A PRISONER 173 



resembling the new boy's first night at a big, 

 strange school. It is then in the quiet that the 

 iron enters one's soul. Next morning, however, 

 we were off down to the central line with two 

 companies then being sent, I gathered, to help in 

 the Muansa district, at that time hard pressed 

 by the Belgians. Just as we left camp one of our 

 aeroplanes came over, dropping small bombs. 

 The askaris made me step off the road with 

 them, but otherwise took little notice, and con- 

 tinued to roll their cigarettes : so much for 

 the yarns of the native terror of our " indegi " 

 (bird). 



On the fourth day we reached the German 

 Central Railway at Kimomba, and the two German 

 N.C.O.'s in whose charge I had been travelling, 

 and who had treated me civilly and well, handed 

 me over at the railway station. Whilst waiting 

 in the station building, two petty officers of the 

 Konigsberg, doing railway duty, entertained me 

 with the German view of things : " In four months 

 in Europe it is all over." " France is finished." 

 " This I must say, the Englishman is no soldier." 

 It is vain to argue with the Master of Forty 

 Legions, and my only retort was to ask innocently 

 for the latest news about Verdun, and if it had 

 yet been taken. 



That evening we went by train to Morogoro, 

 where quite a little crowd of Germans had collected 

 to see the captured bush-ranger. It is only fair 

 to mention that from Von Lettow downwards no 



