Three soldiers, all with their pistols drawn, escorted David along the hall from the small room to a bigger one, also brightly lit and with mirrors on the walls. Centred on each wall was a large, square-set chair made of posts and planks, looking like a crude attempt to build a throne. The one to the left was occupied, and the other three were empty.

When the soldiers had directed him to the throne on the right wall and ordered him to undress, he shook his head. "No! This has gone too far. I'm an innocent salesman, falsely accused."

His responses were laughs and the sounds of three Mausers being cocked. He glanced at the blood-stained seat of the chair. Oh, God! How fast this has escalated. Surely, the next one will listen to reason.

After David had undressed, he was ordered to sit. His wrists were strapped to the chair arms, and straps were placed around his biceps and pulled tight to the uprights. Then his hips were strapped to the back of the chair, and his legs were splayed uncomfortably wide and fastened.

He watched in silence as a soldier rolled back his foreskin, looped a cord around the head behind the ridge and drew the noose tight. He gritted his teeth as his penis was stretched to its painful limit, and the line was secured on a nail at the edge of the seat. Then, after each testicle was looped with a cord, he choked back his nausea as they were pulled to the limit of his scrotum's stretch across to nails at the front corners of the seat.

His mind wandered to thoughts of the French Major on the train to Paris last year. Everything down there gone, he remembered Claude saying. He had already created a family, so he ... David paused his thinking when two men approached. Oh, God! The same unreasonable officer.

An older man in a stained blue apron sat on a bench between David's splayed legs and smiled as he held a mallet above the right testicle. The Leutnant pointed and said, "Let's ignore his balls, Schneider. Begin with his acorn."

So, this is it. David cringed, more in anticipation than from the pain, as the man placed a huge knife blade behind the rim of his head and slid it lightly to part the stretched skin and draw blood before lifting the mallet to hover above it. "What in God's name are you doing?"

"I'm the one to ask questions here. You want to keep your acorn?" The Leutnant laughed as he examined it. "Apple is a better word for this one. Once more now, tell us for whom you're working."

"I'm a Swiss citizen selling watches for Rolex and fuses for –"

"You've said that before. Many times."

"It's the truth. Do you want me to lie? Why do you refuse to examine my identification?"

The officer laughed. "Because even stupid saboteurs have forged papers. Tell us again what you were doing out there, but the truth this time."

"I was coming to a scheduled meeting."

"You've said that before." The officer looked at the sheet of paper on his clipboard. "Many times."

"Have you considered it's the truth?"

The officer laughed as he placed a hand on the aproned man's shoulder. "Ready with the mallet, Schneider."

David squirmed in his bindings and winced. "Have you checked?"

"And waste our manpower? You really are naïve, aren't you?"

"No, just honest and innocent."

"You play that game well." He ran his finger along the top of David's penis, pausing at the knife blade to tap it into the cut before moving on to stroke the head. "I've not before seen one so huge."

"This is the Swiss version of a penis." Oh, God. Why did I say that?

"Be such a shame for you to lose this. Schneider. Ready on the mallet."

"It's more a shame you don't realise my story is the truth."

"I'm trained to know the difference."

"It's only about three hundred metres back along the road from Rüppurr – before the curve at the start of the big buildings."

"And you punctured the tyres as a ploy to approach the rail shops and the gasworks. Clever, but that's been done before."

"And if this time is not a ploy?"

"Then you wouldn't be so worried."

"Have you considered another cause for my worry?" David nodded down toward his penis and testicles stretched at wide-spread angles across the blood-stained and chop-marked seat between his splayed legs.

"Tell us again why you're here."

"Because your soldiers accosted me and brought me here."

"Schneider. Ready to chop."

"I was on my way to a meeting."

"With whom?"

"I was told not to reveal that."

"By whom were you told?"

David paused to ponder. No security risk in telling. More a personal privacy issue for the Prince. "By Kron Prinz Wilhelm."

"You're babbling nonsense again."

"He has set up an appointment for me here in the Kaserne, and if you continue detaining me, I'll be late for it."

The officer laughed. "And tell us the purpose of the meeting."

