ay fish was of a dried variety, and had
such a delicious smell when cooked that it was impossible to enter the
dining-room when it was on the prowl! While that on Friday consisted
of heaps of old mussels containing quantities of sand and young
pebbles, known amongst ourselves as those ---- barnacles, scraped from
the ships at Kiel. The whole time I was there I never once had an
opportunity of buying any fresh fruit, though it was summer time and
we could have paid good prices. The only result of my bayoneting
episode was that the sentry was congratulated, and I was warned for a
court-martial! When a staff captain arrived from Hanover to collect
the evidence for the approaching trials, quite a cheery little crowd
of accused officers were awaiting him. Several of them were to appear
on two or three charges, and three R.F.C. officers were to be tried
for dropping leaflets in the German lines. I believe it came to
nothing in the end, as there was not enough evidence to convict them.
Captain Scholtz and Lieutenant Wookey do not seem to have been so
lucky. When my turn came, several German witnesses were produced who
swore that after being struck on the foot with the butt, I had jumped
forward to seize the rifle, asserting that the sentry had only acted
in self-defence. (Such a truthful race!) When the captain was taking
down my statement, we frequently got off the subject altogether. All
of a sudden he would assert that the English had started the war and
ask me the reason for their doing so. Thoroughly roused, I would reply
that it was nonsense and he must know it. Then ensued an amusing but
fiery argument about the neutrality of Belgium, the use of native
troops, and frightfulness in general. His plea was that poor little
unoffending Germany was only standing up for herself against a set of
blood-thirsty enemies who wished to crush her. Needless to say, I did
not feel much like sympathising. When we finally got back to business,
all particulars were taken as a matter of form, my slaughterer's name
and address being taken down. Before my departure I managed to get a
glimpse of it when the captain was out of the room. I do not suffer
from loss of memory!

The all-absorbing problem of camp life is escaping. Up to this time
half a dozen fellows had succeeded in getting away from the camp, but
were afterwards recaptured. I will endeavour to give an outline of the
several attempts and the difficulties to be overcome, which must