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328 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
any notice. This was a daily occurrence. However it so
happened that he drove his beasts right up to a German
battery which had been so well masked that the French had
been unable to detect it. There he left the cattle grazing and
vanished completely. Presently a murderous fire descended
upon the battery, which had to be moved in the night to another
position. The peasant was in the employ of his countrymen,
and his movements had been noted by an aviator, who had
signalled to the French artillery positions.
The German regulations governing the liberties of the civil
population have naturally to be made much more stringent
on account of such incidents, and that is why even officers are
sometimes stopped at night when travelling within the fighting
zone. But even the most vigilant are sometimes outwitted
by the French spies. Complete telephone systems have in
several instances been discovered below ground, clearly laid
down in anticipation of the French retreat. The main cables
no doubt existed already in peace time, but on the outbreak
of war an additional system of temporary lines had been added,
and during the retreat telephone stations were rigged up in
all sorts of unsuspected places. It was often palpable that the
French fire had been directed with the aid of telephone com-
munication. But where is the underground cable and where
is the operator ? Usually it is chance that leads to the latter’s
discovery. It had been noticed several times that within a
certain area the French fire had searched and struck the most
susceptible points on the German side with such rapidity and
accuracy that the direction of the fire could only be explained
by the existence of equally rapid and accurate information.
It had also been noticed that no airmen had haunted this par-
ticular point and the conclusion was not far to seek that
telephone communication alone could lie at the root of the
skilful operations of the enemy artillery. All houses and
cellars in the neighbourhood had been searched with the
utmost thoroughness, perhaps with useful results, perhaps
not. There might be subterranean vaults anywhere under
meadows, gardens or fields ; or strange as it may sound there
may be telephone stations above ground, which are very
difficult to detect.
Anyone travelling through north-west France in the autumn
cannot but be struck by the enormous straw stacks dotted
here and there about the fields, often reaching a height of six
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