Count Egon Plettau received these attentions with calm complacency. "Children," he used to say--for so it was his habit to address his comrades--"people know quite well that they owe me respect. To have been eight years accomplishing a two-years' term of service, and not to have finished it yet--that is a performance that cannot be sufficiently appreciated. Really, I ought to be shown at a fair! Strive, therefore, to follow my example!"
He looked forward to the manœuvres with a real and almost child-like pleasure; for, in spite of his eight years' service, he had never taken part in them. "Something" had always come in the way.
Even Güntz had often to bite his lips to keep himself from laughing at Plettau's absurdities. He, too, had been curious to make the acquaintance of the notorious gunner-count, and he, too, was agreeably surprised. Plettau seemed to him to be a very good fellow, terribly frivolous, no doubt, but not bad by any means. He was glad to find he had not been mistaken in his judgment: viewed impartially, the cause of Plettau's first two acts of insubordination had been malice on the part of his superior almost amounting to cruelty; and even the last five years had been added to his term of imprisonment simply because he had knocked down a sergeant who was proved to have ill-treated a comrade. All things considered, the gay placidity of temper with which the count had borne his fate was really remarkable.
For the autumn manœuvres the men and horses were all redistributed to serve the various guns. Vogt and Klitzing remained in their places, and for the rest gun six was served as follows:
| Gun Six. | ||
| (Horses) | ||
| Gun-leader | Corporal Vertler | Christine |
| Lead-driver | Driver Nowack | Zenobia, Egon |
| Centre-driver | Driver Inoslavsky | Viper, Eidechse |
| Wheel-driver | Bombardier Sickel | Turk, Cavalier |
| Gunners | Count Plettau, Wolf, | |
| Truchsess, Klitzing, Vogt. | ||
The leader of the third column was Ensign Gysinger, who had just joined the regiment from the Military Academy, and had exchanged with Lieutenant Landsberg, transferred to the first battery. Heimert had for the first time taken over the distribution of the horses. But when Heppner saw how the six horses for gun six had been placed, he shook his head.
"That won't do," said he to Heimert. "The lead and centre horses are all right, but the wheel-driver must have another beast under him. The Turk is too old; especially as gun six has always the longest way to go on the march."
"That's just what I told the captain," put in Heimert. "It's all Wegstetten's doing. I wanted Cyrus for the wheel, and old Turk for the baggage-waggon, but as the other five are light bays, Wegstetten insisted on having the Turk, That's why he has put Sickel on him, our best driver. He thought he'd make him go at any rate, if the worst came to the worst."
Heppner remained thoughtful. At last he said, "Yes; but then old Turk hasn't much more go left in him. Don't you think we could arrange it differently?" "No," answered the deputy sergeant-major; "you know that when Wegstetten has once got a thing into his head there's nothing more to be done."
The sergeant-major shrugged his shoulders. "We two, at any rate," he said, "won't have the responsibility. I only hope it will turn out all right! We've got some damned hilly country for the manœuvres this time, as it happens. One part lies close to the frontier, and is over 2000 feet high. Downright mountain-artillery I call it!" he growled in conclusion. But it was impossible to oppose the express orders of the captain.