Page:War's dark frame (IA warsdarkframe00camp).pdf/33

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THE STRANGE ENGLAND
15


it. For a German spy to slip from New York through such a net would approach the miraculous. Men and women, released after particularly extended examinations, felt themselves aggrieved.

"Do I look like a spy?" one woman demanded hysterically, as she gathered her luggage. "What do those people think nerves are? If I had been a spy I'd have screamed. I'd have asked them to arrest and shoot me, just to get it over with."

The search of baggage was scarcely less minute. You were made to feel again the possibility of bombs, or deadly weapons, or secret documents.

It was, therefore, although we had docked at noon, very nearly dark before we were collected on the special train. And in the carriages, with the suspense of the trip through the submarine zone, with the irritation of the examinations done with, we lay back, anticipating a momentary peace. Instead reminders of war crowded more thickly upon us. The guards were either very young or very old. Prominently exposed in each compartment was a sign commanding us to draw the blinds on request as a measure of safety. While we were in the dining-car a guard came through and gave that order. The midland countryside, flat and placid in the fading light, was shut out. We turned to our meal with a realisation of how