the
colonel. He was at leisure just then, for the colonel had gone on
horseback to view the regimental drill on the parade grounds, quite a
distance from town; and on such days it was the habit of the adjutant
to recompense himself by a sound matutinal slumber for the nightly
sleep he had missed in attending this banquet or that carousal.

Krohn was deep in the study of the advertisements he had found in the
paper when his "colleague," Sergeant-Major Schoenemann, stepped up to
him, dragging his clanking sabre at his heels, and with a cigarette
between his lips.

"Morning, morning, Herr Commander!" he addressed Krohn in a jocular
spirit. "What is the news?"

The minor dignitary thus addressed smiled pleasantly, and sent a small
cloud of fragrant smoke into the air before answering.

"Great things are going on, noble brother-in-arms. I had almost
forgotten about that."

"You don't say! Has H. M. at last sent me a decoration?"

"Not precisely, but something almost as unlikely,--Koenig has been
placed under arrest."

"What? Koenig? Thunder and lightning! What the dickens has he been
doing?"

"Why, they say he has been putting his fingers into the squadron fund,
and that some of the gold has stuck to them. Really, it's a disgrace;
a fellow like him, too, quite wealthy, and all that."

"The devil! I should never have supposed that of him; no, not of
_him_! And how did they find it out?"

"Haven't the faintest idea. I presume the colonel must have heard
something about it. Yesterday afternoon he had him up in his room and
charged him with the thing to his face. I peeped through the key-hole,
and saw the poor fellow becoming pale under the accusation. He wanted
to fetch his books at once; but the colonel wouldn't listen to him,
and ordered him forthwith under arrest."

"But these two used to get along so well together!"

"Of course! And I presume there must be some truth to the story, else
the colonel would probably have managed the thing otherwise,
especially as he himself is in disfavor with the powers that be. This
new affair will break his neck."

"Well, as for me," said Schoenemann, "I don't believe in the story
until I see it in print. Koenig is not at all that sort of fellow. And
the colonel always flies off the handle and seems to be glad when he
has a chance of showing his authority. He thinks that is smart!"

"Oh, I don't know, and what's more, I don't care."

* * * *