. He was too thick-brained to think for a
moment that I should ever trouble to prepare two diaries, one for myself
and one for capture if detected, so I still held the treasured original,
which I instantly hid away safely.

As luck would have it not a word was included in the captured notes to
offer written evidence of my private and candid opinion of my captors,
their methods and our life. The fact that I had written nothing
detrimental to the authorities apparently appeased the Commandant,
notwithstanding the enormity of my delinquency. At all events I received
nothing worse than a stern admonition and threats of severe punishment
if I were caught infringing the regulations again, to all of which I
listened humbly, but with my tongue in my cheek.

My diary was posted up fully in due course, and what is more to the
point I got the voluminous and incriminating evidence away from
Sennelager. At a later date I became somewhat apprehensive as to its
safety, and was anxious to get it to England. For some time I was
baffled in my efforts, but at last a friendly neutral offered to take it
and to see that it was delivered to my friend who has chronicled this
story, to whom I had addressed it. This diary wandered about Germany
considerably, the person in question preferring to make haste slowly to
disarm all suspicion. At last the neutral, after having been searched
several times without yielding anything incriminating, got as far as the
frontier. About to pass into the adjacent friendly country the carrier
was detained, and by some mischance the diary happened to be unearthed.

The neutral was arrested upon some trumped-up charge to afford the
authorities time to peruse the incriminating document. Cross-examined
the go-between protested ignorance of the contents: the parcel was found
just as it had been received from the consignor, the seals were all
intact, and it was under delivery to the person whose address was
written upon the outside. There was nothing attached to associate myself
with the document, although my friend at home would have known instantly
whence it had come. The upshot was that the diary was confiscated. I was
bitterly mortified to learn its fate when within a stone's throw of
safety, because it contained incidents of all descriptions set out in
regular sequence, and in a plain unvarnished manner. Its perusal must
have stung the Germans pretty severely since it was decidedly
unpalatable to Teuton pride. I