upstart down to his proper position by severe reprimand,
and a candid reminder that a guard was merely a guard and as such was
not invested with powers akin to those belonging to the Commandant. The
soldier would fume under the castigation, but it was more than he dared
to incur the doctor's wrath and hostility, inasmuch as the latter would
not have hesitated to make the rebellious soldier's life unbearable. In
this manner he undeniably saved us from considerable brutality, which
some of the soldiers would dearly have loved to have expended upon us.

One day Major Bach announced that the clothes of the prisoners
throughout the camp were to undergo a thorough fumigation. For this
purpose a special mechanical disinfecting apparatus had been sent to the
camp. I may say that the instructions were not issued before they became
downright urgent. Some of the garments--not those worn by the British
prisoners--had become infested with vermin to such a degree as to
constitute a plague and were now absolutely repulsive. Two of the
British prisoners, who happened to be engineers, were selected for this
unpleasant task, and it proved to be of such a trying nature that both
men narrowly escaped suffocation in the process.

But the disinfecting apparatus was delivered in what we always found to
be the typical German manner. The fumigator came to hand but without the
engine to drive it. Two or three days later we were informed that there
was a traction engine at Paderborn which was to be brought into
Sennelager Camp to act as the stationary engine to supply power to the
fumigator. But to our dismay we learned that the traction engine in
question could not be driven to the camp under its own power because
some of the vital parts constituting its internals had broken down, and
repairs would be quite out of the question until it reached the camp.
This we were told would demand the towage of the engine over the last
three miles. We learned, moreover, that as horses were absolutely
unobtainable at any price, the prisoners themselves would have to drag
it in. Forthwith thirty men were selected and, equipped with thick,
heavy ropes, were marched off to Paderborn to salvage the derelict.

Our engineering friends, upon discovering the defective engine, and not
appreciating the prospect of the manual haul, set to work feverishly to
see if they could not contrive to complete sufficient repairs to coax
the engine to run the three miles under her