... Nice trap to catch me.... If I agreed to this I'd be in
the same category as Denikin or Dutov or Ekhart and be shot by the
gang outside by _mistake_, so as to fulfill the prophecy of my lady of
Buckingham.... My answer was to order the guard on the balcony to keep
their guns pointed at the prisoners whenever they appear in the garden
... this will satisfy the eavesdropper in the red brick across the way
and scare the wits out of old Parafine, besides giving him something
to talk about when we get away.... To satisfy that suspicious Sergeant
that there is no Japanese money secreted by the prisoners I have
ordered my men to use their bayonets against the walls and ceilings
... even the frame of the bathroom is not to escape!... Gallipoli is
growling around that I'm doing my work too damned well to _seem
reasonable_!... The poor boob! His idea of being _reasonable_ seems to
consist in spreading rumors that the prisoners have been disposed of
in a dozen different ways.... When Maria and Tatiana mounted the truck
in the yard this confiding swaggerer started the gossip that they were
being loaded up to be taken out of town and shot.... Now I am told by
some of the excited guard that that report is TRUE because they heard
some one in the attic of the red brick yelling: '_The baggage is at
the station_!'...
"When I asked them what we wanted with 'BAGGAGE' they went away
growling that I wasn't playing fair!.
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