far
from satisfied after swallowing the noisome greasy wash.

In the evening, while working upon our hut to impart the finishing
touches speedily, because rain was falling, I stumbled across three of
the disgraced and disfigured fishermen. They were alone and forlorn.
They had no hut and did not know what would happen if another wet night
swept over them. One happened to be the skipper of one of the trawlers
which had been sunk and he vehemently denied the charge that they had
been guilty of laying or sweeping mines. They were attending to their
trawls when they were surprised and captured.

The skipper was an interesting, typical sea-dog from the waters of the
North Sea, and a thorough God-fearing man. He related a story which made
our blood boil. He said his two companions and himself were summoned by
the guards at mid-day, and instead of receiving the dinner ration had
been taken to a covered hand-cart. The guard told them to push it, and
at the same time handed them shovels and picks. Under escort they
dragged this mysterious load, which was carefully covered with a
tarpaulin, for about three miles to a very lonely spot. At last they
came to a deep hole. They were compelled to back the cart to the brink
of the pit, and were then curtly bidden to tip it sharply.

To the utter amazement of the skipper and his two colleagues the action
of tipping the cart shot into the hole, with considerable force, the
corpse of a Belgian. He was dumped into the hole in this rough and ready
manner, head first, and to the disgust of the Britishers the body was
clothed merely in a shirt! They were then commanded to refill the hole.
Thus, without the slightest burial ceremony, with a brutality which
would not have been shown to a dog, and without the slightest expression
of regret, save one of silence from the three Britishers, the unknown
Belgian was consigned to an unknown grave. Who the Belgian was, or how
he came by his death, no one ever knew, but it is surmised that he died
from exposure upon the field during the night of the 11th.

These three fishermen being friendless and homeless, my chum and I
decided to see what we could do for them. We proposed to attach a
lean-to shelter to our hut. Poles were driven into the ground, and to
these horizontal members were attached, the latter having the inner ends
sunk into our walls. For the roof we used our blankets. It was a
primitive shelter, but it protected the three men from the rai