When he stood up again a shifty, vague, cunning expression pa.s.sed over his face.

Between the white stems of the young birch-trees he looked out for the sentry, who must have heard the shot. Redoubled precautions would be necessary in regaining the barracks.

The sentry was staring fixedly up into the woods hence he had heard the firing. With his head still turned towards the heights he walked up to the gates, and waited to be relieved. When the bombardier and the relieving sentry appeared he made his announcement. He pointed several times to the wood. The bombardier shrugged his shoulders and asked questions; finally he disappeared through the gateway with the sentry who had been relieved. The gates clanged together, and the keys rattled as the lock was turned.

The new sentry listened awhile to his comrades' retreating steps; then he strolled along his beat at a leisurely pace, occasionally looking up the hill. He took his time, but at last he turned the corner of the officers' quarters.

Heimert made use of the opportunity. He ran hastily down the pathway to the barracks. He drew himself up with the aid of the lightning-conductor till his feet reached the top of the wall, and soon after was standing, breathing heavily, in his own kitchen.

A moonbeam fell on something shining that leant against a kitchen chair. It was Heppner's sword. Heimert took it up and carefully hung it on its nail in the pa.s.sage.

For a moment he stood listening. The Heppner baby was crying; the soothing murmurs of its mother could be plainly heard: "Sh, sh!"

He stepped back on tiptoe, drew the door gently to, and began hastily to undress. Then he lay down quietly in bed, taking pains not to make the bedstead creak.

His precautions were superfluous; Albina slept soundly. An earthquake would hardly have awakened her.

The deputy sergeant-major lay and listened. He could only hear the beating of his own heart, and through the wall the m.u.f.fled sound of the child's crying.

"Widow and orphan," he thought.

The wailing voice subsided by degrees. The child had fallen asleep, or the mother had taken it to her breast.

Its father was lying up there on the hill-side, his huge body blocking the pathway.

Sch.e.l.lhorn, the fat paymaster of the regiment, whom Surgeon-major Andreae sent every spring to Carlsbad for a cure, found the corpse during his early morning const.i.tutional.

He hastened to the barracks and gave the alarm.

After all particulars had been noted, the dead man was carried away.

Four gunners bore the heavy body down the hill on a stretcher, and laid it on the bed in the Heppners' dwelling, the poor wife looking on with bewildered eyes.

There was no doubt as to the case being one of suicide. The direction of the shot, as shown by the post-mortem examination, was not against this theory; but the most unmistakable proof lay in the motive for the deed, which was only too clear. From the various cash-boxes under the charge of the deceased one hundred and twenty marks were missing.

Sergeant-major Heppner, in dread of this being discovered, had shot himself.

The colonel, Major Schrader, and Captain von Wegstetten unanimously decided to hush up the affair, in view of the certain censure of the higher authorities; and Schrader replaced the missing sum without more ado.

Heppner's gambling companions were seriously warned.

Sergeant-major Blechschmidt, who was most to blame, received an official intimation that he must not count upon a further term of service.

Finally the widow was informed that her husband had committed suicide in a moment of temporary mental aberration.

A few days after the funeral Heimert was installed in Heppner's place.

It gave him an immense deal of trouble to fulfil his new duties, and yet no man could have set himself to the task more zealously and conscientiously.

Captain von Wegstetten sometimes raged with impatience when his new sergeant-major could not meet his requirements. Mere indications and suggestions were not sufficient for the dull and somewhat limited understanding of Heimert. Every detail had to be pointed out to him and explained at length; but once he comprehended them he showed himself capable of carrying out orders punctually and carefully.

From the time of his promotion Heimert troubled himself little about Albina. His behaviour towards her became shy and odd; he avoided as much as possible being alone with her. He preferred to sit at his desk in the orderly-room, while she on her side felt no regret in being relieved from the too particular attentions of her unloved husband.

