A PRISONER 177 



found my two companions congenial. It was 

 hard to kill time in those days. Then in November 

 some fifteen batches of South Africans, captured 

 near Kissaki, were brought in, special bandas 

 having been built for them outside the boma, and 

 I was lodged with them. At once the chance of 

 escape became practical. 



All this time the wound in my hip, though very 

 slight, had kept running and would not heal. It 

 was getting sore, and needed attention. An old 

 German doctor, Herr Anning, formerly, I believe, 

 a member of the Reichstag, now came to the post, 

 and he, most courteous of men to us prisoners — 

 officers and men alike — cured and healed the 

 wound for me. Just before the South African 

 prisoners came in, a safari of twenty chained 

 porters, carrying loads of English potatoes, left 

 the boma in the direction of Kilwa. Five days 

 later they returned with their loads intact. Also, 

 about this time, I seemed to notice something of 

 a change in the attitude of the German askaris. 

 " Did you get a sniff of anything to-day ? " said 

 the big German — a very decent fellow, in private 

 life manager of the Liwale Rubber Plantation — 

 who took us out walking every afternoon. The 

 fact was that our troops had recently landed at 

 Kilwa and Lindi. 



The next thing was a general move of the whole 



of the prisoners' camp right back to the Luwego 



river, a fourteen days' trip, where a camp was 



formed in the bush close to the river at a place 



12 



