At 8 am, the next morning (Wednesday) we were no further on than we had been the day before when we were but 50 miles from Hankow. The old weary business began again. An air raid alarm went and as I hurriedly scrambled down the steep bank again—they always seemed to be steep—I thought what an idiot I was to come when I might have been on the comfortable Kutwo peacefully going up-river to Changsha.
We hurriedly made for a hill about 800 yards away and sat among the trees near a farmhouse full of soldiers, Some unfortunate place was being bombed in the far distance towards the west. Two solitary planes went by but they kept wel away. We could distinctly hear the guns from the front, a faraway "mutter mutter" repeated every few minutes throughout the long morning.
I had spied an attractive group of big rice-hay ricks and a straw hut or two attached, so we went tower them about at 11 am, and found them still more attractive at close quarters. We lay around in the shade, on a lovely morning with a delightful breeze. The huts were occupied by some soldiers who kindly brought us muddy tea which we drank out of very dirty cups. About 1 pin. we began to get hungry, so Mr. Davies went back to the train to see if he could get any news. As he did not return for some time we decided to follow him back to find food.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.