his superior. "Change your clothes this moment,
do you hear?"

And Wolf sat down obediently on the stool. Automatically he took off
his coat and trousers, undid his collar, and pulled off his shoes. Then
he took off his hat also; and in the same mechanical way dressed
himself again in uniform.

The corporal had bidden him a couple of times to make haste, and now he
threw the civilian clothes over his arm.

"Everything must be taken away from you," he said as he went.

Wolf nodded, and dully looked on. Once he moved as though to seize at
something--the corporal's fingers were not clean, and were dirtying his
white collar; he might at least hold it by the edge--but the
outstretched hand sank back languidly.

Such behaviour made the corporal look serious. When in the guard-room
he handed over the clothes to the non-commissioned officer who had
brought in the prisoners, he pointed with his thumb back over his
shoulder, and said: "That fellow there's not quite right in his head."

"Do you think not?" asked the other.

"Yes, I do. So I took away his braces, and now at least he can't hang
himself."

Wolf had involuntarily stood at attention as the corporal left the
cell, and when the door closed he put forward his right foot and
relaxed his position just as if the order "Stand at ease" had been
given.

He looked down at his worn uniform, the green cloth of which was grey
and threadbare, while the madder-red facings had faded to a dirty pink.
The well-polished buttons shone, and a darker patch in a corner of the
tunic showed up clearly against the shabby material.

By that patch he recognised the coat which he had worn for two endless
years, and which he still wore; and all at once he understood his fate.

Under the horror of the revelation he broke down. He sank helplessly on
the stool, and hid his face in his hands.

He was still incapable of ordered thought. Only one thing could he
grasp, that his dream of freedom lay shattered and destroyed before
him. This single, fearful, desperate certainty so entirely filled his
mind, that his capacity for other thought seemed paralysed. His senses
received external impressions, but did not transmit them to the brain.

Wolf's cell was situated in the outermost corner of the guard-house. At
a distance of about ten paces the high-road ran past the brick wall,
which was none too thick. Besides this, a small pane of the window was
open; so that the crunching of the wheels a