crease in
pickings of every kind. Roth had been detailed as sergeant-major for
the first reserve squadron, and he was glad of it. There were among
these reserves a number of men he knew to be "flush" of money, and
whom he understood how to handle. There were also some "one year's
men," who, nearly all of them, had open hands and well-filled pockets.
By shutting an eye, or maybe both sometimes, thus easing the severe
discipline for them, he was sure, at the end of their brief term of
supplementary service, to have the larger portion of their "gold
foxes" in his own pocket. Roth was, therefore, with such prospects
before him, in the best of spirits. He was likewise in a confidential
mood.

Schmitz was "foddermaster" of the fourth squadron and detailed to the
reserve squadron for the time being. He was a very competent man.
Whoever wished to convince himself of that needed but to visit the
horses belonging to his squadron. He would have seen them with silky
coat, round in limb, and full of dash and life, standing above their
fetlocks in the clean, shining straw. His stable, too, was always a
model of neatness and cleanliness. Even the walls were always well
whitewashed and the grated windows shining. Sergeant Schmitz, in fact,
made a labor of love of his duties.

When he went down the main aisle of his big stable, and then turned
and walked between the rows of his smooth-coated darlings, it was
amusing to see these animals, all of them at once recognizing his
step, his voice, his touch; how they turned their heads around,
whinnying and glancing affectionately at him if he called to one or
the other of his favorites.

There was, for instance, Clairette, a charming little roan, which
followed him like a dog, and with her nostrils forever sniffed at his
pockets for sugar, and then rose on her hind legs or lifted her left
foreleg beggar-fashion. There was the "Ahnfrau," a dainty little
horse, though old as the hills, with a coat black as sloes, and which
because of long faithful service and because of the shrewd wisdom that
comes with age, was in favor with the whole regiment and was often fed
some sweet morsel. The special pride of the foddermaster, however, was
the "twelve Chinamen." They had been bought in China, had then gone
through the campaign against the Boxers, had had their share in the
capture of Peking, and had then, at the close of the Far Asiatic War,
been enrolled in the regiment. They were fine, powerful ho