Güntz galloped up to them and gave his report.
"I only wanted to watch you for a little," he said simply. And his eyes shone joyfully on seeing the officer he had learnt to love stand unhurt before him.
He approached the battery and greeted them with his powerful voice: "Good morning, sixth battery!"
And the many-voiced reply was shouted back: "Good morning, sir!"
Falkenhein rode slowly along the ranks, taking stock of everything with his sharp eyes; then he spoke: "Senior-lieutenant Güntz, be kind enough to continue!"
It was a lucky day. Everything went like clockwork; there was not a hitch, not the smallest oversight.
At the conclusion of the exercises the colonel ordered the officers and non-commissioned officers to come to him. His criticism contained nothing but approbation, and he crowned his praise by saying: "I rejoice that the sixth battery, though under new leadership, has again proved its excellence. And I am proud of commanding a regiment to which belong such admirable officers and non-commissioned officers and such a faultlessly trained battery."
He shook hands with Güntz, and whispered to him softly: "I rejoice doubly--threefold--a hundredfold, my dear Güntz."
He rode thoughtfully beside Reimers at the head of the battery. The colonel's unstinted praise was a great joy to him; but besides that he had found a still higher prize: for the first time during many months he had a heartfelt conviction of his vocation as an officer. He had done his duty this morning as if rejuvenated; all doubts had left him, and it did not seem as if a tinge of bitterness remained behind.
He thought of all those written sheets which he had locked in his desk during the night. When had he found his way through the wood? At the writing-table, or here in the rye-stubble in which the tracks of the gun-carriage wheels had made deep ruts?
Well, in any case he had done right not to break away suddenly from the time of probation on which he himself had determined; for it was certainly strange how a calm, stead-fast man, such as he believed himself to be, could be so swayed backwards and forwards in opposite directions in such a short time. During the night he had been firmly resolved to retire; a few hours later this step seemed an impossibility to him.