There is no doubt that we were regarded as little less than desperadoes of the worst type.  Our troops had given the Germans such a severe shaking up as to throw our guards into a state of wild panic.  This was proved only too conclusively by an incident which occurred one night.  After we had retired we were not permitted to put our heads out of the windows.  To do so was to court a bullet, also according to instructions.  On this particular night, after we had turned in, one of the prisoners, unable to sleep owing to mental worry and the heat, strolled to the door to get a breath of fresh air.  As he stepped out into the dusty footway a terrifying fusillade rang out and continued for several minutes.  We all sprang up wondering what was the matter.

The poor fellow had been spotted coming out of the door by the sentry who, too excited to recognise the man, had fired his rifle at the prisoner for all he was worth.  Instantly the guard turned out.  The prisoner brought abruptly to his senses had darted back into the barrack safe and sound but fearfully scared.  Only the wild shooting of the sentry had saved him from being riddled.  The guard itself, upon turning out, evidently thought that a rebellion had broken out or at least that a prisoner had escaped.  Seizing their rifles they blazed away for dear life.  They did not aim at anything in particular but shot haphazardly at the stars, haystacks, and trees in the most frantic manner imaginable and as rapidly as their magazine arms would let them.  Undoubtedly the Germans were half-mad with fear.  It rained bullets around the barracks and every man within crouched down on his bed, away from the windows through which we momentarily expected the bullets to crash.  None of us dared to move for fear that there might be a collision with one or more of the missiles which pattered around us.

The next morning we were paraded hurriedly.  The guard ran about among us, searching every corner of the barracks, as if bereft.  The roll was called with wild excitement.  A prisoner had escaped!  Had he not been seen by every imaginative member of the guard?  But when they discovered that we were all safe and sound, and that we were perfectly composed, they presented a sorry array of stalwart warders.  Their sheepishness provoked us to laughter when we learned the true reason for all the bother.  But it brought home to us the extreme danger of falling foul of such a panicky mob.

The military reservation was fenced off from our quarters by barbed wire.  The rule ran that no prisoner on either side of the barrier was to advance within a metre’s distance—­about one yard—­of the fence.  Guards were on duty to see that this regulation was obeyed.  One day a British Tommy, in a moment of forgetfulness, ventured within the forbidden distance.  With a flash the excited guard standing near by raised his rifle and jabbed fiercely at the soldier.  The bayonet got home in the luckless Tommy’s shoulder and passed clean through from front to back, the ugly point of the bayonet protruding about three inches.