with ice.

But only one of the five banqueters was in the vein--Blechschmidt,
sergeant-major of the fifth battery. He was still eating and drinking
when the four others were already sitting at the half-cleared table
playing cards.

"Something moderate to begin with!" the master baker Kuehn had
suggested; so each one put down three marks.

It was a long time before the last fifty-pfennig piece was played out
of the pool; but Heppner triumphed. He had been right in his
premonition; when he counted his money he had won nearly two marks.

After this exertion the players took a little refreshment, and while
eating talked the game over.

Heppner swallowed his bread and meat eagerly, and the last plate had
hardly been cleared before he began, his eyes twinkling craftily, "And
what next, gentlemen?"

The master baker laughed pleasantly and replied, "Well, as we've been
lying low, we may afford to let ourselves go a bit now."

Thereupon the landlord bolted the door and saw that the shutters were
firmly closed. They drew closer together, and even Blechschmidt came
nearer.

The players bent over the table, their eyes followed the dealing of the
cards with eagerness, their faces glowed. They lighted their fresh
cigars on the stumps of the old ones, and when their throats became
parched from excitement, they gulped down rapid draughts of the beer,
which was gradually becoming flat and muddy as it flowed from the tap
into the glasses.

They had lost all thought of time.

Suddenly Blechschmidt, the tireless toper, grumbled, "No, I shan't play
with you any more. Beer's best."

The landlord looked at the clock. "It is nearly five," he said.

None of them could believe it; they thought they had not been playing
above an hour at most.

But late or early they must finish the game, and they all heaved deep
breaths as the last round ended. While playing they had been quite
unconscious of the terrible fatigue, which, now that they had stopped,
utterly overpowered them.

Now they had to calculate the gains and losses of the night. The
trumpeter got through quickest. He tossed Heppner the borrowed thaler,
and laughed contentedly to himself. He had every reason to be cheerful,
he, who had not brought a single red pfennig with him, and who now had
more than a hundred marks--chiefly in silver, but with a few gold
pieces also--clinking in his pocket!

The other four had all lost. The deputy sergeant-major was quite thirty
marks