We did not live long without the stain. Our first anxiety was to find
where and how it would be possible to see some of this equipment
for which we had come to the country. Manoeuvres were going on at a
place some fifty miles distant, and there, as tourists, we betook
ourselves without delay. We put up at a small inn not far from the
railway-station, and for the next few days we did immense walking
tours, following up the troops and watching them at their work over a
very extended area of country.
At last one day we sighted a balloon hanging in the sky, and we made
a bee line for it until we arrived at its station. When it was hauled
down and anchored to the ground the men went off to the camp to get
their dinners, and the balloon was left without a soul to guard it.
It was not long before we were both inside the car, taking note of
everything in the shape of the instruments and their makers' names,
and so had all the information it was possible to get before the men
came back.