"I should certainly have something to eat if I were you," suggested the
officer.

"Oh, very well," I replied resignedly, "I'll have a roll, butter, and a
black coffee."

Directly the officer had gone I rang the emergency bell. M----, the
under-gaoler, answered it. With a tremendous effort I pulled myself
together.

"So I'm going to be shot in the morning," I ventured, in the hope of
drawing some comment.

"Ach! What? Lie down and keep quiet!" was his stolid retort.

"Look here! I want to write to my wife. Can you get me a pencil and a
sheet of paper?"

"Impossible!"

"But I must write. She does not know where I am, and she will not know
what has become of me!"

[*large gap]

German military prisons hold their secrets tightly.

But the time crept on and no guard appeared as I had been dreading. My
drooping spirits revived because the hour of the day when prisoners were
customarily shot had passed. When I went out into the yard on the