A sharp
eye, and a firm grip on the rein; otherwise--just as with the rest of
them."

"Very good, sir."

"That's all then."

When Wiegandt had gone, the officer turned to the sergeant-major and
said with a sigh, "Damned nuisances they are! Now we've got two of
these fellows, Wolf and Weise, we must see they don't get together. How
is Wolf doing?"

"No fault to find with him, sir."

Wegstetten walked to the window and looked out silently. This was not
the lightest part of an officer's duty, this supervision of the
suspicious political element among the men. A perfect task of Sisyphus,
indeed! After all, one could do nothing more than prevent the fellows
from spouting their wisdom as long as they were soldiers, make them
keep to the beaten track, give them "patriotism and the joys of a
soldier's life" for their watchword. What sort of a fanatic was this
Wolf? A man who had been handed over to him labelled "Poison!" with
four cross-bones and a death's-head; who put on an expressionless face
when his opinions were alluded to, and to the question "Are you a
social-democrat?" answered with a stereotyped, almost sarcastic, "No,
sir," and always went about looking as dark as a regular conspirator!

He turned round and began again: "Do you know, Schumann, I shall be
glad when Wolf is off our hands. The man strikes me as almost uncanny.
And then that Sergeant Keyser; he's a revengeful, resentful kind of
fellow. He'll never forgive Wolf the six weeks he had on his account.
Just see to it that the two have as little to do with one another as
possible. Of course he'd never really do anything to a fellow like
that; but it's always as well to be on the safe side. I'm not going to
have another rumpus in my battery, with the whole lot of them had up as
witnesses for three days on end! And that Keyser must mind what he's
about. After all, we can't have the army turned into a big incubator
for social-democrats."

"Very good, sir. And as Keyser has got charge of the kit-room now,
that's easily arranged."

Any mention of this affair of Keyser and Wolf always rekindled
Wegstetten's anger. Had he not himself been publicly shamed by it, as
it had taken place in his battery? It had only been a trifle at bottom;
such rough words as the sergeant had hurled at Wolf's head were daily
showered on the men; but this social-democrat had, of course, a quite
peculiar sense of personal dignity, and the stupid thing was that they
had had to all