f the Commander?"

"I am quite adrift on that score also. This morning I endeavored to give
him some good advice. I asked him not to appoint me lieutenant, but to
choose Kurzbold or Gensbein from among the malcontents, for I thought if
responsibility were placed on their shoulders we should be favored with
less criticism."

"A very good idea it seems to me," remarked Ebearhard.

"Well, you saw how promptly he ignored it, yet after all there may be
more wisdom in that head of his than I suspected. Look you how he has
made a buffer of me. He gives no commands to the men himself, but merely
orders me to pass along the word for this or that. He appears determined
to have his own way, and yet not to bring about a personal conflict
between himself and his following."

"Do you suppose that to be cowardice on his part?"

"No; he is not a coward. He doubtless intends that I shall stand the
brunt of any ill-temper on the part of the men. Should disobedience
arise, it will be my orders that are disobeyed, not his. If the matter
is of no importance one way or the other, I take it he will say nothing,
but I surmise that when it comes to the vital point, he will brush me
aside as though I were a feather, and himself confront the men
regardless of consequences. This morning I thought they would win in
such a case, but, by the iron Cross, I am not so confident now. Remember
how he sprung my appointment on the crowd, counting, I am sure, on your
help. He said to me, when we were alone by the tower, that you were the
most fair-minded man among the lot, and he evidently played on that,
giving them not a moment to think, and you backed him up. He carried his
point, and since then has not said a word to them, all orders going
through me, but I know he intended, as he told you, to take the river
road, instead of which he has led us over this hilly district until
every man is ready to drop. He is himself very sparing of wine, and is
in fit condition. I understand he has tramped both banks of the Rhine,
from Ehrenfels to Bonn, so this walk is nothing to him. At the end of it
he was off for a stroll, and here are these men lying above the sod like
the dead underneath it."

"I cannot make him out," mused Ebearhard. "What has been his training?
He appears to be well educated, and yet in some common matters is
ignorant as a child, as, for instance, not knowing the difference in
status between a skilled artisan and a chaffering merchant! What