"I only wanted to watch you for a little," he said simply. And his eyes
shone joyfully on seeing the officer he had learnt to love stand unhurt
before him.

He approached the battery and greeted them with his powerful voice:
"Good morning, sixth battery!"

And the many-voiced reply was shouted back: "Good morning, sir!"

Falkenhein rode slowly along the ranks, taking stock of everything with
his sharp eyes; then he spoke: "Senior-lieutenant Guentz, be kind enough
to continue!"

It was a lucky day. Everything went like clockwork; there was not a
hitch, not the smallest oversight.

At the conclusion of the exercises the colonel ordered the officers and
non-commissioned officers to come to him. His criticism contained
nothing but approbation, and he crowned his praise by saying: "I
rejoice that the sixth battery, though under new leadership, has again
proved its excellence. And I am proud of commanding a regiment to which
belong such admirable officers and non-commissioned officers and such a
faultlessly trained battery."

He shook hands with Guentz, and whispered to him softly: "I rejoice
doubly--threefold--a hundredfold, my dear Guentz."

Guentz gave the order to march.

He rode thoughtfully beside Reimers at the head of the battery. The
colonel's unstinted praise was a great joy to him; but besides that he
had found a still higher prize: for the first time during many months
he had a heartfelt conviction of his vocation as an officer. He had
done his duty this morning as if rejuvenated; all doubts had left him,
and it did not seem as if a tinge of bitterness remained behind.

He thought of all those written sheets which he had locked in his desk
during the night. When had he found his way through the wood? At the
writing-table, or here in the rye-stubble in which the tracks of the
gun-carriage wheels had made deep ruts?

Well, in any case he had done right not to break away suddenly from the
time of probation on which he himself had determined; for it was
certainly strange how a calm, stead-fast man, such as he believed
himself to be, could be so swayed backwards and forwards in opposite
directions in such a short time. During the night he had been firmly
resolved to retire; a few hours later this step seemed an impossibility
to him.

Was there really so little, then, in his imagined calmness and
steadfastness?

But he was glad that the time of probation, though not shortened,
would, on the other hand,