Each time a sentry challenged I struck the matches on the box and held them in front of the red seal.

The instant the matches flashed it was a hundred to one that the man would shoot, but I could not speak German, and there was no other way to make him understand.

They were either too surprised or too sleepy to fire, for each of them let me pass.

But after I had made a mark of myself three times I lost my nerve and sought cover behind a haystack.

I lay there until there was light enough to distinguish trees and telegraph-poles, and then walked on to Ath.