He now plunged his paw right in, and what did he extract? A beautiful twenty-dollar piece of the best American gold, and also a small mother-of-pearl button, which had betrayed me by knocking against the coin. This comes of being too tidy! Had I thrown it away two days before, instead of hoarding it carefully, this would not have happened. The English soldier rejoiced, for such finds did not occur every day. But now he examined me more thoroughly. And to my distress he extracted from my other breast-pocket, as well as from each of the two trouser-pockets, a lovely golden piece and my small Browning revolver, which had been my faithful companion all these months. When I had been completely despoiled I was allowed to dress again and to rejoin my comrades in misfortune in the prison yard. After that we took possession of our quarters. About fifty German civilian prisoners greeted us uproariously. They had been in captivity ever since the beginning of the war, and seemed to have recovered their sense of humour. Our new friends invited us at once to share their meal. We threw ourselves like savages on the bread pudding which they had prepared for themselves. Then we started on our work. In the first place, we were made to carry coal and water. We were detailed according to height, and accidentally I fell in with the dirty Swiss whom I had already regarded with such repulsion on the ship. In the meanwhile we went on dragging sacks of coal, and we were careful not to fill the bins to their full capacity. Were we not too weak to do so properly? After we had carried on this job for some time we were allotted our soldiers’ mattresses, consisting of three parts, and as hard as stone; also two blankets. We were allowed to rest that evening. But the first thing was to get a wash. I well recall the scene. My filthy colleague placed his basin near mine, and stripped with the utmost placidity. Hang it all! I had not expected so much cleanliness, and inspected him critically. A perfectly shaped body and clean—spotlessly clean! But head, neck and hands! I shuddered. And then I stopped in the midst of my ablutions. My eyes opened wide in astonishment. The water of my colleague was coal-black; but he was completely metamorphosed. His black, oily hair had turned into shining blonde, his face looked fresh and white, and showed delicate features, the hands were slim and elegant. And was it possible? Across the cheek and the temple ran the honourable scars of students’ duels—real German scars! Such an explosion of joy! Such a cross-fire of questions and answers! My comrade had been a _real_ German student, was now at the head of a good motor-car business in America, and had left it all to serve his country as an officer in the Reserve. We chummed up quickly, and remained faithful, inseparable friends through all the weeks of our captivity, until fate separated us once more. The last post sounded at ten—lights out followed.