Good Blood | Page 7

lieutenant" made him plainly furious.
"When one considers what sort of meanness it takes to so deprive a poor little fellow of the Sunday holiday he has been hugging for a whole week, and all for a trifle--bah! it's downright--whenever I have seen any one annoying my men--in later days that sort of thing didn't happen in my regiment; they knew this, that I was there and would not tolerate it.--To be rough at times, ay, even to the extreme if necessary, to throw one into the guard-house, that does no harm--: but to nag--for that it takes a mean skunk!"
"Very true!" observed the waiter from the back part of the room, and thus made it known that he was following the colonel's story.
The old man calmed himself and went on with his story.
"Things went on this way for a year, and then came the time for examinations, always a very special occasion.
"The Primaners took their ensign's examination, and the Selektaners, who, as I have said, Were called 'Onions,' the officer's examination, and as fast as any had passed the examination, they were dismissed from the cadet corps and sent home, and it came about that the second classmen, or Sekundaner, who were to be promoted to first class, still remained Sekundaner for a time.
"Well, this state of affairs lasted until the new Sekundaner entered from the preparatory school and the newly dubbed 'Onions' returned, and then once more the wheelbarrow trudged along its accustomed way. But in the meantime a kind of disorder prevailed, more especially just after the last of the Primaners had left--they were examined in sections, you know, and then despatched, after which everything went pretty much at sixes and sevens.
"There was now in the dormitory where the two brothers lived a certain Primaner, a 'swell,' as he was called by the cadets, and because he had made up his mind, as soon as he should pass the examination and breathe the fresh air again, to conduct himself like a fine gentleman, he had had made for himself, instead of a sword-belt like those the cadets procured from the institution and wore, a special patent-leather belt of his own, thinner and apparently finer than the ordinary regulation belt. He was able to afford this much, you see, for he had money sent to him from home. He had displayed this belt about everywhere, for he was inordinately proud of it, and the other cadets admired it.
"Now as the day arrived for the Primaner to pack together his scattered belongings in order to go home, he looked to buckle on his fine belt--and all at once the thing was missing.
"A great to-do followed; search was made everywhere; the belt was not to be found. The Primaner had not locked it in his wardrobe, but had put it with his helmet in the dormitory behind the curtain where the helmets of the other cadets lay openly--and from there it had disappeared.
"It could not possibly have disappeared in any other way;--some one must have taken it.
"But who?
"First they thought of the old servant who was accustomed to blacken the boots of the cadets, and keep the dormitory in order--but he was an old trusty non-commissioned officer, who had never during the course of his long life allowed himself to be guilty of the least irregularity.
"It surely could not be one of the cadets? But who could possibly think such a thing? So the matter remained a mystery, and truly an unpleasant one. The Primaner swore and scolded because he must now leave wearing the ordinary institution belt; the other cadets in the room were altogether silent and depressed; they had at once unlocked all their wardrobes and offered to let the Primaner search them, but he had merely replied: 'That's nonsense, of course; who could think of such a thing?'
"And now something remarkable happened, and caused more sensation than all that went before; all at once the Primaner got back the belt.
"He had just left his room with his portmanteau in his hand, and had reached the stairs, when he was hastily called from behind, and as he turned about, Little L came running up, holding something in his hand--it was the Primaner's belt.
"Two others happened to be passing at the time, and they afterward told how deathly pale Little L was, and how every member of his body was literally shaking. He had whispered something into the ear of the Primaner, and the two had exchanged all quietly a couple of words, and then the Primaner affectionately stroked the other's head, took off his regulation belt, buckled on the fine one and was gone; he had handed the regulation belt over to Little L to carry back. Naturally the story could now no longer be concealed, and it all