The excitement was intense and the chant “Bring him out!  Give him to us!  Let us lynch him!  Down with the English spy!” even began to grate upon me.  At the time it appeared to me to be somewhat extraordinary, seeing that we were not at war with Germany, but it conveyed a graphic illustration of the anti-British sentiment prevailing in the military centre.  Indeed, the crowd became so menacing that my guard became apprehensive of my safety, and I was hurriedly thrust into an inner room.  My removal there was more abrupt than dignified.  I was hustled to the door.  Then a German soldier, by an adroit movement of his rifle which he held reversed, pricked my leg with the bayonet and at the same time brought the butt against my head with a resounding thwack!  Simultaneously he let drive with his heavily-booted foot in the small of my back.  I discovered afterwards, from actual experience, that this is a very favourite movement of the rifle by the Germans, and is used on every possible occasion.

The outcome of this action was to send me sprawling headlong into the room to pull up with a crash against the floor.  The entrance was rendered additionally dangerous to myself because I stumbled over the legs of several sleeping soldiers.  I felt inclined to remonstrate with the officer-in-charge of the escort at the treatment I was receiving, but the uninviting armed sentry at the door frustrated my efforts very effectively.

It was an improvised guard-room.  The soldiers sprawled upon the straw littering the floor, striving to snatch a brief rest before going on duty, sleepily raised themselves to ascertain the cause of the disturbance.  The sentry told them excitedly the charge upon which I had been arrested, at which the men turned to blink wonderingly upon the “Englandische Spion!” I was not sorry when they at last wearied of gazing upon me as if I were a freak side-show, and sank down to finish their two hours’ rest before going on guard once more.

I had barely recovered my senses when the door again flew open and two further prisoners were injected into the room in a manner comparable with my own entrance.  They were Hindoo students—­young fellows returning to England after a continental holiday, who had been detained.  Both were somewhat alarmed, but I speedily composed them.  Later there was a repetition of the performance to admit three more Indian students.  We all agreed that the German methods of introduction were decidedly novel and forceful if informal and unpleasant.  The latest arrivals, however, were detained for only a short while.  They were rich in funds and were equally astute in their distribution of largesse to advantage.  Money talked in their instance to distinct effect.  The three of us who were left maintained a conversation in whispers and finally came to the conclusion that the best thing we could do was to seek sleep so as to be fit for the enquiry which was certain to take place.