more urgently than anything else was money. When I
was picked up the only cash I had on me was two francs, and this I
exchanged for a mark and sixty pfennigs, which, with five marks I was
able to borrow, kept me going for a while. But it was soon gone, and I
found myself without a sou, and no pay due for six weeks.

About ten days after I arrived at Hanover I was able to sit out in the
garden, and from then on I began to mend.

Saniez used to dress me, and his watchful eye was upon me wherever I
went.

Sometimes of an afternoon I used to sit by the fire. I used to like
sitting by the fire, because its warmth misled me into thinking I
could distinguish the light. If I happened to be rather quiet Saniez
would come to my side, and I would feel that he was watching me. Then
he would speak, and each would find some word to make the other
understand:

"Cigarette, Capitaine?"

"Oui, Saniez."

He would take one of his own cigarettes, put it in my mouth and light
it.

I could neither taste nor smell it; but it pleased Saniez, so I took
it.

"Tres bien, Capitaine, puff, puff!"

"Oui, Saniez, tres bien."

"Tres bien, good. Monsieur Parker says, 'Trays beens.' Joke, ah, good
joke!"

He would go away, but still watching me from a distance, would
presently come back again, and placing his large hand on my shoulder,
would say:

"Couche, Capitaine?" and leading me to my bed would lay me on it, and
carefully tuck me in for the night.

There was a German non-commissioned officer employed in the hospital
who was really a good sort. He could speak good English, having worked
in English hotels before the war.

He would sometimes sit by my bed for a chat:

"Where were you wounded, Captain?" he asked one day.

"Leuze Wood on the Somme," I replied.

"Somme dreadful place, dreadful war, Captain."

"Very!"

"It is not fighting now; it is murder, both sides murder--yah."

"Have you been to the front yet?"

"No; don't want to, either; don't like soldiering. German people sick
of war; but got to do what we are told. Captain, you and I could
settle it in five minutes."

"I'm not so sure; it's nearly settled me."

As the weeks passed by I began anxiously and earnestly to wait for
news of my exchange; but three weeks went, and the fourth and fifth
week passed, and still no news. About the seventh week Saniez burst
into the ward one morning and rushed up to my bed.

"Bon jour, Capitaine. Good, good! Office, quick," a