CHAPTER XXV
INCIDENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
A few weeks after entering prison I was called into the office on the ground floor, where I found myself face to face with a person entirely unknown to me.
“I am Mr. Wassermann, manager of the German Bank,” said this visitor, in introducing himself. “Are you Mr. Beland?”
“Yes, sir; I am,” I replied.
“Then be seated,” he continued. “The day before yesterday I received a letter from one of my fellow-countrymen who is resident in Toronto. He informs me that he has learned from the Canadian newspapers that you are interned here, and he asks me to interest myself on your behalf. My friend adds that he, himself, has not received the slightest annoyance from the Canadian Government. Will you tell me if there is anything I can do for you?”
“You could, no doubt, obtain for me my freedom,” I told him.
“I would like to do it,” he answered, “and I will do all that I can in order to be useful to you, but I really do not know to what extent I may succeed. Is there anything else I can do?”
“Nothing that I know of.”
“Is your cell comfortable?”