"No, no, at once! Wegstetten has only just gone over to headquarters for a minute." "Damnation! What are we to do?" The sergeant-major believed Trautvetter was doing this on purpose. He became more insistent, and implored: "Trautvetter, for heaven's sake help me just for once! I beg of you! I beg of you! lend me the money!" With a shrug the volunteer held out his open purse. There were only a few silver pieces in it. "You can see for yourself, Herr Heppner," he said. "I am not the sort of fellow to leave you in the lurch like that." But Heppner could not yet believe him. He begged and threatened. At last the great big fellow threw himself on the ground and clung round Trautvetter's knees: "Just this once, just this once!" The volunteer pushed him roughly away. The sight of the blubbering giant revolted him. "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. This event made a powerful impression on the one-year volunteer. From the moment when Heppner had lain grovelling on the ground before him a thorough change came over Trautvetter. The whole scene had been unspeakably revolting to him; he was seized with a grim horror on his own account too. Half unconsciously the sight of the big imposing-looking man clamouring and petitioning on his knees made Trautvetter suddenly realise how near he himself stood to a similar degradation. The next morning he gave the sergeant-major back his notes-of-hand. Heppner coloured. "Why is this?" he asked. "Perhaps I shall be able to pay them up." But Trautvetter answered quietly, "No, never mind! I only won the money from you in play, and gambling debts are not legally reclaimable. I ought never to have lent you the money in the first place." Then suddenly Trautvetter assumed a severely respectful manner, and added, "I should like to ask you something, sir; and that is that you would promise me never to play again."