While Francisco, Alberto and Juan were at La Sagia awaiting their transfer to El Aaiún, they decided that they would baptize Juan in one of the wells outside the camp. Then, all permission to leave the camp was refused. So how were they going to perform the baptism in this drought-ridden desert? Well, in the camp there was a big covered water deposit, with two apertures for filling it and taking water out by bucket. But it had only fifteen centimeters (6 inches) of water in it.

On the night of April 19, 1964, however, the three young men already were in their tents when they heard the water relief truck arrive. Yes, the water tank was being filled​—with enough water to drown a person. You guessed it! After a brief Scriptural discussion the three slipped silently across the sand to the water tank and Juan Rodríguez was baptized.

At first, the four Christian neutrals were able to preach and conduct Bible studies, as well as hold meetings. Francisco, for instance, was able to speak with a young man who had been sentenced to death on the charge of instigating a murder, although his sentence had been commuted to thirty years. One day he sought a conversation with Francisco to tell him that his mother had sent him a Bible. Both his mother and aunt were Evangelical Protestants. Francisco tactfully used his Bible to give a witness regarding God’s name, and the interest flourished, so that a Bible study was started using the book “Let God Be True.” After just a few weeks, the young man was transferred to the Santa Catalina prison in Cádiz in southwest Spain, but the truth already was at work in his heart. He continued to progress and eventually was baptized. His mother and aunt now are baptized Witnesses also. So it was that while in captivity Marcelino Martínez had found true freedom.

The situation at El Aaiún got to the point that fifteen Bible studies were being conducted with other inmates. Finally, the prison authorities clamped down and separated the Witnesses from the rest of the prisoners. Even their exercise hour was changed so that it would not coincide with that of the others. No room was going to be left for their “proselytism.”