While I made application to be put in one of these extraordinary cells, merely to experience the novelty, my four comrades expressed their sincere hope that we should meet with superior accommodation.  In this we were not disappointed, if the quarters to which we were taken were capable of being called superior.  We were escorted down flights of steps which appeared to lead to the very bowels of the State hotel.  Finally we were ushered into a long subterranean apartment, which was really a cellar, and was evidently intended to house five prisoners at one time, seeing that there were this number of beds.  Except for the fact that it was a cellar and very little light penetrated its walls, little fault could be found with it.  Certainly it was scrupulously clean, for which we were devoutly thankful, while on the table an oil-lamp was burning.

Life at Klingelputz would have been tolerable but for one thing—­the prison fare.  At six o’clock we were served with a basin of acorn coffee and a small piece of black bread for breakfast.  At twelve we were treated to a small dole of skilly, the most execrable food I have ever tasted even in a German prison camp.  It was skilly in the fullest sense of the word.  Whatever entered into its composition must have been used most sparingly; its nutritive value was absolutely negligible.  At five in the afternoon we received another basin of the acorn coffee together with a small piece of black bread, and this had to keep us going for the next thirteen hours.

Fortunately the food which we had brought with us served as a valuable supplement to that provided by the State.  It not only kept us alive but enabled us to maintain our condition.  The old fellow who was our gaoler was tractable; indeed he was somewhat apologetic for having to look after such estimable gentlemen, an attitude which was doubtless due to the fact that he knew we should look after him!  We endeavoured to see if he could supply a little more “liberty and fresh air” but the old warder shook his head sorrowfully.

[large gap]

Lights had to be extinguished by nine o’clock, and it was the evening which taxed our endurance.  We had to while away the hours as best we could.  First we improvised an Indian band, using our basins as tom-toms and singing the most weird music.  As a variety we dressed up in our blankets to resemble Red Indians and indulged in blood-curdling war-dances.  Such measures for passing the time may sound extremely childish to readers, but it must be remembered that there was nothing else for us to do unless we were content to sit down with our chins in our hands, with the corners of our mouths drooping, and our faces wearing the expression of undertakers’ mutes.  Had we not participated in the admittedly infantile amusements we should have gone mad.

When we had demolished our food reserves and were utterly dependent upon the prison diet, we speedily began to betray signs of our captivity and deprivations.  We petitioned for permission to purchase food from outside but this met with a curt refusal.  Eventually the prison authorities relented and we were permitted to purchase our mid-day meal from a restaurant, for which privilege by the way we were mulcted very heavily.