was pale and demanded brandy.

"What did I tell you?" laughed Schubert. "A Prussian is better than
any man! Look at him, and then at me!"

He shouted for his servant, who had to be fetched from the boma--a
smug-faced little rascal, obviously in love with the glory reflected on
the sergeant-major's servant. He was made to produce a basin and cold
water--he discovered them somewhere in the dim recesses of the
store--and sponge his master's raw posterior before us all. Then he
was sent for clean white pants and presently Schubert, only refusing to
sit down, was quite himself again.

Sachse on the other hand refused the ministrations of the boy--was
annoyed by the chaff of the other sergeants--refused to drink any of
the sweet champagne he would now have to pay for--and went away in
great dudgeon, murmuring about the madness that takes hold of men in
Africa.

Meanwhile, while Schubert strutted and swaggered, making jokes more raw
and beastly than his own flogged hide, the Jew came and poured more
cool water on my hot bandages, touching them with deft fingers that
looked like the hairy legs of a huge spider--his touch more
gentle--more fugitive than any woman's.

"You should not tell zat dam feldwebel nozink!" he advised in nasal
English. "Nefer mind vat you tell heem he is all ze same not your
frien. He only obey hees officers. Zey say to cut your troat--he cut
it! Zey say to tell you a lot o' lies--he tell! He iss not a t'inker,
but a doer: and hees faforite spectacle iss ze blood of innocence! Do
not effer say I did not tell you! On ze ozzer hand, tell no one zat I
did tell! Zese are dangerous people!"

He resumed business with his account book, and I whispered to Fred and
Will what advice he had given. Seeing us with our heads together,
Schubert crossed the room, beginning to get very drunk now that the
shock of the flogging had had time to reinforce the alcohol. (The
blows had sobered him at first.)

"What have you decided?" he asked, standing before us with his legs
apart and his hands behind him in his favorite attitude--swaying gently
back and forward because of the drink, and showing all his teeth in a
grin.

"Nothing," Fred answered. "We'll think it over."

"Too late in the morning!" he answered, continuing to sway. "I can do
nothing for you in the morning."

"What can you do to-night?" Fred asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I can report. The report will go in at
dawn."

"You