n his head wild thoughts were whirling. He was
thinking of times past and gone; and the more his present
circumstances contrasted with former ones, the more grimly rose his
hatred against the man who had brought him to his present plight. He
was planning his revenge, ruminating deeply how best he should punish
the rascal, and how to brand him with a life-long reminder of his
infamous deed.

A while longer he thus sat, brooding darkly; then he rose with clouded
face and stepped to the window. He breathed against the pane covered
with rime, until a small space had been formed through which he could
peer out into the open. He saw the dial opposite on the church
steeple, from which the bells melodiously rang out in full-toned peals
the closing moments of the old year, and proclaiming the advent of a
new one.

Midnight. Schmitz seized his hat, clapped it on, took his heavy cane
into the right hand, blew out the lamp, and cautiously descended the
dark staircase. On the ice-crusted step in front of the housedoor he
lingered a moment, listening to the vibrations of the solemn bells. No
other sound was audible; no human step could be heard--only the
distant rush of air which, like the breath of a gigantic being, told
of the thronged streets of a busy city.

Schmitz shiveringly turned up his coat collar, sank both his hands
into his pockets, and went briskly, the cane under his arm, to the
railway station. There he bought a ticket for his former garrison, but
a few minutes away by rail, and stepped on board the train which had
just rolled in.

Arrived there, he found the small town buried under a thick blanket
of snow. From the barracks row upon row of lighted windows glimmered
like stars from the distance. Every little while snatches of song or
single chords, wafted towards him by the wind, gave sound in the
night. Far away the ringing of church bells could be heard, coming not
only from the steeples of the town itself, but from the villages and
hamlets surrounding it,--a joyful greeting to the new year. From out
of the dramshops and restaurants floated the sounds of loud talking,
laughter, and singing of merry people, celebrating in hot punch the
gladsome hour.

Schmitz went fleet-footed towards the end of the town where the
barracks were situated. But when he came to a restaurant in the
vicinity of the spacious building he made a halt. Cautiously he peered
into the gloom around him, to make sure that nobody was near, an