and all that night we
lay planning and dreaming of what we would do when we got out.

Next morning I was too excited to sleep, so very early I got up and
took a walk around the fence. When I reached the place I thought our
tunnel should be I took a look in that direction, and to my horror, I
discovered a big hole between the two fences. I knew in an instant
what had happened: when the Germans were changing guards, their weight
had broken through the tunnel--I smile now as I think of the surprise
it must have given them, but at the time it was a bitter
disappointment. I hustled back to tell the boys, and Snipe moved into
another bunk so that they couldn't fasten the blame on him. Of course
we knew that the tunnel would be traced to our hut, and sure enough in
about half an hour a bunch of guards came in, lined us up, and tried to
make us tell what ones had attempted to escape. We all denied it, so
after making a thorough search of the hut for maps and compasses they
let us go. Thus ended my first attempt at escape.

Shortly after this the guard came in one morning, lined up about fifty
of us, and said they were taking us away to work on farms. We were
taken to the railway station, loaded on trains, and taken farther into
Germany. When the train stopped and we got out, we found that we were
in the centre of a coal mine district. With their usual regard for the
truth they had taken us to work in the coal mines instead of on farms,
and this mine where we were was well known among the prisoners of war
as the "Black Hole of Germany" and it has maintained its evil
reputation up to the present time.

The other camp we were in was a paradise in comparison with this.
Owing to the fact that the train came up to the mines, there were no
wire fences except just in the centre where the prisoners' huts were
located. But there seemed to be guards everywhere. The first thing
that struck us was the dirt of everything, the smoke of the coke ovens
covered the whole place with a layer of soot.

It was five o'clock in the evening when we arrived, and we were this
time turned loose with the other prisoners; there must have been five
hundred at this camp--Russian, French, and English. We were the first
Canadians to go there.

We found the barracks and every other place in a filthy condition, the
beds were dirty and crawling with the largest fleas I have ever seen;
these fleas are as large as ordinary mosquitos, they breed in t