ling the prisoners outright was
the fact that all the German prison camps were visited every few weeks
by American Ambassador Gerard or some of his staff. He passed around
among the boys, asked questions, and received complaints, and it is
undoubtedly true that Ambassador Gerard saved hundreds of lives in the
prison camps.

I had been working on the ovens for something like a month when a fresh
bunch of prisoners were brought up from the mine. They had followed
our example and were caught taking a rest. With this group was a young
Canadian called Toby, and he was certainly "some boy." He was only
eighteen at the time, really just a kid, but he had spirit enough for
two ordinary men. They put him shovelling coke, and he got along all
right till he finished the dump he was working on. Then, after the
large chunks were gone, the dust and cleanings should have been put
into wheelbarrows and taken over to a crusher. Toby had not been told
this, and naturally he loaded it all into the cars. The boss caught
him at it, and he stormed and shook his ugly fist in Toby's face. But
Toby had learned to take a good deal, so he paid no attention. But the
German manager had seen him too, so he came up when the boss had
finished, and of course he could afford to be more insulting than his
inferior. So after ranting for several minutes and wiggling his finger
under Toby's nose he finished up by giving the lad a couple of brutal
kicks with his iron-shod boots. This was more than Toby's spirit could
stand, and Toby wheeled around and landed him a blow on the jaw; the
man staggered back, and before he could recover Toby gave him another
that sent him sprawling. The platform boss saw it all, and drawing his
revolver he threatened to shoot, but Toby defied him and dared him to
go ahead. The bully was afraid to do it, and he contented himself with
reporting the case to the guard. Of course the guard came up, and with
a great show of force dragged the youngster to the coke ovens and made
him stand "at attention." But he hadn't been there long when lunch
time came, and as they dared not leave him alone Toby was marched off
to the platform with the other prisoners. During lunch he told me
about the scrap he had gotten into, and I warned him to be on his
guard--I knew the kind of brutes he was up against and I felt sure that
they would try to get even if they could get him at a disadvantage. We
were drinking pop at the time, and I