from it.

"When the usual batch of sarcastic young German students came next morning
and started in jeering at me, I smiled. One of them instantly leaped
forward and gave me a stinging blow on the face with his open palm. I
managed to contain myself--but how I did it, I don't know.

"That same evening, the commandant came in raging. He nearly ate me up,
while in the act of producing the letter I had written the previous night.
I longed so for the ground to open and swallow me up. He said the penalty
for the offence was death. At first I denied that I knew anything about
the letter, but he shouted: 'Do you not remember giving the same address
upon coming here?'

"I did, only too well.

"After blazing out on me, he left, cursing in German. I made up my mind
that I was doomed, but decided to lie as long as I could on my cot, as I
felt that I would no doubt be shot as soon as I was able to get out of
bed. That night a big masculine-looking nurse came on duty, and she was a
perfect virago.

"I learned with deep regret that the kind nurse was moved--perhaps shot. I
watched my chance, and at night, when no one had eyes on me, I twisted in
such a fashion that my thigh bones could not possibly get a chance to knit
together. The agony I suffered was fearful, but I did not care. In the
morning my temperature would go up and further operations would follow. I
continued doing this for a week or so but at last I could not stand it. I
just had to lie still.

"In December I began to get up for a few hours daily. It was torture to me
when I tried to move around. I was so very weak and all the-muscle and
flesh had left my body. I was reduced to almost skin and bone.

"I was not even given a stick to support me. I limped about for a few
weeks, then received my uniform and was moved to the prisoners' enclosure,
where there were one thousand British prisoners. Like myself, none of
these fellows was allowed to write home, and I don't suppose they will
be--until they are set free. We were crowded into tents. The food was
terrible; I have seen pigs get better. But we ate it just the same.

"The next morning after breakfast, we were all marched out to make roads,
chop wood, and do all kinds of convict work. Some of the men had a leg
off, others had an arm off as well as being otherwise crippled; but they
all had to work.

"I wasn't able to keep up with the rest while marching out to the place
where I was to work and one of the German