I asked the German in English, which I well knew he understood, whether he had received his dinner or not. He affected not to understand me, and answered in German. As my German is not as fluent as my French, and I knew that he also spoke this language and might have some secret reason for not wishing to speak English, I tried him in French. He pretended not to understand this either. My opinion of him sank even lower. I tried him then in German, and he replied quite readily in his own tongue.
"I did not have any meat, but I was given a dish of pudding."
"Did you eat it?" I asked him.
"I had no chance to do so," he answered.
"Why not?" I queried.
He turned his head slowly and looked first at the big Highlander and then at the equally big Munsterite, and shook his head as he replied: "I don't know."
There was some mystery here, and not such a deep one that it couldn't be unravelled. I asked the Munsterite:
"Did you eat this man's pudding?"
"No, sir," he answered readily, but with a queer smile. The Highlander also answered in the negative. There was still a mystery.
"Do you know this German?" I asked the man from Munster and whose bed was nearest.