not
believe you,' I said slowly. 'You play a game with me. I have not
come six thousand miles to be made a fool of.'

'Discipline, by God,' Stumm cried. 'This is none of your ragged
commandos.' In two strides he was above me and had lifted me out of my
seat. His great hands clutched my shoulders, and his thumbs gouged my
armpits. I felt as if I were in the grip of a big ape. Then very
slowly he shook me so that my teeth seemed loosened and my head swam.
He let me go and I dropped limply back in the chair.

'Now, go! _Futsack!_ And remember that I am your master. I, Ulric
von Stumm, who owns you as a Kaffir owns his mongrel. Germany may have
some use for you, my friend, when you fear me as you never feared your
God.'

As I walked dizzily away the big man was smiling in his horrible way,
and that little official was blinking and smiling too. I had struck a
dashed queer country, so queer that I had had no time to remember that
for the first time in my life I had been bullied without hitting back.
When I realized it I nearly choked with anger. But I thanked heaven I
had shown no temper, for I remembered my mission. Luck seemed to have
brought me into useful company.

CHAPTER FIVE

Further Adventures of the Same

Next morning there was a touch of frost and a nip in the air which
stirred my blood and put me in buoyant spirits. I forgot my precarious
position and the long road I had still to travel. I came down to
breakfast in great form, to find Peter's even temper badly ruffled. He
had remembered Stumm in the night and disliked the memory; this he
muttered to me as we rubbed shoulders at the dining-room door. Peter
and I got no opportunity for private talk. The lieutenant was with us
all the time, and at night we were locked in our rooms. Peter
discovered this through trying to get out to find matches, for he had
the bad habit of smoking in bed.

Our guide started on the telephone, and announced that we were to be
taken to see a prisoners' camp. In the afternoon I was to go somewhere
with Stumm, but the morning was for sight-seeing. 'You will see,' he
told us, 'how merciful is a great people. You will also see some of
the hated English in our power. That will delight you. They are the
forerunners of all their nation.'

We drove in a taxi through the suburbs and then over a stretch of flat
market-garden-like country to a low rise of wooded hills. After an
hour's ride we entered the gate of