ing officers won't sometimes get
their backs up about!

Colonel von Falkenhein received him very cordially.

"My dear friend," he said, "I congratulate you! You could not have
wished for a better _debut_ as the youngest officer in command of a
battery."

"Thank you very much, sir," replied Guentz; and then went straight to
the point about the mysterious affair. His curiosity was surely
pardonable.

"Excuse me, sir," he continued, "Major Schrader informs me that----"

Falkenhein interrupted him: "Yes, quite right. You will take it
to heart, but you must know that our esteemed brigadier has still
something _in petto_. As you have heard, he was highly satisfied
with your direction of your battery to-day; but he considers
that in regard to discipline you do not seem to be quite at home
yet in your new position."

This was just what Guentz had not expected. He had imagined his best
work to have been precisely in this direction.

Falkenhein smiled at his puzzled look as he asked for further
explanation, and shrugging his shoulders went on: "Yes, so the general
said, But, my dear Guentz, I have only formally repeated this to you as
I was commanded to do so. Now let us talk it over as colleagues. I can
understand your astonishment, and you will soon be more puzzled than
ever. The reason the general gives for his strictures is that there has
been so much punishment in your battery--more than double as much as in
the fourth and the sixth together."

Guentz restrained a gesture of impatient surprise. This was rather
beyond a joke!

"But, sir," he said, "you know under what circumstances I took
command!"

"Know? why, of course I do!" answered Falkenhein; "and of course I
explained to him. But he regarded my description as exaggerated. I may
tell you in confidence that he belongs to the very clique who managed
to keep Mohr in the service so long. And he regards his opinion as
infallible--namely, that too many punishments in a troop are the
consequence of a lack of discipline. He considers that a certain
similarity in the punishment-registers of the batteries should be aimed
at unconditionally. Otherwise unfavourable conclusions as to the
capability of individual captains must be drawn, he says."

Guentz was honestly indignant, and when anything struck him as unjust,
it never mattered to him in whose presence he was; he must speak his
mind, even to his colonel.

"Pardon me, sir," he began, "but the general has surely