David paused to consider the security risk of telling, and then he shrugged. "General von Heeringen, head of the Seventh Army, wishes to purchase watches for his officers and fuses for artillery shells, and I've brought samples and data to show him."

"That's not the role of a General. He has others to take care of minor matters such as that."

"Kron Prinz Wilhelm dealt directly with me when he bought watches for the officers of the Fifth Army."

"You're babbling nonsense again."

"Have you considered it's reality, not nonsense?"

"Have you considered life without an acorn on your penis? Or maybe life without a penis. The whole fucking thing." He ran his finger along its length, pursing his lips. "So big. My dog would enjoy a huge piece of Swiss sausage. Tell us the truth, or else this will be his dinner this eve –"

A piercing scream from across the room interrupted the Leutnant, and David caught the sight of spurting blood before he winced his eyes closed, trying to control his shuddering by blowing out a deep breath.

"Yours is next." The officer tapped his finger near the root of David's penis. "The knife up here, Schneider. Our saboteur needs more convincing."

David watched as the man moved the knife to the indicated place, pressed the blade into the flesh and moved it until the stretched skin parted and bled. Images of life without it flashed through his mind, and then he shouted, "No! I'll tell you all of it."

"Fine. About time. Now, tell us for whom you work."

"For Hans Wilsdorf of Rolex watches in Biel, Switzerland. But this trip is at the request of Kron Prinz Wilhelm, so I suppose I work for him."

"Babbling again. Schneider, ready to chop it off."

"No, not babbling. Truth. I have a letter from the Kron Prinz with a passport and an introduction to General von Heeringen."

"Nonsense. Babbling more nonsense."

David sighed and shook his head. "No, not babbling nonsense. The letter is marked Secret and in confidence, and you must keep it as such. It has personal information from the Prinz that I'm bound by honour to protect." David tilted his head toward his clothes, folded on top of his overcoat on the floor. "It's in the inside breast pocket of my jacket. The left one. The opening is hidden in the seam."

The officer hesitated, seeming to think before he moved the trousers and shirt, lifted the jacket and found the hidden pocket. He withdrew pages of vellum, unfolded them and read. Then he pursed his lips, nodding as he reread the letter and passport, felt the supple quality of the parchment and examined the embossed seals. "These are very clever forgeries."

"I believe you know they're genuine. Now, you go telephone General von Heeringen's office to confirm my appointment this afternoon." He nodded toward the letter in the officer's hands. You'll see the telephone number written there, but to ease your suspicions, look it up yourself."

The officer huffed. "And who do you think you are to give me orders?"

"And who are you to detain an emissary of Prinz Wilhelm without valid reason? I realise security is your prime concern, but I have told you the truth from the beginning. Tell the General's office that I'm delayed with tyre punctures and that you are seeing to their repair."

The officer huffed again.

David strained to twist his wrist in the coarse leather strap so he could see the time. Then he nodded at his watch. "I had placed a telephone call to his office from Ettingen a little over thirty minutes ago to confirm my arrival. They are expecting me now."

Relieved, David watched the expression on the Leutnant's face change from a contented sneer of contempt to the furrowed brows of concern.

"Now! Else I will explain in detail how my delay was not simply from the tyre punctures, but from incompetence." David glanced down. "And have someone staunch this bleeding and tend to the cuts. Now!"

Apparently startled by David's attitude and orders, the young Leutnant said, "Yes, Sir." Then he paused and caught himself. "I shall discuss this with the Major."

"There is nothing to discuss. Besides, you will only embarrass yourself. And if word of the contents of the letter spreads, we will know who is to blame."

The officer pursed his lips and slowly bobbed his head, seeming to be absorbing and analysing the information as he shifted his eyes back and forth between the letter and the bloody stretched penis.

David lifted his chin toward the phone on the wall beside the desk in the corner. "Go phone the General's office now; otherwise, you'll be in a far deeper hole than you've already dug for yourself. I don't want to keep the General waiting too long, nor do I wish to disappoint Prinz Wilhelm. Go! Now!"

The Leutnant nodded, and as he turned, David added, "And arrange for someone to release these restraints and to care for my wounds."