_denouement_ almost unnerved me. I was now more positive than ever
that he had been deputed to spy upon me in prison. I looked at him
askance, but received not the slightest sign of recognition. I had
refused to entrust my cause to counsel and now I was placed in the hands
of an interpreter who, if he so desired, could wreak much more damage by
twisting the translations from English to suit his own ends.

As events proved, however, I could not have been in better hands. He was
highly intelligent, and he interpreted my statements with a fluency and
accuracy which were astonishing. Only now and again did he stumble and
hesitate. This was when he was presented with an unfamiliar expression
or idiomatic sentence.

As the trial proceeded I gained an interesting side-light upon German
methods and the mutual distrust which exists. Ostensibly, and so I was
led to believe, none of the Tribunal spoke English with any fluency, but
when, on one occasion, my interpreter was floored by a particularly
difficult colloquialism which I uttered, the Clerk of the Court came to
his aid, and in a moment turned the sentence properly to convey my
exact meaning. This revelation placed me on my guard more than ever,
because it was brought home to me very convincingly that if my
interpreter tended to lean unduly towards me, he himself would be in
serious jeopardy. Later, during the trial, I discovered that the Clerk
spoke and understood English as well as I did. It was a telling
illustration of the German practice of spying upon one another.

The first part of the trial was taken up with a repetition of the
numerous questions I had already answered times out of number,
accompanied by a more searching cross-examination. As the trial
proceeded I saw that the authorities had collected every vestige of
evidence from every official who had questioned me and with whom I had
held any conversation.

There was one exciting moment. An officer, evidently of high rank,
entered the room. He looked at me in a manner which I resented. With a
sneering grin he enquired,

"Englander? Ha! Ha! Spion? What are you doing here?"

"I have come at the pressing invitation of four gentlemen with four
points!" I suavely replied.

This sly allusion to the four soldiers with their bayonets lashed the
interrupting officer to fury. The whole court indulged in a wild and
loud conversation. The chairman waved his arm wildly. Before I grasped
what had happened the soldier