Kappchen came to the conclusion that the sergeant-major must have a screw loose somewhere. Heimert exhibited certain strange whims. He would become perfectly furious if the many-coloured penholder which Heppner had used were offered him, and he strictly forbade the corporal ever to put it on his desk. Kappchen would sometimes for fun hand him this penholder "by mistake" if a signature were wanted in a hurry. The sergeant-major looked so comic with his blazing eyes and crimson face, his nose shining reddest of all.

But the days were always too long for the sergeant-major. Even his writing came at last to an end, and there was still time left on his hands. He was not long in finding an occupation.

In the mounted exercises he had hitherto led the third column, but as sergeant-major he now had to take an entirely different place in the formation. His work was, as a matter of fact, much easier than formerly; but he seemed to find it twice as difficult to understand. He often did not know where he ought to be, and when Wegstetten found fault with him he took it much to heart. What sort of an impression would it give, if even the sergeant-major did not know his work, the senior non-commissioned officer of the battery?

When he went over his book, puzzling out the regulations with his fingers in his ears, his thoughts seemed to become more and more wildly confused. He could form no clear picture of all these evolutions. He therefore took his pen-knife, and with endless trouble made little wooden figures, roughly representing the guns, the ammunition waggons, and the individual mounted men. He coloured these figures so that they might be perfectly distinguishable: the commander of the battery, the leader of the column, the sergeant-major, the trumpeter, and the corporal in the rear. And then he made them exercise on the table, advance and retire, form into line, and wheel round; but his chief care was always to keep the yellow-striped sergeant-major in his right position.

Soon Wegstetten had no complaint to make of his sergeant-major, but Heimert still went on playing with his little figures. For these wooden guns and hors.e.m.e.n he was now the commander of the battery, and he would not be contented till his miniature troop was brought to as great a state of perfection as reigned under the captain of the sixth battery.

Albina shook her head over her husband's conduct. The man was ill, of that she was convinced. She spoke to him once of consulting the doctor, but Heimert repulsed her roughly.

"Thank G.o.d!" he said; "there's nothing the matter with me. I wish everybody were as healthy as I am!"

After this she left him in peace. In her opinion some insidious disease was advancing upon him, and sooner or later the trouble would break out.

Heimert's appet.i.te began to fail at last; he hardly ate any-thing. He had always been extremely ugly, but people now shrank back at the sight of his face. His eyes had become sunken, and had acquired an unnatural brilliancy, while his hideous nose jutted out prominently from the middle of his ashy countenance.

Albina sighed. What sort of show could one make with a husband like that? It was fortunate that he kept out of the way so much.

But the time began to hang very heavy on her hands. From sheer ennui she took to having her hair curled.

The barber who shaved the sergeant-major every morning had already offered his services, commenting in a most flattering manner on the magnificent hair which he said she did not show off to the best advantage.

Albina had hitherto pa.s.sed him proudly by. She despised barbers. But now she began to observe him more closely. He appeared to her a polite, agreeable, young man; he was good-looking too, even elegant. And he was entertaining. He could tell her the most interesting things about all sorts of people.

"You see, madam," he used to say, "a barber is one of the family almost. He sees people in _deshabille_, as it were. And sometimes one learns all manner of strange things. Of course the honour of the profession forbids gossiping. But there is no harm in repeating little trifling occurrences. Don't you think so? It amuses one's clients; and that is quite permissible."

Albina entirely agreed with him.

Here was at least a man with whom one could have some rational conversation.

During the exercises one morning the captain came riding up to the sergeant-major.

"You must go back home at once, Heimert," he cried. "The major wants the regulations that were in force at the last manuvres. Look them out, and send them over to the division at once, will you?"

"Now, at once?" asked Heimert.

"Yes, yes! Make haste and get them!"

The sergeant-major hastened back to the barracks. With helmet on head and sword by his side he set off at once on the quest. He gave Kappchen the regulations to carry over to the orderly-room of the division, and he himself returned home.

In the bedroom he found Albina and the barber together.