Part 60 (2/2)

After this Major Mohbrinck had all the officers of the regiment brought up and introduced to him.

One thing was to be noted: he had a nice perception for everything that was useful and paying. He had taken care to be well instructed in all particulars before his arrival in the garrison.

He seemed at once to be hand in glove with the adjutant, Kauerhof. This was, of course, because the adjutant's wife, Marion Kauerhof, _nee_ von Luben, was the daughter of an important personage in the War Office.

The adjutant presented the other men according to their seniority in rank. First came the two majors. Lischke received a studiously polite greeting; Schrader was far more graciously treated--was not the smart bachelor a notable waltzer at court b.a.l.l.s? He was often commanded to dance with the princesses, and, people said, regaled the royal ladies with many little stories which they would never otherwise have had a chance of hearing.

Next approached Staff-Captain von Stuckhardt. He found himself very coolly received by the new chief. What was the use of troubling much with any one who was known to be a predestined dead man? Stuckhardt stepped back feeling considerably snubbed.

Trager, Gropphusen, and Heuschkel got rather neutral pressures of the hand; Gropphusen, perhaps, being of n.o.ble family, was greeted rather more warmly than the others.

Kauerhof proceeded with his introductions: ”And now, sir, here is the head of our sixth battery, Captain von Wegstetten.”

Mohbrinck twisted his lips into a honied smile. For Wegstetten had a cousin, about seven times removed, who was something of a celebrity, not so much on account of his martial exploits as because he was ninety-eight years of age, the oldest soldier in the army, and a former adjutant-general of his late Majesty. Uncle Ehrenfried, dried up like a mummy, had some difficulty in even sitting upright in his wheel-chair; and for years it had been impossible to carry on an articulate conversation with him. But his immense age lent a certain _cachet_ to his nephew, the chief of the sixth battery. If the mummy were really to attain his century, or were to die on some marked day--a royal birthday or funeral--the services of a Wegstetten to the reigning family would show in a dazzling light, the reflection of which could not be disregarded by an acute man like Mohbrinck.

Little Wegstetten smiled a contented smile under his big red moustache.

Before a commanding officer like this he felt he had no cause to tremble.

”Captain Madelung, head of the fourth battery,” proceeded Kauerhof.

Mohbrinck greeted him with something like effusion: ”Ah!” he cried, ”our celebrated warrior from China. I am delighted--delighted--to have the honour of meeting you.” He put on a rallying expression: ”But you must not go to the Far East now, my dear sir. I hear you have just made happy domestic arrangements that will keep you at home.”

Madelung bowed; just before the manuvres he had married the eldest maid-of-honour.

The youngest captain of the regiment, Guntz, was now presented. Major Mohbrinck a.s.sumed his would-be-agreeable smile, and said jokingly: ”Dear, dear! our youngest captain, and so stout already!”

Guntz looked at him. Well, of course he was not exactly one of the slim ones, but why should this rather uncomplimentary remark be fired in his face?

Major Schrader saved him the trouble of answering. He patted him good-humouredly on the back, and said: ”Well, yes, he has got something of a corporation, like Dr. Luther; but that does not prevent him from s.h.i.+ning brilliantly in the constellation of my commanders of batteries.”

Mohbrinck turned to him, and remarked sweetly; ”Oh, I should never have suggested such a thing, my dear sir. I am quite well aware of the merits of Captain Guntz.” And he touched Guntz's little red eagle; his own breast was still undecorated.

It was the common talk of the army that the 80th Regiment, Eastern Division, Field Artillery, had, under Falkenhein's command, become a perfect pattern to all the troops. It would therefore have seemed most expedient to carry on the methods of its former chief. But Mohbrinck considered that to do so would make him appear an officer without military distinction or views of his own. He posed as having studied to a nicety every little whim and peculiarity of the major-general commanding the brigade, and had made up his mind that at the review his regiment should have no fault found with it, not even if for months everything more important should be set aside in order to drill into the men every little fancy of the brigadier.

”I tell you, sir, I have heard the last word of the major-general on this subject or that,” was his ever-recurring refrain.

Throughout the batteries this caused a certain sense of nervous insecurity. The captains were instructed to lay stress on all manner of insignificant details, and it was difficult to get on with the regular training. Only such remarkably active and circ.u.mspect officers as Wegstetten and Madelung could manage to satisfy both claims upon them: their ordinary military duties, and the merely personal likes and dislikes of the commander of the regiment and the brigadier. Gropphusen let his battery go as it pleased; he was in one of his wild fits. But Trager and Heuschkel quite lost their heads. Was the new commander going to turn the world upside down? And yet they had thought they were fairly good at their work; Falkenhein himself had told them so from time to time.

Guntz got sick of the whole affair. Under Mohbrinck's system the battery might cut a very das.h.i.+ng figure before the commander of the brigade at the review, and yet be worth the devil only knew how little in sober reality. Guntz, for his part, would not bother about it; it was his business to train capable soldiers for his king and country, but not for Major Mohbrinck and Major-general Hausperg.

Captain Guntz had commanded the battery for a year; his time of probation was over. Already he had brought his plans to such a point that he could lay them in practical shape before the directors of the gun-foundry in the Rhine provinces.

After serious counsel with Frau Klare, he concluded his letter to the manager with the following sentence: ”Therefore I beg you, sir, to give my work your most serious consideration. In case you find my plans workable, please remember that I should be very glad personally to superintend the carrying of them out.”

”Fatty,” said Frau Klare, ”that last sentence is shockingly expressed!”

Guntz sat before his letter and looked down reflectively at his signature--”Guntz, captain commanding the sixth battery in the 80th Regiment, Eastern Division, Field Artillery.”

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