ifeless and broken in courage, he was staring at the rough stone
flagging through the long hours of the day. He thought he was
dreaming, and could not or would not believe that he was behind lock
and key because of a military offence. Why, he had nine long years of
service behind him, in which he had conducted himself blamelessly,
never having been punished for a day.

Slowly, indeed, the seriousness of the situation dawned on him, and
with this consciousness grew up a violent hatred of the man whom he
had deemed his friend, and who now, under the influence of alcoholic
rage was about to destroy the fruits of all his life and those he had
counted to garner in the future. But he would show the regiment, once
he was a free man again, what a low character the fellow really had,
and how behind his hypocritical and insinuating manners were concealed
systematic dishonesty and fraudulent practices. Nobody should be
deceived by him again. He, Schmitz, would take care of that.

That he was to be court-martialed seemed to be beyond question. And as
a matter of fact he was charged, as he knew, with "peremptory refusal
to obey"; but the trial must certainly show that the peculiar
circumstances of his offence were of such a character as to deprive it
of all seriousness, and that really there had been but an exchange of
words which, although an official character might be attributed to it,
could not possibly be viewed with great severity when once all the
facts had been established. He counted, of course, among these facts
his intimate intercourse with Roth; but this point would have to be
clearly and skilfully brought out at the trial, for on that hinged the
issue.

Sergeant Schmitz prayed, therefore, formally, in a petition to the
regiment, for legal counsel, and at the same time for permission to
enter with such counsel into oral and written communication.

He was amazed when informed a few days later that legal counsel could
be provided by military courts only in those cases where the defendant
was accused of a crime. On the other hand, the communication said,
there was no objection to his retaining a suitable lawyer, but of
course at his own expense.

But where get the money for such a lawyer? Schmitz's slender means and
those of his parents at home were by no means sufficient for the
purpose, and yet he felt that he had no chance in his defence if he
were to face the judges of the military court, and Roth himself,
whose p