Advanced Theories 1 1 5 



hours if necessary, so that I may see if the 

 extraordinary capture is repeated. My sitting 

 attitude makes me take up the whole width of 

 the path. Two raw conscripts heave in sight, 

 their hair newly cut, wearing that inimitable 

 automaton look which the first days of barrack- 

 life bestow. They are chatting together, talk- 

 ing no doubt of home and the girl they left 

 behind them ; and each is innocently whittling 

 a willow-switch with his knife. I am seized 

 with a sudden apprehension. Ah, it is no easy 

 matter to experiment on the public road, where, 

 when the long-awaited event occurs at last, the 

 arrival of a wayfarer is likely to disturb or ruin 

 opportunities that may never return ! I rise, 

 anxiously, to make way for the conscripts ; I 

 stand back in the osier-bed and leave the 

 narrow passage free. To do more would have 

 been unwise. To say, ' Don't go this way, my 

 good lads,' would have made bad worse. They 

 would have suspected some trap hidden under 

 the sand, giving rise to questions to which no 

 reply that I could have made would have 

 sounded satisfactory. Besides, my request 

 would have turned those idlers into lookers-on, 

 very embarrassing company in such studies. I 

 therefore got up without speaking and trusted 

 to my lucky star. Alas and alack, my star 

 betrayed me : the heavy regulation boot came 



