themselves under arrest, and, what was worse,
under suspicion. Except that for two days they had been marched afoot
an average of twenty-five miles a day, they had fared pretty well,
barring Stevens. He, being separated from the others, had fallen into
the hands of an officer who treated him with such severity that the
account of his experiences makes a tale worth recounting separately and
at length.

We stayed in that place half an hour--one of the longest half hours I
remember. There was a soldier with a fixed bayonet at the door, and
another soldier with a saw-edged bayonet at the window, which was
broken. Parties of soldiers kept coming to this window to peer at the
exhibits within; and, as they invariably took the civilians for
Englishmen who had been caught as spies, we attracted almost as much
attention as the Turcos in their funny ballet skirts; in fact I may say
we fairly divided the center of the stage with the Turcos.

At the end of half an hour the lieutenant bustled in, all apologies, to
say there had been a mistake and that we should never have been put in
with the prisoners at all. The rain being over, he invited us to come
outside and get a change of air. When we got outside we found that our
two bicycles, which we had left leaning against the curb, were gone. To
date they are still gone.

Again we sat waiting. Finally it occurred to us to go inside the little
taverne, where, perhaps, we should be less conspicuous. We went in, and
presently we were followed by Lieutenant Mittendorfer, he bringing with
him a tall young top-sergeant of infantry who carried his left arm in a
sling and had a three weeks' growth of fuzzy red beard on his chops. It
was explained that this top-sergeant, Rosenthal by name, had been
especially assigned to be our companion--our playfellow, as it were;--
until such time as the long-delayed automobile should appear.

Sergeant Rosenthal, who was very proud of his punctured wrist and very
hopeful of getting a promotion, went out soon; but it speedily became
evident that he had not forgotten us. For one soldier with his gun
appeared in the front room of the place, and another materialized just
outside the door, likewise with his gun. And by certain other
unmistakable signs it became plain to our perceptions that as between
being a prisoner of the German army and being a guest there was really
no great amount of difference. It would have taken a mathematician to
draw th