Greifenstein Part 14

'A good thing! A very good thing!' exclaimed the second more solemnly than before. He rarely said much else, and his hand was infinitely more eloquent than his tongue.

'I hope it is,' said Greif. 'This is your affair. You had better go and see the second of the Rhine Korps at once. Rex is waiting for the answer at the Palmengarten. Remember he is determined to fight at once.'

'He shall drum till the hair flies about the place,' answered the second, with an unusual flight of rhetoric, as he slipped on his overcoat and went out.

'You are not going?' asked the students as Greif showed signs of following his brother-officer.

'I cannot leave Rex waiting,' objected Greif.

'Send for him to come here! If he really means to fight, he is not such a Philistine as we thought!' cried two or three.

'If you like, I will send for him,' answered Greif. 'Here, little fox!'

he exclaimed, addressing a beardless youth of vast proportions who sat silent at the end of the table. 'Go to the Palmengarten and say that Greifenstein wishes Herr Rex to come here. Introduce yourself properly before speaking to him.'

The huge-limbed boy rose without a word, gravely saluted and left the room. Greif was his idol, the type which he aspired to imitate, and he obeyed him like a lamb.

'So Rex means to fight,' remarked one of the young men, who sat opposite to Greif. 'Was he ever in a Korps?'

'Possibly,' answered the chief.

'"The Pinschgau lads went out to fight,"' hummed the student rather derisively, but he did not proceed further than the first line of the old song. Some of the others laughed, and all smiled at the allusion to the comic battle.

'Look here, my good Korps brothers,' said Greif in his dominating tones, 'I will tell you what it is. Rex means to have it out with Bauer to-morrow morning. If he turns out a coward and backs down the ground before the Rhine fellow, you can make game of him as you please, and you know very well that I shall have nothing more to do with him, and that he will be suspended from all intercourse with the Korps. I have my own ideas about what he will do, though Bauer is a devil at deep-carte and has a long arm. Until the question is settled you have no right to laugh at an honourable man who is to be our guest-at-arms, because he is not a Korps student. He is our guest as much as the chief of the Heidelberg Saxo-Prussians was when he came over last spring to fight the first in charge of the Franks. Every man who wants to fight deserves respect until he has shown that he is afraid to stand by his words. There--that is all I have to say, and you know I am right. Here is a full measure to the health of all good Swabians, and may the yellow and black _schlager_ do good work whether in the hands of guest or fellow. One, two and three! Suabia Hoch!'

'Hoch! Hoch! Hoch!' roared twenty l.u.s.ty young voices.

The speech had produced its effect, as Greif's speeches usually did, and every student drained his cup to the toast with a good will.

'But after all,' said the young fellow who had hummed the offensive song, 'your friend has not handled a _schlager_ since the days of the flood. It is not likely that he can get the better of such a fellow as Bauer--may the incarnate thunder fly into his body! I can feel that splinter in my jaw to this day!'

'My dear boy,' said Greif, 'one of two things will happen. Either Rex will give Bauer a dose, and in that case you will feel better; or else Bauer will set a deep-carte into Rex's jaw, exactly where he hit you, and if that happens you will feel that you are not alone in your misfortunes, which is also a certain satisfaction.'

'You seem remarkably hopeful about Rex,' observed the student. 'Here he comes,' he added as the door opened and Rex appeared attended by the fox.

Every one rose, as usual when a visitor appears under such circ.u.mstances. Rex bowed and smiled serenely. He had often been a guest of the Swabians and knew all present. In a few moments he was seated on the chief's right hand. Greif rapped on the table.

'Korps brothers,' he said, 'our friend Rex visits us in a new capacity.

He comes not as usual to share the drinking-horn and the yellow-black song-book. He is with us to-day as a guest-at-arms. Let us drink to his especial welfare.'

'To your especial welfare,' said each student, holding his cup out towards Rex, and then drinking a short draught.

'I revenge myself immediately,' answered Rex, rising as he moved his gla.s.s in a circle and glanced round the table. The phrases are consecrated by immemorial usage. He drank, bowed and resumed his seat.

He knew well enough that the Swabians did not like him over well, but he was determined that, sooner or later, they should change their minds.

'I congratulate you,' said the same student who had been talking with Greif, 'upon your quarrel with Bauer. You could not have picked out a man whom I detest more cordially. Observe this slash in my jaw--two bone splinters, an artery and nine st.i.tches. It is a reminiscence, not dear but near.'

