Tying to the stake was the most complete means
of subjugating and cowing the prisoners.

As might be expected, one and all of us dreaded such a sentence, and we
were exceedingly diligent and painstaking in our efforts to keep in the
good graces of the Commanding Officer. The dread of being sentenced to a
spell at the post, and submission to the untold agony which it
precipitated, broke us in to all intents and purposes to a degree which
must have exceeded even Major Bach's most sanguine expectations. But now
we were faced with another and far more formidable danger. Most of the
guards enjoyed as enthusiastically as their lord and master the agony of
a luckless wretch who was condemned to this punishment. To them it
afforded amusement of the most exhilarating character. But the
prisoners, now thoroughly intimidated, took every precaution to deny the
guards an opportunity for which they were so much on the alert.
Consequently, being deprived of the chance to have any of us strung up
on legitimate grounds, they commenced to harass and exasperate us in the
hope of provoking some action which would bring us before the Commanding
Officer to receive a sentence to the stake. Then, being completely
foiled in this nefarious practice they did not hesitate to have us
arraigned upon the most flimsy charges. As the prisoner was denied all
opportunity to rebut any charge preferred against him, and as his word
was never accepted before the studiously prepared complaint of the
guard, who was always careful to secure corroborative evidence, the
chances of escaping the sentence were extremely slender.

The second victim of this brutal treatment was a Russian Pole, and no
man ever deserved it less. The Pole was entering his barrack and the
Russian orderly who had just washed and cleaned the floor, upbraided his
compatriot for entering the building with muddy boots. There was a
breezy altercation between the two men for a few minutes, but they were
separated on perfectly friendly terms by one of the soldiers. The
incident was closed and dismissed from the thoughts of one and all. At
least so thought all those who had witnessed it.

But one of the soldiers who had been a spectator saw the opportunity for
which he had long been searching. He hurried to the non-commissioned
officer in charge of the guard to report, exaggeratedly, that two
Russian prisoners had been fighting. The non-commissioned officer, one
of the most brutal and despicabl