was carrying his tail spread out on to his breast. He had cold,
gentle, blue eyes, and the scar from a sword-cut, which he had
received in the war with Austria; he was said to be an honorable
man, as well as a brave officer.

The captain, a short, red-faced man, who was tightly girthed in
at the waist, had his red hair cropped quite close to his head,
and in certain lights almost looked as if he had been rubbed over
with phosphorus. He had lost two front teeth one night, though he
could not quite remember how. This defect made him speak so that
he could not always be understood, and he had a bald patch on the
top of his head, which made him look rather like a monk, with a
fringe of curly, bright, golden hair round the circle of bare
skin.

The commandant shook hands with him, and drank his cup of coffee
(the sixth that morning) at a draught, while he listened to his
subordinate's report of what had occurred; and then they both
went to the window, and declared that it was a very unpleasant
outlook. The major, who was a quiet man, with a wife at home,
could accommodate himself to everything; but the captain, who was
rather fast, being in the habit of frequenting low resorts, and
much given to women, was mad at having been shut up for three
months in the compulsory chastity of that wretched hole.

There was a knock at the door, and when the commandant said,
"Come in," one of their automatic soldiers appeared, and by his
mere presence announced that breakfast was ready. In the dining-
room, they met three other officers of lower rank: a lieutenant,
Otto von Grossling, and two sub-lieutenants, Fritz Scheunebarg,