took no chances. Ginger and I went to look for a way through past one end of the bridge. The other two took the opposite side. Again we would rendezvous at the next platelayers' hut, or the one after that if the first happened to be too close.
We had an additional problem. We weren't sure how far along the railway we had come. One bridge looked like any other in the dark and, with all the delays, we had no idea of what average speed we had been doing. We weren't sure how soon we would have to leave the railway and make our way cross-country towards our safe house. In fact, we were miles short of that point but didn't know it at the time. The night was now darker and the ability to pick out worthwhile landmarks to check against our map was diminished to the point of virtual impossibility. Wherever we were we still had to get past the bridge ahead.
There was nothing for it but seriously to trespass through someone's back garden, work out our next move, then sneak past the house and hide before regaining the road. We picked a house without any side gate or obstacle to getting to its front garden. Ginger climbed the fence and landed quietly. I climbed over and as I landed, crashed through the glass of a cold frame on the other side. I was lucky not to cut myself, but I'd made a lot of noise, so both of us froze where we were. No dogs barked. No windows opened, so we ran, avoiding a gravel path, into a shrubbery at the front. A car came in the drive - someone was arriving home from a late night party - but no-one saw us. Slowly, I raised my head over the front garden wall and saw guards on the bridge. Our caution was justified. Another car approached towards the guards from our direction. As soon as it had passed us we dashed across while its headlights were too bright for the guards to see us. The extensive garden we had now entered was that of a very large house. On going to the back we saw a light on upstairs. Quietly, very quietly, and slowly, we crept towards the back fence and climbed over into a field. We heard a noise behind us and looked back to see someone open the back door and let a dog out. Nothing else happened. Silently we walked towards a hedge and followed it back to the railway but couldn't get through because of barbed wire. Someone coughed behind us; thankfully it was only a curious cow.
We saw a platelayers' hut while we were still in fields searching for a way back to the railway, but were too far away to risk a whistle signal. Eventually we came to a stile where a footpath crossed the line and used that to get over the fence. The next platelayers' hut was a considerable distance ahead, and there were signs of dawn in the sky. On nearing it we saw wisps of smoke from its chimney. A whistle revealed that our friends had got there first and had lit a fire in the grate. There was coal available, so the four of us decided to stay and dry our clothes.
We all went to sleep. When we woke it was broad daylight. A recce was made outside. It was immediately obvious that our location was very exposed and that to move away in broad daylight would invite observation from anyone within a mile who had a pair of binoculars. We had to stay where we were until it grew dark again, or until it rained heavily enough for any guards to lose interest and take cover. It didn't rain. The sun came out so, after at last finding our position on the map, we went back to sleep to ready ourselves for the next part of our journey later in the day - and that was going to be further than we had anticipated.
It was fortunate that no gangers were working that part of the line that Saturday for we were undisturbed the whole time we were there. Towards evening, we heard lorries on a lane some distance away and, on cautiously investigating saw that they were hostile Army lorries heading in the general direction we would be taking. It seemed to us that they may have discovered, maybe from captured evaders or from observing their (hopefully not our) movements, where many of us were making for. We hadn't been seen so, for the time being, but having taken our 245