d to put our heads out of the
windows. To do so was to court a bullet, also according to instructions.
On this particular night, after we had turned in, one of the prisoners,
unable to sleep owing to mental worry and the heat, strolled to the door
to get a breath of fresh air. As he stepped out into the dusty footway a
terrifying fusillade rang out and continued for several minutes. We all
sprang up wondering what was the matter.

The poor fellow had been spotted coming out of the door by the sentry
who, too excited to recognise the man, had fired his rifle at the
prisoner for all he was worth. Instantly the guard turned out. The
prisoner brought abruptly to his senses had darted back into the barrack
safe and sound but fearfully scared. Only the wild shooting of the
sentry had saved him from being riddled. The guard itself, upon turning
out, evidently thought that a rebellion had broken out or at least that
a prisoner had escaped. Seizing their rifles they blazed away for dear
life. They did not aim at anything in particular but shot haphazardly at
the stars, haystacks, and trees in the most frantic manner imaginable
and as rapidly as their magazine arms would let them. Undoubtedly the
Germans were half-mad with fear. It rained bullets around the barracks
and every man within crouched down on his bed, away from the windows
through which we momentarily expected the bullets to crash. None of us
dared to move for fear that there might be a collision with one or more
of the missiles which pattered around us.

The next morning we were paraded hurriedly. The guard ran about among
us, searching every corner of the barracks, as if bereft. The roll was
called with wild excitement. A prisoner had escaped! Had he not been
seen by every imaginative member of the guard? But when they discovered
that we were all safe and sound, and that we were perfectly composed,
they presented a sorry array of stalwart warders. Their sheepishness
provoked us to laughter when we learned the true reason for all the
bother. But it brought home to us the extreme danger of falling foul of
such a panicky mob.

The military reservation was fenced off from our quarters by barbed
wire. The rule ran that no prisoner on either side of the barrier was to
advance within a metre's distance--about one yard--of the fence. Guards
were on duty to see that this regulation was obeyed. One day a British
Tommy, in a moment of forgetfulness, ventured within the forbid