At sunset the guards again
came round, lifted the cage and carried it into a shed. A platter
of dirty rice and a jug of water were put into the cage; two of
the men lighted their long pipes and sat down on guard beside it,
and, the doors being closed, the captives were left in peace.
"If this sort of thing is to go on, as I suppose it is," Fothergill
said, "the sooner they cut off our heads the better."
"It is very bad, Jack. I am sore all over with those probes from
their sharp sticks."
"I don't care for the pain, Percy, so much as the humiliation of
the thing. To be stared at and poked at as if we were wild beasts
by these curs, when with half a dozen of our men we could send a
hundred of them scampering, I feel as if I could choke with rage."
"You had better try and eat some of this rice, Jack. It is beastly,
but I dare say we shall get no more until tomorrow night, and we
must keep up our strength if we can. At any rate, the water is not
bad, that's a comfort."
"No thanks to them," Jack growled. "If there had been any bad water
in the neighborhood they would have given it to us."
For two weeks the sufferings of the prisoners continued. Their
captors avoided towns where the authorities would probably at once
have taken the prisoners out of their hands.
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