gs wound round his arm, reported for
attention. They unwound the rag and his arm dropped off. He died, with
five others, that afternoon, and God only knows how many more on the
trip they had just finished.

They were buried in a piano case, together. Usually they were placed
in packing cases. We asked for a flag with which to cover them as
soldiers should be. They asked what that was for and there it ended.

Another Russian had a foul arm which leaked badly so that it was not
only painful to him but offensive to the rest of us. Nothing was done
for him.

They were all thoroughly cowed, as are dogs that have been illtreated.
And they jumped to it when a German spoke--excepting two of their
officers, who refused to take down their epaulets when ordered to do
so. We did not learn how they fared. These were the only captive
officers of any nationality whom we saw.

We became sick of the sight of one another as even the best of friends
do under such abnormal conditions. For variety I often walked around
the enclosure with a Russian. Neither of us had the faintest idea what
the other said, but it was a change!

The monotony of the wire was terrible--and just outside it in the lane
formed by the encircling set of wire, the dogs, with their tongues
out, walked back and forth, eyeing us.

There was so little to talk about. We knew nothing and could only
speculate on the outcome of the commonest events which came to us on
the tongue of rumour or arose out of our own sad thoughts.

The authorities were not satisfied with our recognition--or lack of
it--of their officers and took us out to practice saluting drill--a
thing always detested by soldiers, especially veterans. The idea was
to make us salute visiting German officers properly, in the German
fashion and not in our own. Theirs consisted of saluting with the
right hand only, with the left held stiffly straight at the side,
while our way was to salute with the hand farthest from the officer,
giving "Eyes left" or "Eyes right" as the case might be, and with the
free hand swinging loosely with the stride.

So a school of us were led out to this. The very atmosphere was tense
with sullen rebellion. The guards eyed us askance. The officer stood
at the left awaiting us; beyond him and on the other side of the road,
a post.

An _unteroffizier_ ordered us to march by, one by one, to give the
_Herr Offizier_ "Augen Links" in the German fashion, and to the post,
which repre