ept
their comrades buoyant.

While I made application to be put in one of these extraordinary cells,
merely to experience the novelty, my four comrades expressed their
sincere hope that we should meet with superior accommodation. In this we
were not disappointed, if the quarters to which we were taken were
capable of being called superior. We were escorted down flights of steps
which appeared to lead to the very bowels of the State hotel. Finally we
were ushered into a long subterranean apartment, which was really a
cellar, and was evidently intended to house five prisoners at one time,
seeing that there were this number of beds. Except for the fact that it
was a cellar and very little light penetrated its walls, little fault
could be found with it. Certainly it was scrupulously clean, for which
we were devoutly thankful, while on the table an oil-lamp was burning.

Life at Klingelputz would have been tolerable but for one thing--the
prison fare. At six o'clock we were served with a basin of acorn coffee
and a small piece of black bread for breakfast. At twelve we were
treated to a small dole of skilly, the most execrable food I have ever
tasted even in a German prison camp. It was skilly in the fullest sense
of the word. Whatever entered into its composition must have been used
most sparingly; its nutritive value was absolutely negligible. At five
in the afternoon we received another basin of the acorn coffee together
with a small piece of black bread, and this had to keep us going for the
next thirteen hours.

Fortunately the food which we had brought with us served as a valuable
supplement to that provided by the State. It not only kept us alive but
enabled us to maintain our condition. The old fellow who was our gaoler
was tractable; indeed he was somewhat apologetic for having to look
after such estimable gentlemen, an attitude which was doubtless due to
the fact that he knew we should look after him! We endeavoured to see if
he could supply a little more "liberty and fresh air" but the old warder
shook his head sorrowfully.

[*large gap]

Lights had to be extinguished by nine o'clock, and it was the evening
which taxed our endurance. We had to while away the hours as best we
could. First we improvised an Indian band, using our basins as tom-toms
and singing the most weird music. As a variety we dressed up in our
blankets to resemble Red Indians and indulged in blood-curdling
war-dances. Such measures for pas