'A fine cut,' answered Rex, gravely examining the scar. 'A regular _renommir schmiss_, a gash to boast of. A deep-carte, I suppose?'

'Of course,' said the other, with the superiority of a man who knows the exact part of the face exposed to each cut. 'It could not be anything else. He has the most surprising limberness of wrist, and he never hits the bandage by mistake--never! You strike high tierce like lightning and your blade is back in guard--oh yes! but before you are there his deep-carte sits in the middle of your cheek. Whatever you do, it is the same.'

Every one was listening, and Greif frowned at the speaker, whose intention was evident. He wanted to frighten Rex by an account of his adversary's prowess. Rex looked grave but did not appear in the least disturbed.

'So?' he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. 'Really! Well, I can put a silver thaler in my cheek and save my teeth, at all events. They are very good.'

A roar of laughter greeted this response.

'But that is contrary to the code,' objected the student, laughing with the rest. He was not an ill-humoured man in reality.

'Yes--I was joking,' said Rex. 'But I once saw a man fight with an iron nose on his face.'

'How was that?' was asked by every one.

'He was a brave fellow of the right sort,' said Rex, 'but he had a long nose and a short arm. In fact he had formed the habit of parrying with his nose, like a Greek statue--you know, all those they find have had their noses knocked off by Turks. Now the nose is a n.o.ble feature, and is of great service to man, when he wants to find out whether he is in Italy or Germany. But as a weapon of defence it leaves much to be desired. The man of whom I am telling you had grown so much used to using it in this way, that whenever he saw anything coming in the shape of a carte he thrust it forward as naturally as a pig does when he sees an acorn. After a couple of semesters the cartes sat on his nose from bridge to tip, one after the other, like the days of the week in a calendar. But when the third semester began, and the cartes began to fall too near together, and sometimes two in the same place, the doctors said that the nose was worn-out, though it had once been good. And the man told the second in charge, and the second told the first, and the first laid the matter before the a.s.sembled Korps. Thereupon the whole Seniorum Conventus sat in solemn committee upon this war-worn nose, and decided that its owner need fight no more. But he was not only brave; he possessed the invention of Prometheus, combined with the diabolical sense of humour which so much distinguished the late Mephistopheles. He offered to go on fighting if he might be allowed an iron nose. Goetz of Berliehingen, he said, had won battles with an iron hand, and the case was a.n.a.logous. The proposition was put to the vote and carried unanimously amidst thunders of applause. The iron nose was made and fitted to the iron eye-pieces, and my friend appeared on the fighting ground looking like a figure of Kladderadatsch disguised as Arminius.

He wore out two iron noses while he remained in the Korps, but the destruction of the enemy's weapons more than counterbalanced this trifling expense. When he left, his armour was attached to a life-sized photograph of his head, which hangs to this day above two crossed rapiers in the Kneipe. That is the history of the man with the iron nose.'

There had been much half-suppressed laughter while Rex was telling his story, and when he had finished, the students roared with delight. Rex had never before given himself so much trouble to amuse them, and the effect of his narrative was immense.

'He talks as if he knew something about it,' said one, nudging his neighbour.

'Perhaps he helped to wear out the nose,' answered the other still laughing.

'A health to you all,' cried Rex, draining his full measure.

'And may none of you parry carte with the proboscis,' he added, as he set down the empty cup.

'Ha! That is a good thing!' laughed the voice of the burly second as he entered the room, his face beaming with delight.

'Out with the foxes, there is business here for a few minutes.' The foxes, who were not privileged to hear the deliberations of their elders upon such grave matters, rose together and filed out, carrying their pipes and drinking-cups with them. Then the second sat down in his vacant place.

'Well?' asked Greif. 'Is it all settled.'

'Yes. The cattle wanted to fight you first. I said the Philistine insisted--excuse me, no offence. Good. Now--that was all.'

The second buried his nose in a foaming tankard.

'Is it for to-morrow morning?' asked Rex calmly.

'Palmengarten, back entrance, four sharp.'

'What do you mean?' asked Greif. 'Are we to fight in the Palmengarten, in the restaurant?'

The second nodded, and lighted his pipe.

'Poetic,' he observed. 'Marble floor--fountain playing--palm trees in background.' 'Then we must go there at that hour so as not to be seen?'

'The Poodle thinks it is at Schneckenwinkel, and is going out by the early train to lie in wait,' chuckled the burly student.

'There he will sit all the morning like a sparrow limed on a twig.'