re given quick treatment at a dressing station and escorted with
other prisoners back to Menin by Uhlans. The wounded were made to get
along as best they could. We passed through several small towns where
the Belgian people tried to give us food. The Uhlans rode along and
thrust them back with their lances in the most cold-blooded way. We
reached Menin about 10 o'clock that night and were given black bread and
coffee--or something that passed by that name. The night was spent in a
horse stable with guards all around us with fixed bayonets. The next day
we were lined up before a group of German officers, who asked us
questions about the numbers and disposition of the British forces, and
we lied extravagantly. They knew we were lying, and finally gave it up.

[Sidenote: In cattle trucks to Duelmen camp.]

During the next day and a half, traveling in cattle trucks, we had one
meal, a bowl of soup. It was weak and nauseating. We took it gratefully,
however, for we were nearly starved.

[Sidenote: Food bad and insufficient.]

Finally we arrived at Duelmen camp, where I was kept two months. The food
was bad, and very, very scanty. For breakfast we had black bread and
coffee; for dinner, soup (I still shudder at the thought of turnip
soup), and sometimes a bit of dog meat for supper, a gritty, tasteless
porridge, which we called "sand storm." We used to sit around with our
bowls of this concoction and extract a grim comfort from the hope that
some day Kaiser Bill would be in captivity and we might be allowed to
feed him on "sand storm."

[Sidenote: The American Ambassador's visit.]

While I was at Duelmen we had quite a number of visitors. One day Mr.
Gerard, the American Ambassador, appeared. He looked us over with great
concern and asked us a number of questions. "Is there anything I can do
for you?" he asked as he was leaving.

"See if you can get them to give us more food," one of us begged.

"I shall speak to the camp commander about it," promised Mr. Gerard.

I do not doubt that he did so--but there was no change in the menu and
no increase in the quantities served.

[Sidenote: Arrival at the coal mine.]

After two months at Duelmen prison camp we got word that we were to be
sent to work on a farm. We conjured up visions of open fields and fresh
air and clean straw to sleep in and perhaps even real food to eat. They
loaded fifty of us into one car and sent us off, and when we reached our
farm we found it was