mself, and, in defiance
and the satisfaction of the thought to his bruises and humiliation,
pointing his finger at Feller, Marta heard him say:

"You there, in your straw hat and blue blouse, they've seen you--a man
fighting and not in uniform! If they catch you it will be a drumhead and
a firing squad at dawn!"

"That's so!" replied Feller gravely. "But they'll have to make a better
job of it than you fellows did if they're going to----"

He turned away abruptly but did not move far. His shoulders relaxed into
the gardener's stoop, and he pulled his hat down over his eyes and
lowered his head as if to hide his face. He was thus standing, inert,
when a division staff-officer galloped into the grounds.

"Splendid! Splendid! There's some iron crosses in this for you!" he was
shouting before he brought his horse to a standstill. "The way you held
on gained the day for Lanstron's plan. They tried to flank in the valley
after their second attack on your position failed We drew them on and
had them--a battalion in close order--under the guns for a couple of
minutes. It was ghastly! Our losses have been heavy enough, but nothing
to theirs--and how they are driving their men in! But where is Major
Dellarme?"

When he saw Dellarme's still body he dismounted and in a tide of
feeling which, for the moment, submerged all thought of the machine,
stood, head bowed and cap off, looking down at Dellarme's face.

"I was very fond of him! He was at the school when I was teaching there.
But a good death--a soldier's death!" he said. "I'll write to his mother
myself." Then the voice of the machine spoke. "Who is in command?"

"I am, sir!" said the callow lieutenant, coming up.

Feller's fingers moved in a restless beat on his trousers' seam, his
lips half parted as if he must speak, but the men of the company spoke
for him.

"Bert Stransky!" they roared.

It was not according to military etiquette, but military etiquette meant
nothing to them now. They were above it in veteran superiority.

"And--" Stransky had started to point to Feller, whose name he did not
know, when a forbidding gleam under the hat brim arrested him.

"Where's Stransky?" demanded the staff-officer.

"You're looking at him!" replied Stransky with a benign grin.

Seeing that Stransky was only a private, the officer frowned at the
anomaly when a lieutenant was present, then smiled in a way that
accorded the company parliamentary rights, which he thought t