripped a beam and swung down, my German pistol still seeking a mark on the enemy. Right well did it accomplish its task, for within a minute there was not a soldier to be seen—they had disappeared. I was still dangling from the roof of the glass-house. When I had silenced the enemy I swung back on the roof and then jumped to the ground. I looked around for my comrade. There was no sign of him. I called out his name, but got no reply. I lay flat on the ground to avoid offering a target to any venturesome Tommy who might put his head over the garden wall. I continued to call out for Sean. “Sean! Sean! Where are you?” But there was no reply. I thought he might have been struck getting through the window and might have been lying wounded in the conservatory. Now I began to fear he had fallen into their hands. Then I consoled myself with the thought that after all he had got away, though the chance was a poor one. I knew I had been fighting on the landing and stairs for nearly half an hour, and when I did not return to the room Sean may have concluded I was killed while he was trying to settle his revolver. As I lay on the ground I realised I was getting weak. I had neither hat, boots nor overcoat. I had only barely time to slip on trousers and coat. I saw that I was wounded in five or six places and was bleeding from head to foot, but I had to move quickly. Strangely enough, I was beginning to feel that I would escape after all. While I was still rapidly thinking what course to take the enemy returned to the attack. Several grenades burst around me near the conservatory. I made another effort and rose to move. A short distance from me I saw that low dividing wall that my host had been so careful to point out on my first visit. Now I appreciated his foresight as I made for the wall. A little distance beyond the conservatory in the garden I found the dead bodies of two soldiers. Then I knew Sean had passed that way.