Later in the day an escort arrived, and to my surprise and intense relief the officer informed me that I was not going to be shot.  I took this for an acquittal, but I was speedily disillusioned.  I was taken to the office of the Commandant.

Reaching this official I was surprised to see among a stack of other baggage my own belongings.  The Commandant sharply ordered me to sort my things out, and to run through them to see that everything was intact.  I could have danced for joy.  Like an excited child I fell upon the baggage, disentangled my belongings, and ran through the contents.  Two purses and a camera were missing.  I reported my loss, and there was a terrific hullaballoo.  Who had touched a prisoner’s goods?  The purses were brought in by the gaoler, who declared to me that, finding they contained money, he had put them in his pocket for safety.  I smiled at his ingenuous excuse.  Now I worried about the missing camera, but this defied discovery.  Suddenly I remembered where I had seen it last and kept quiet.

After I had gathered my luggage together I was marched back to my cell.  Again my spirits drooped upon being asked to give my English address.  I saw it all!  In my highly strung condition I took this latest expression of Teuton methods to mean that my goods were to be sent home, but that I would have to suffer some dire penalty.  I nursed this dark imagining because the prison treatment was not relaxed one iota.  I passed a restless half-hour.  I was heavy-eyed from want of sleep, while my face had assumed a sickly, revolting pallor from rapidly collapsing health.

Again I was summoned to the Commandant’s office.  My goods were exactly as I had left them thirty minutes before.

[large gap]

I was busily strapping up my goods when the door opened to admit the Commandant, guard and four other prisoners, whom I had not seen before.  One tall, good-looking, sprucely dressed fellow impressed me.  He looked like a fellow-countryman.  I went up to him.

“Are you English?” I asked.

“Holy smoke!  What a treat to hear an Englishman.  ‘Put it there,’” and he extended his hand.  I proffered mine which he shook as if it were a pump handle.  He with others had been arrested, not as spies, and had been detained in Wesel Arresthaus.  But being wealthy he had experienced an easy time.

“What are they going to do with us?” I enquired.

“Why, haven’t you heard?  They’re going to send us to a hotel and then it won’t be long before we strike good old England once more!”

[large gap]

The party were in high spirits.  But I was not so elated.  I had every occasion to be suspicious of German bluff and inwardly would only believe we were going home when I was safely out of the country.  My fellow-countryman, F——­ K——­, who is a well-known figure in City commercial circles, was wildly excited, and was discussing his future arrangements very keenly.