62
REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS
We did not know quite what he meant, but as he repeated these words, he made a motion towards our house on the hill. We interpreted all this to mean that peace had been concluded and that we were free to return to our house. We pointed to our house and he nodded his head. We leave our feelings to be imagined by the reader as we prepared to return.
Picking up our few belongings, and, of course, the food which Major Kerr had kindly secured for us, and bidding goodbye to the British soldiers, we trudged back to our house. Be it confessed however, that we were not too hilarious as we did not know what awaited us above. Reaching our front lawn, we found Japanese soldiers in the house. They looked at us with unemotional faces and refused to allow us to enter. So we sat on the lawn until almost dusk when they said we might stay in our lower chapel. Entering in we found the place fairly presentable, though the odor in some spots was none too pleasant. We opened the window, did a little cleaning up, and settled down for the night, sleeping on the floor between the altars.
During the night the temperature fell considerably, as only it can in South China, and as we had but a couple of blankets, and only a few had retrieved their cassocks, so we shivered. We would fall asleep only to be awakened by the cold. Then a walk over and around other sleeping forms, and another attempt to sleep. We had fixed up toilet facilities as best we could under the circumstances in the corridor and finally the dawn came. Before retiring we had managed to get a cup of our now famous stew by building a temporary fireplace just outside the chapel door, up against the walls of our building.
As the day dawned, we were up and trying to get warm by walking around, until our culinary staff announced breakfast, which was similar to the previous night's supper. During the morning we were allowed to walk around outside on the lawn, managed to improve our fireplace, picked up some firewood and carried water from our garage tap. As the soldiers were still in the building, we were not supposed to go beyond our lower chapel, but now and then during the day one or two of us would venture through the building. Sometimes we were unmolested, at other times we were warned to keep out, with a grunt. On these occasional forays we contrived to retrieve some of our belongings, such as clothing,