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night. In fact at the first opportunity they had fled back leaving some of the things with which they had returned.
That was the last we heard of Happy-or the cats.
The instruments such as binoculars, etc., radios, silver and ivory had all been taken by the Japanese as spoils. An old sea captain who returned to his home at Felix Villas told me in an internment camp where I later met him, that at first he had managed to live without much interference but later armed Chinese looters came in hordes and he was forced to leave his home to them. I was also told that the road had over 100 dead bodies of Chinese looters, shot probably by the Japanese. Our neighbour Germaine returned on December 26th and later her body was found on the road and taken to a hospital for identification. Her husband, who had just passed his final medical examinations in December, was killed at his post. Whether either knew the other was dead I do not know. They had been married about a year. We were now told that the first three days of the New Year were to be put aside as "a well-deserved holiday for the Japanese troops." Their guns were taken from them and they were only allowed to carry their short swords. We were warned to keep indoors with locked doors and not to open the doors at night. The soldiers would be drunk and their officers could not be responsible for them. Fortunately, we were in a comparatively quiet vicinity and the first night passed without incident. At about 11 the second night, I was wakened by hammering at the iron lattice gate. It was fastened by a chain, the ends of which were linked by a lock. The Japanese were pounding on this lock with heavy stones in a systematic way. Every now and then they would throw a stone in the windows of the ground floor, smashing the glass. The windows were barred with iron, as is the custom in Hong Kong. We pushed heavy furniture against the door of the flat and prayed. The verse came to me "I will not forsake thee."
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