rously maintained. If you vary
it a fraction a smart rap over the head with the rifle brings you back
again to the correct position. The German warders never attempt to
correct by words. The rifle is a handy weapon and a smart knock
therewith is always forceful. Consequently, if you are dull of
comprehension, your body speedily assumes a zebra appearance with its
patches of black and blue.

We were marched off to a huge yard flanked by a towering wall studded
with hundreds of heavily barred windows--cells. Only those resident in
the "Avenue of the Damned" experience this limited latitude, the
ordinary prisoners being extended the privilege of ordinary exercise.
Not a word must be spoken; to do so is to invite a crash over the head,
insensibility being an effective protection against communication
between prisoners.

Reaching the yard we were lined up, still two paces apart and under the
hawk-eyes of the guard. Then the first man from one end advanced to the
pump, alongside which stood two soldiers with fixed bayonets with which
the man was prodded if he evinced signs of lingering or dwelling unduly
over his work. The duty involved cleaning out the sanitary pan, in which
by the way dependence had to be placed upon the hands alone, no mop or
cloth being allowed. Then the jug had to be refilled from the pump,
which was a crazy old appliance worked by hand. I may say that so far as
we prisoners residing in the ill-famed avenue were concerned we had to
depend upon water entirely for washing purposes--soap was an unheard-of
luxury--while a towel was unknown. Under these circumstances it was
impossible to keep clean. Shaving was another pleasure which we were
denied, and I may say that the prisoners residing in the salubrious
neighbourhood of the condemned cells had the most unkempt and ragged
appearance it is possible to conceive. When the man had finished his
task he marched to the opposite end of the line, his place being
immediately taken by the next man, and so on until the work was
completed, which usually involved about ten minutes.

Although intercourse was rendered impossible by the vigilance and number
of the guards yet I was able to take stock of my neighbours. We were a
small but cosmopolitan family, the French predominating. For some
inscrutable reason the Germans appear to have been unusually successful
in their haul of French spies, although doubtless the great majority
were as innocent of the charge of espio