e up to it; I
consider myself too good to be merely ornamental. I tell you, Reimers,"
he went on, "I was thoroughly upset when I joined the battery. The way
things go on there you would hardly believe. I wondered at first how it
could be kept dark. But there's a regular planned-out system of
hurrying things into shape somehow for inspection--fixing up a sort of
model village. And as for honour! Well, one must admit that they all
stand by one another in the most infernal way, from the respected chief
of the battery down to the smallest gunner, so that they'll rattle
along somehow. There's a show of some sort of discipline; but really
and truly it's just an all-round compromise. A man does a couple of
days' work, and earns by that the right of idling all the more
shamelessly afterwards. And that _I_ should be let in for this sort of
thing! Dear boy, you know how few palpable results, naturally, an
officer can show in time of peace; but still it's too much that one
should do one's duty with no possible chance of any _kudos_. Old man,
it's too bad! I can't stand it. I know this, that if it goes on I shall
quit the service, dearly as I love it."

He glanced with deep sorrow at his dark green coat, and strode up and
down the room.

"This is my only hope," he went on, with grim satisfaction, "that my
beloved captain will soon succumb to D.T."

Reimers reflected. "You must allow that this battery's unfortunate
condition is quite exceptional. Let me make a suggestion. Provoke Mohr
to a quarrel! You'll be sure to be backed up. Every one knows he can't
control himself when he is drunk. And you can go to Madelung, or, still
better, come to us under Wegstetten."

"That's an idea," observed Guentz. "But it won't do. For, in confidence,
Falkenhein has let it transpire that in the autumn I shall get my
captaincy; and probably--indeed certainly--I shall succeed Mohr."

Reimers jumped up, delighted.

"But, dear old chap, then it's all right! You'll bring the fifth out of
the mud. You're just the chap to do it! And your reward will be the
greater in proportion to the wretched state of affairs now. Jerusalem!
What a splendid division it will be! Madelung, Guentz, Wegstetten! The
best heads of batteries in the whole corps! Without any flattery, old
chap!"

But the other did not join in his rejoicing. "Dear old fellow," he
answered, "you may think so. But I confess that it seems to me as if we
had got a bit off the right track with