and at last came to a ponderous iron gate. Here we were halted, and the
military guard handed us over to the gaolers. We passed through the
gates, which closed with a soul-smashing, reverberating bang.

Over the top of this gate I had noticed one of those mottoes to which
the German is so partial. I do not recall the actual words, but I was
told that it was something to do with crime and punishment. It would
have been far more appropriate had it been inscribed "Main entrance to
Hell. No pass-out checks!" According to many accounts which reached my
ears during the succeeding few days, many entered those gates, but few
passed out alive. I can substantiate this from my own observations,
which are duly narrated, while my experience was sufficient to vouch for
its similarity to Hades.

This gate gave approach to a long corridor, flanked on either side by
cells. This corridor is facetiously nick-named by the prisoners as
"Avenue of the Damned," because it is in these cells that the tenants
await their doom. I was separated from my two companions, who were
already being treated more leniently than myself, the case against them
being obviously very thin, and was brought to a stop before cell "No.
11."

The massive door swung open, and accompanied by four soldiers I entered.
The door closed, there was a grating in the lock, and we were alone.
Even now I could not keep back a smile. Although I had been thrust into
the cell, together with four armed soldiers, and the door had been
bolted and barred, I turned at the sound of a slight click. The head
gaoler, who had ushered us in and had locked the door upon us, according
to the regulations of the prison, had opened the peep-hole to satisfy
himself that I was safely inside!

CHAPTER III

HOW GERMANY DRIVES HER PRISONERS MAD

The soldiers had accompanied me into the cell to complete the
preliminaries which comprised the final search. This involved my
transition to a state of nature. My frock coat was removed and all
pockets further examined. The seams and lining were closely investigated
while even the buttons were probed to make certain they concealed
nothing of a dangerous nature. In a few minutes they discovered my
silent companion, the tiny camera, which I had deftly removed from its
secret hiding-place to a tail pocket in my coat, as I did not wish to
have it found in its hiding-place, which would have been far more
incriminating. I had done this while coming dow