Stories in Light and Shadow | Page 6

have other proofs than you have shown, it will be my duty to give you
up to the authorities."
"Dot means I shall serve my time, eh?" said Karl, with an unchanged
smile.
"Exactly so," returned the consul.
"Zo!" said karl. "Dese town--dose Schlachtstadt--is fine town, eh? Fine
vomens. Goot men. Und beer und sausage. Blenty to eat and drink, eh?
Und," looking around the room, "you and te poys haf a gay times."
"Yes," said the consul shortly, turning away. But he presently faced
round again on the unfettered Karl, who was evidently indulging in a
gormandizing reverie.
"What on earth brought you here, anyway?"
"Was it das?"
"What brought you here from America, or wherever you ran away
from?"
"To see der, volks."
"But you are an ORPHAN, you know, and you have no folks living
here."

"But all Shermany is mine volks,--de whole gountry, don't it? Pet your
poots! How's dot, eh?"
The consul turned back to his desk and wrote a short note to General
Adlerkreutz in his own American German. He did not think it his duty
in the present case to interfere with the authorities or to offer his parole
for Karl Schwartz. But he would claim that, as the offender was
evidently an innocent emigrant and still young, any punishment or
military degradation be omitted, and he be allowed to take his place
like any other recruit in the ranks. If he might have the temerity to the
undoubted, far-seeing military authority of suggestion making here, he
would suggest that Karl was for the commissariat fitted! Of course, he
still retained the right, on production of satisfactory proof, his discharge
to claim.
The consul read this aloud to Karl. The cherubic youth smiled and said,
"Zo!" Then, extending his hand, he added the word "Zshake!"
The consul shook his hand a little remorsefully, and, preceding him to
the outer room, resigned him with the note into the inspector's hands. A
universal sigh went up from the girls, and glances of appeal sought the
consul; but he wisely concluded that it would be well, for a while, that
Karl--a helpless orphan--should be under some sort of discipline! And
the securer business of certifying invoices recommenced.
Late that afternoon he received a folded bit of blue paper from the
waistbelt of an orderly, which contained in English characters and as a
single word "Alright," followed by certain jagged pen-marks, which he
recognized as Adlerkreutz's signature. But it was not until a week later
that he learned anything definite. He was returning one night to his
lodgings in the residential part of the city, and, in opening the door with
his pass-key, perceived in the rear of the hall his handmaiden
Trudschen, attended by the usual blue or yellow or red shadow. He was
passing by them with the local 'n' Abend! on his lips when the soldier
turned his face and saluted. The consul stopped. It was the cherub Karl
in uniform!
But it had not subdued a single one of his characteristics. His hair had

been cropped a little more closely under his cap, but there was its color
and woolliness still intact; his plump figure was girt by belt and buttons,
but he only looked the more unreal, and more like a combination of
pen-wiper and pincushion, until his puffy breast and shoulders seemed
to offer a positive invitation to any one who had picked up a pin. But,
wonderful!--according to his brief story--he had been so proficient in
the goose step that he had been put in uniform already, and allowed
certain small privileges,--among them, evidently the present one. The
consul smiled and passed on. But it seemed strange to him that
Trudschen, who was a tall strapping girl, exceedingly popular with the
military, and who had never looked lower than a corporal at least,
should accept the attentions of an Einjahriger like that. Later he
interrogated her.
Ach! it was only Unser Karl! And the consul knew he was
Amerikanisch!
"Indeed!"
"Yes! It was such a tearful story!"
"Tell me what it is," said the consul, with a faint hope that Karl had
volunteered some communication of his past.
"Ach Gott! There in America he was a man, and could 'vote,' make
laws, and, God willing, become a town councilor,--or Ober
Intendant,--and here he was nothing but a soldier for years. And this
America was a fine country. Wunderschon? There were such big cities,
and one 'Booflo'--could hold all Schlachtstadt, and had of people five
hundred thousand!"
The consul sighed. Karl had evidently not yet got off the line of the
New York Central and Erie roads. "But does he remember yet what he
did with his papers?" said the consul persuasively.
"Ach! What does he want with PAPERS when he could make