"Stand up, Heppner!" he insisted. "All this is no good. I would give you the money, but God knows I have none at the moment. Let us consider how we can get out of this."
The sergeant-major stood up again, and looked at him in suspense.
Suddenly Trautvetter pointed to the canteen: "He must lend us something," he whispered.
But the canteen-keeper objected to this. Even when Trautvetter offered him ten, twenty marks for the loan, he remained obstinate.
The volunteer struck the counter furiously.
"Pig-headed fool!" he cried. "Will you do it for fifty?"
The canteen-keeper hesitated. He had settled up the day before; there was not much risk for him, and fifty marks----!
"Give me your note-of-hand," he demanded,
And Trautvetter wrote him an I.O.U. for one hundred and fifty marks.
Heppner took the money, and when Wegstetten came into the orderly-room he found the sergeant-major counting over his cash.