Part 7 (1/2)

CHAPTER FIVE

Further Adventures of the Sa there was a touch of frost and a nip in the air which stirred otroad I had still to travel I careat form, to find Peter's even teht and disliked the memory; this he -rooot no opportunity for private talk The lieutenant ith us all the tiht ere locked in our rooet out to findin bed

Our guide started on the telephone, and announced that ere to be taken to see a prisoners' cao so 'You will see,' he told us, 'how reat people You will also see soht you They are the forerunners of all their nation'

We drove in a taxi through the suburbs and then over a stretch of flat arden-like country to a low rise of wooded hills After an hour's ride we entered the gate of what looked like a big reformatory or hospital I believe it had been a hoate and h which we passed under an arch that was let down like a portcullis at nightfall The lieutenant showed his permit, and we ran the car into a brick-paved yard and h a lot more sentries to the office of the commandant

He ay fro man with a head nearly bald There were introductions in Gerant speeches about how Germany was foremost in humanity as well as martial valour Then they stood us sandwiches and beer, and we formed a procession for a tour of inspection There were two doctors, bothmen in spectacles, and a couple of warders-under-officers of the good old burly, bullying sort I kneell That was the ce to boast of on the average; no more were the officers, even in crack corps like the Guards and the Brandenburgers; but they seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of hard, competent NCOs

We round, the kitchens, the hospital-with nobody in it save one chap with the 'flu' It didn't seem to be badly done This place was entirely for officers, and I expect it was a show place where American visitors were taken If half the stories one heard were true there were sohastly prisons away in South and East Germany

I didn't half like the business To be a prisoner has always see that could happen to a iveinside, whereas I looked at dead Boches with nothing but satisfaction Besides, there was the off-chance that I nized So I kept very much in the shadohenever we passed anybody in the corridors The fee met passed us incuriously They saluted the deputy-colance on us No doubt they thought ere inquisitive Gerloat over them They looked fairly fit, but a little puffy about the eyes, like et too little exercise They seemed thin, too I expect the food, for all the co to boast of In one roo place with only a tiny stove to warm it, and the ere shut so that the atmosphere was a cold frowst In another roo to a dozen hearers and drawing figures on a blackboard So they could pick up, and ets thin when you have nothing to do but hope against hope and think of your pals and the old days

I waswith half an ear to the lieutenant's prattle and the loud explanations of the deputy-coht have been the end of h a sort of convalescent roo who had been in hospital It was a big place, a little wary There were about half a dozen ames They looked at us with lack-lustre eyes for aconvalescents I suppose they were not expected to get up and salute

All but one, as playing Patience at a little table by which we passed I was feeling very bad about the thing, for I hated to see these good fellows locked away in this infernal Ger the Boche his deserts at the front The coreat interest in prisons Then came our lieutenant with one of the doctors; then a couple of warders; and then the second doctor and myself I was absent-minded at the moment and was last in the queue

The Patience-player suddenly looked up and I saw his face I'ade un officer at Loos I had heard that the Gerot him when they blew up a mine at the Quarries

I had to act pretty quick, for histo speak The doctor was a yard ahead of me

I stumbled and spilt his cards on the floor Then I kneeled to pick theripped his knee His head bent to help ht For God's sake don't wink an eye I'm here on a secret job'

The doctor had turned to see as the ot a fewhands down'

Then I began to talk excited Dutch and finished the collection of the cards Dolly was playing his part well, s as if he was a back, the deputy-co to the prisoners is forbidden,' he shouted

I looked blankly at him till the lieutenant translated

'What kind of fellow is he?' said Dolly in English to the doctor 'He spoils h-Dutch at lish, and that speech of Dolly's gave ry with the very dalishman, and went out of the roo like a sick jackal After that I had to act a bit The last place we visited was the close-confinement part where prisoners were kept as a punishh, but I pretended to gloat over the sight, and said so to the lieutenant, who passed it on to the others I have rarely in my life felt such a cad

On the way home the lieutenant discoursed a lot about prisoners and detention-camps, for at one time he had been on duty at Ruhleben Peter, who had been in quod more than once in his life, was deeply interested and kept on questioning hius prisoners a the rest, who acted as spies If any plot to escape was hatched these fellows got into it and encouraged it They never interfered till the attempt was actuallythe Boche liked soa poor devil to 'solitary'

That afternoon Peter and I separated He was left behind with the lieutenant and I was sent off to the station with eant Peter was very cross, and I didn't care for the look of things; but I brightened up when I heard I was going soain heto use a likes a scorpion, but I hankered for his society

At the station platform, where the ornament of the Landsturm saved me all the trouble about tickets, I could not see reat crowd, mostly of soldiers, swayed past es An officer spoke to ruffly and told me to stand aside behind a wooden rail I obeyed, and suddenly found Stu down at me

'You know German?' he asked sharply

'A dozen words,' I said carelessly 'I've been to Windhuk and learned enough to ask for my dinner Peter-et into the carriage Not that one! There, thickhead!'