The guard supervising us in this work was a despicable young cub.  He was short and stubby.  By the way I must relate that this individual illustrated one of the weird turns of the Wheel of Fortune as revealed by the war.  I have already referred to F——­ K——­, who had accompanied me from Wesel prison to Sennelager.  What was F——­ K——­’s amazement to discover, upon entering the camp, that this man, who formed one of the guards, had been one of his own van-men before the war.  It was a remarkable instance of the reversal of positions.  The erstwhile van-man was now the top-dog and he did not hesitate to extract endless amusement and delight from ordering the prisoners, among whom was his former employer, to despicable duties and harassing them right and left.

I had one bout with this impertinent little bounder which I do not think he will ever forget.  It was the result of exasperation and was precipitated upon the spur of the moment with subsequent disastrous results.

I was carrying a bucket of water back to the pump to throw away and to secure a fresh supply.  As I approached the pump, which was near an adjoining field, and over the fence of which some young girls were leaning talking to the sentry, I saw that they were having some fun at my expense.  I resented this laughter and merriment, more particularly as I was feeling very seedy.

The guard, to parade his assumed authority before the girls, drew himself to the full height of his fifty-four inches or thereabouts, threw out his chest, and as I was about to empty the bucket, roared in stentorian tones: 

“Take that back again!”

“But I am going to fill the bucket with clean water!” I protested.

“Did you hear what I said?  I told you to take it back again!” to which he added an afterthought which I did not understand, but which induced the girls to burst out laughing afresh with mad glee.

I ignored his instructions and was about to turn out the dirty contents.  My temper somewhat ruffled by illness and now very hasty was rising rapidly.  He moved forward and thundered:—­

“Cannot you obey orders?  Take it back again, I tell you!”

I picked up the bucket as if to comply and stepped back a pace or two.  Then lifting it up I shouted back,

“I’ll see you damned first!”

With these words I hurled the contents over him.  The water was filthy.  It caught him full in the face and smothered him from head to foot.

He was so surprised at this unexpected sequel to his arrogant order that he merely stood still, spluttering and cursing.  Then he grabbed his rifle.  At the same moment I threw the bucket itself at him, catching him a nasty blow on the shoulder.  The girls who had been laughing at me now chaffed the discomfited sentry unmercifully.  Foaming with rage and swearing terribly he lowered his rifle to run me through with the bayonet.