1. _A wood. Good cover for guns. In the middle is a spring where a
gamekeeper's wife gets water. It might easily be poisoned._
2. _A large number of fields. Some have potatoes in them and some have
turnips._
3. _A village with fifty or sixty houses and about two hundred and
thirty-five inhabitants, mostly women and children. Presents no
difficulties._
4. _A church with a tower. A very good place for wireless or light
gun. The pews inside would be good for wounded. Cover for infantry in
the churchyard._
5. _A stream with one bridge, which might easily be blown up; but it
would not be necessary, as the stream is only six feet across, and you
could easily walk over it. Too small for pontoons. Small fish in it._
6. _A large field which was planted with corn, but is now empty. A
good place for aeroplanes to land. Can't find out where corn is gone._
7. _A railroad with one line that goes up to main line. Could easily
be destroyed, but might have strategic value._
8. _A hill where guns could be placed that would cover advance of
troops on Merivale._
9. _The school. This stands on rising ground a mile from the hill, No.
8, and could easily be destroyed by field-guns. Or it could easily be
used as a hospital. It contains a hundred beds, and the chapel could
easily hold a hundred more. There is a garden and a fountain of good
water. Also a well in the house. The playing-field is a quarter of a
mile off. Tents could easily be put up there for troops._
10. _A village schoolroom three hundred yards from the church. It has
been turned into a hospital for casualties. There are thirteen or
fourteen nurses of the Red Cross waiting for wounded soldiers to arrive.
They are amateurs, but have passed some sort of examination. The
wounded are said to be coming. This place could easily be shelled from
the hill marked No. 8._
11. _A forest full of game, and in the middle of it a park and the
Manor House, belonging to a man called Sir Neville Carew. He has great
wealth, and the mansion could easily be looted, and then either used for
officers or burned down._
12. _A farm rich in sheep and cattle and chickens, also turkeys. It
would present no difficulties._
13. _The sea. This is distant ten miles from here, and there is an
unfortified bay, which looks deep. We went there for a holiday last
summer, and some of us went out in a boat. I pretended to fish and
tried to take soundings, but regret to report that I failed. However,
the water was quite deep enough for small battle-craft. The cliffs are
red and made of hard rock. There are about twenty fishing-boats, and a
coastguard station on top; but I saw no wireless. There is a
semaphore._
14. _A medical doctor's house with a garage. Would present no
difficulties. I saw petrol tins in the yard._
That was all, and Travers at once decided to hand the map and the pistol
and cartridges to Doctor Dunston.
"I'm very unwilling to do it," he said, "but this is a bit too thick
altogether. It is pure, unadulterated spying of the most blackguard
sort. And if I had anything to do with it, I should fine Wundt every
penny he's got and imprison him for six months and then deport him."
So he took the evidence of guilt to Dunston, and, of course, Dunston had
the day of his life over them. Some of the masters considered it funny,
and I believe Peacock, who translated the map for Dunston, thought it
was rather fine of Wundt; but old Dunston didn't think it was funny, or
fine, either. He had the whole school in chapel, and hung up the map on
a blackboard, and waved the pistol first in one hand and then the other,
and talked as only he can talk when he's fairly roused by a great
occasion.
I believe what hurt him most was Wundt saying it would be so jolly easy
to knock out Merivale; and to hear Wundt explaining how the school could
be shelled fairly made old Dunston get on his hind legs. In his great
moments he always quotes Shakespeare, and he did now. He said he wasn't
going to have a serpent sting him twice, anyway. He also said it was
enough to make Kant and Goethe turn in their graves; and, that for all
he could see, they had expended their genius in vain, so far as their
native land was concerned. And then he went on.
"Needless to say, Jacob Wundt, you are technically expelled. I say
'technically,' because, until I have communicated with your unfortunate
father, it is impossible literally to expel you. To be expelled, a boy
must be expelled from somewhere to somewhere, and for the moment there
is nowhere that I know of to where you can be expelled. But rest
assured that a way shall be found at the earliest opportunity. Indeed,
it may be my duty to hand you over to the military authorities, and,
should that be the case, I shall not hesitate. For the present you are
interned."
Wundt merely said "_Ach!_" but he said it in such a fearfully
contemptuous tone of voice that the Doctor flogged him then and there;
and Travers major thought Wundt ought not to have been flogged by
rights, but treated as a prisoner of war, or else shot--he didn't seem
to be sure which.
And as for Wundt, he evidently thought the Belgian atrocities were a
fool to his being flogged; and he got so properly wicked that the Doctor
had him locked up all night, with nothing but bread and water to eat,
and the gardener to guard him.
Then a good many chaps began to be sorry for Wundt; but their sorrow was
wasted, for the very next day Dunston heard from his father that Wundt
could go home through Holland, with two other German boys who were being
looked after by the American Ambassador, or some such pot in London. So
he went, and after he had gone, Fortescue asked the Doctor if he might
have Wundt's map, as a psychological curiosity, or some such thing, and
Dunston said he had burned the map to cinders, and seemed a good deal
pained with Fortescue for wanting to treasure such an outrage.
Wundt promised to write to me when he left; but he never did, and,
perhaps, if it's true that German boys of sixteen go to the Front, he
may be there now. And if he is, and if his side wins, and if Wundt is
with the Germans when they come to Merivale, I know the first thing
he'll do will be to slay old Dunston, and the second thing he'll do will
be to slay Saunders.
But in the meantime, of course, there is a pretty rosy chance he may get
slain himself. Not that he'd mind, if he knew his side was on top and
going to conquer. Only, perish the thought, as they say.