The game of Hide-and-Seek is really one of the best games for a boy,
and can be elaborated until it becomes scouting in the field. It
teaches you a lot.
I was strongly addicted to it as a child, and the craft learned in
that innocent field of sport has stood me in good stead in many a
critical time since. To lie flat in a furrow among the currant bushes
when I had not time to reach the neighbouring box bushes before
the pursuer came in sight taught me the value of not using the most
obvious cover, since it would at once be searched. The hunters went at
once to the box bushes as the likely spot, while I could watch their
doings from among the stems of the currant bushes.
Often I have seen hostile scouts searching the obvious bits of cover,
but they did not find _me_ there; and, like the elephant hunter among
the fern trees, or a boar in a cotton crop, so a boy in the currant
bushes is invisible to the enemy, while he can watch every move of the
enemy's legs.
This I found of value when I came to be pursued by mounted military
police, who suspected me of being a spy at some manoeuvres abroad.
After a rare chase I scrambled over a wall and dropped into an orchard
of low fruit trees. Here squatting in a ditch, I watched the legs of
the gendarmes' horses while they quartered the plantation, and when
they drew away from me I crept to the bank of a deep water channel
which formed one of the boundaries of the enclosure. Here I found
a small plank bridge by which I could cross, but before doing so I
loosened the near end, and passed over, dragging the plank after me.
On the far side the country was open, and before I had gone far the
gendarmes spied me, and after a hurried consultation, dashed off at
a gallop for the nearest bridge, half a mile away. I promptly turned
back, replaced my bridge and recrossed the stream, throwing the plank
into the river, and made my way past the village to the next station
down the line while the horsemen were still hunting for me in the
wrong place.
Another secret that one picked up at the game of Hide-and-Seek was,
if possible, to get above the level of the hunter's eye, and to
"freeze"--that is, to sit tight without a movement, and, although not
in actual concealment, you are very apt to escape notice by so doing.
I found it out long ago by lying flat along the top of an ivy-clad
wall when my pursuers passed within a few feet of me without looking
up at me. I put it to the proof later on by sitting on a bank beside
the road, just above the height of a man, but so near that I might
have touched a passer-by with a fishing-rod; and there I sat without
any concealment and counted fifty-four wayfarers, out of whom no more
than eleven noticed me.
The knowledge of this fact came in useful on one of my investigating
tours. Inside a great high wall lay a dockyard in which, it was
rumoured, a new power-house was being erected, and possibly a dry dock
was in course of preparation.
It was early morning; the gates were just opened; the workmen were
beginning to arrive, and several carts of materials were waiting to
come in. Seizing the opportunity of the gates being open, I gave a
hurried glance in, as any ordinary passer-by might do. I was promptly
ejected by the policeman on duty in the lodge.
I did not go far. My intention was to get inside somehow and to see
what I could. I watched the first of the carts go in, and noticed that
the policeman was busily engaged in talking to the leading wagoner,
while the second began to pass through the gate. In a moment I jumped
alongside it on the side opposite to the janitor, and so passed in and
continued to walk with the vehicle as it turned to the right and wound
its way round the new building in course of construction.
I then noticed another policeman ahead of me and so I kept my position
by the cart, readapting its cover in order to avoid him. Unfortunately
in rounding the corner I was spied by the first policeman, and he
immediately began to shout to me (_see map_). I was deaf to his
remarks and walked on as unconcernedly as a guilty being could till
I placed the corner of the new building between him and me. Then I
fairly hooked it along the back of the building and rounded the far
corner of it. As I did so I saw out of the tail of my eye that he was
coming full speed after me and was calling policeman No. 2 to his aid.
I darted like a red-shank round the next corner out of sight of both
policemen, and looked for a method of escape.
[Illustration: _The dotted line in this plan shows my route, small
figures are policemen looking for me._]
The scaffolding of the new house towered above me, and a ladder led
upwards on to it. Up this I went like a lamplighter, keeping one eye
on the corner of the building lest I should be followed.
I was half-way up when round the corner came one of the policemen.
I at once "froze." I was about fifteen feet above sea level and not
twenty yards from him. He stood undecided with his legs well apart,
peering from side to side in every direction to see where I had gone,
very anxious and shifty. I was equally anxious but immovable.
Presently he drew nearer to the ladder and, strangely enough, I felt
safer when he came below me, and he passed almost under me, looking in
at the doorways of the unfinished building. Then he doubtfully turned
and looked back at a shed behind him, thinking I might have gone in
there, and finally started off, and ran on round the next corner of
the building. The moment he disappeared I finished the rest of my run
up the ladder and safely reached the platform of the scaffolding.
The workmen were not yet upon the building, so I had the whole place
to myself. My first act was to look for another ladder as a line of
escape in case of being chased. It is always well to have a back door
to your hiding place; that is one of the essentials in scouting.
Presently I found a short ladder leading from my platform to the
stage below, but it did not go to the ground. Peering quietly over the
scaffolding, I saw my friend the policeman below, still at fault. I
blessed my stars that he was no tracker, and therefore had not seen my
footmarks leading to the foot of the ladder.
Then I proceeded to take note of my surroundings and to gather
information. Judging from the design of the building, its great
chimneys, etc., I was actually on the new power-house. From my post
I had an excellent view over the dockyard, and within 100 feet of me
were the excavation works of the new dock, whose dimensions I could
easily estimate.
I whipped out my prismatic compass and quickly took the bearings of
two conspicuous points on the neighbouring hills, and so fixed the
position which could be marked on a large scale map for purposes of
shelling the place, if desired.
Meantime my pursuer had called the other policeman to him, and they
were in close confabulation immediately below me, where I could
watch them through a crack between two of the foot-boards. They had
evidently come to the conclusion that I was not in the power-house as
the interior was fully open to view, and they had had a good look into
it. Their next step was to examine the goods shed close by, which was
evidently full of building lumber, etc.
One man went into it while the other remained outside on the line
that I should probably take for escaping, that is, between it and
the boundary wall leading to the gateway. By accident rather than by
design he stood close to the foot of my ladder, and thus cut off my
retreat in that direction. While they were thus busy they were leaving
the gate unguarded, and I thought it was too good a chance to be
missed, so, returning along the scaffolding until I reached the small
ladder, I climbed down this on to the lower story, and, seeing no one
about, I quickly swarmed down one of the scaffolding poles and landed
safely on the ground close behind the big chimney of the building.
Here I was out of sight, although not far from the policeman guarding
the ladder; and, taking care to keep the corner of the building
between us, I made my way round to the back of the lodge, and then
slipped out of the gate without being seen.