noon
A lucky escape , I thought , when once again I was out on the broad high road to Magdeburg , my head-lamps showing a stream of white light far along the dusty way . Instead of getting into Magdeburg , as I believed , I found myself , an hour later , in a dark , ill-lit town upon a broad river , and discovered that I was in Schönebeck , on the main road to Hanover . The distance to the latter city was one hundred miles , and , as I could get away from there by half a dozen lines of railway , I decided to push forward , even though for the past eighteen hours I had only had a piece of bread and a mug of beer at Dessau . About eleven o'clock on the following morning , after two tyre troubles , I was passing out of the quaint mediæval town of Hildesheim , intending to reach Hanover before noon . I had come around the Haupt Bahnhof and on to the highway beyond the railroad , when my heart gave a leap as a policeman dashed out into the road in front of me and held up his hand . `` Your name ? '' he demanded gruffly .