edge they came at last to the
butts. The black, tarred, wooden target had been put up ready for the
next day, and cheerfully awaited the terrors of the firing that lay
before it. A little to one side of the principal erection a ruined
village stood out against the blue of the summer sky. It had been
purchased by the Government and left standing to be used for testing
the effect of shots upon buildings.

The shells had certainly done their work. Substantial walls had gaping
fissures right through them; gables and chimney-stacks had been laid
low. Some of the houses seemed to have been set on fire by the shots,
and any wood-work spared by the devouring flames had been stolen and
carried away by some-one or other. No stairs were left leading to the
upper storeys, nor boards to any of the floors. Rafters and beams had
been hewn down; doors and windows with their frames had been torn out.
On some of the walls rude drawings had been scrawled in paint or red
chalk, with facetious inscriptions and obscene jokes; but from most of
them the whitewash had fallen, leaving bare the rough masonry. It was a
depressing picture of desolation. One could almost imagine that the
smell of burning still hung about.

Vogt gazed gloomily at the ruins and said: "And that's what things look
like in war! By God, it's true! we must do away with war!"

Klitzing smiled quietly to himself: "Yes, but who'll be the first to
begin?" he asked.

The regiment stayed fully three weeks at the practice-camp, and then
accomplished the return journey to the garrison in three days.

The two friends were anxiously looking forward to the leave that had
been promised the men after the gun-practice. They were to start on the
first Saturday in July, and had eight days' leave granted to them. Only
very few had been allowed as much, and their captain did not fail to
point out in a little speech that this favour was due to their
blameless conduct at the practice-camp.

It was one of Wegstetten's little methods, when he found good qualities
in his men and wished to spur them on, to make the meagre rewards that
the service held out to them appear in a specially brilliant light.
Regardless of exaggeration, he spoke of that week's leave as if it were
an extremely rare mark of distinction unheard of for years. And on the
whole he gained his object. As Vogt and Klitzing stood before their
commanding officer blushing with pride, they had the feeling that they
must than