Part 56 (2/2)

After a short interval he arose, picked up a big piece of white cardboard from the ground, and pointed to it as he brandished it in the air. Then he laid it down again, and once more he yodelled gaily: ”Holdrio--yoho--yoho--hoho--o--o!” He then bowed politely, and vanished precipitately among the bushes.

Down on the parade-ground every one was speechless. The men looked sheepish; they longed to burst into peals of laughter, but were afraid of getting into trouble. So they took great pains not to commit themselves, and tried to look as if something perfectly ordinary had been happening.

Wegstetten was beside himself with anger and resentment. ”I beg you will allow me, sir,” he said to the colonel, ”to send a couple of non-commissioned officers to arrest that fellow. This is an unheard-of insult to the whole army--a scandal a disgrace!”

Falkenhein's lips twitched. He, too, thought this piece of impudence quite beyond a joke. But he held the same opinion as did the Grand Duke of Oldenburg concerning _lese-majeste_: that the insult of a fool is no insult.

”Be calm, my dear Wegstetten,” he said. ”Let your count take himself off. But you had better just send some one up there--one of the non-coms, upon whom you can rely--to fetch down that placard before any of the men can get hold of it. Who knows what impertinence the fellow may not have scrawled?”

Corporal von Frielinghausen was charged with the mission, and ascended the hillside. The exercises were begun meanwhile.

Frielinghausen found the piece of cardboard neatly placed against a bank beside the last traces of Count Egon Plettau. Carrying the placard with its back carefully turned to the battery, he descended the slope again, and returned to the three officers. With the tips of his fingers the colonel took the doc.u.ment from him. The inscription was short enough:

”Senior-lieutenant Brettschneider,” cried Major Schrader suddenly, ”please be good enough to come here for a moment.”

Brettschneider advanced in haste: ”You called me, sir?”

Schrader pointed to the placard. ”A few words in elucidation of the demonstration up yonder!” he said, shaking with suppressed laughter.

On the cardboard was neatly written in gigantic letters, coloured artistically with red and blue: ”A farewell greeting to Senior-lieutenant Brettschneider!”

”A reminiscence of 'Ekkehard,'” said the colonel. ”This Count Plettau has read a certain amount. One must give the devil his due!”

But Major Schrader, who in his leisure hours occupied himself with modern literature, who had seen ”Die Weber” and ”Seine Kleine” in Berlin, and was even acquainted with ”Rosenmontag,” murmured softly to himself; ”A farewell to the regiment!”

CHAPTER XV

”Freedom, that I sing--”

(_Von Schenkendorf._)

In August Corporal von Frielinghausen was ordered to the Fire-workers'

College in Berlin. The young fellow made a good appearance in his neat uniform; his figure had filled out and become more manly, and on his upper lip a slight moustache had begun to show. But his bronzed visage had retained the old frank boyish expression, and altogether he was a fine-looking lad, after whom the women already turned to gaze.

After two years had pa.s.sed, his friends received a formal notification of his marriage; it was sent with the greetings of Baron Walther von Frielinghausen and Baroness Minna Victoria von Frielinghausen, _nee_ Kettke.

Frielinghausen had obtained his discharge from the army. Minna Victoria was the only child and heiress of the manager of a large place of entertainment, and Baron Walther von Frielinghausen played the part of manager in place of his father-in-law, the rather impossible Papa w.i.l.l.y Kettke. He went about attired in an unimpeachable black coat, and with a well-bred little bow would himself usher into their places any specially distinguished-looking guests. Then he would stand with the air of a young prince in the neighbourhood of the bar, and the waiters and cooks, barmaids and kitchenmaids, had a mighty respect for him. He waxed portly in figure, and Minna Victoria often felt herself obliged to call him over the coals for paying too much attention to some one of the elegant ladies who patronised the establishment.

The sixth battery of the 80th regiment, Eastern Division of the Field Artillery, had occasion, however, to send another non-commissioned officer to the Fire-workers' College--Gustav Weise.

Captain von Wegstetten was very well pleased with Weise; he considered he had made him a permanent convert to the cause of king and country, But Weise was rather inclined to domineer over his subordinates--which was not what might have been expected of a former social-democrat--and on that account his captain had hit upon the idea of persuading him to be a fire-worker. The non-commissioned officer had a clear head, and it might be hoped he would make a career for himself.

Under these circ.u.mstances Weise began more and more to curse the day when he had had tattooed upon his arm that ridiculous jingle about Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. It caused him serious annoyance if one of his comrades noticed a sc.r.a.p of the motto peeping out from under his sleeve, and wanted to see the whole inscription.

One day when he was out walking in the town he noticed on a door a bra.s.s plate bearing the announcement: ”Dr. Buchsenstein, specialist in skin diseases, &c.” It occurred to him that this gentleman might be of a.s.sistance to him, and he put in an appearance at the hour of consultation.

The little dark-haired doctor could not entirely restrain his intense amus.e.m.e.nt when the patient bared his arm and came out with the request that the tattooing might be sc.r.a.ped away.

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