That doesn’t worry Tjaden. “Five days clink are five days rest.”

“And if they send you to the Fortress?” urges the thoroughgoing Müller.

“Well, for the time being the war will be over so far as I am concerned.”

Tjaden is a cheerful soul. There aren’t any worries for him. He goes off with Haie and Leer so that they won’t find him in the first flush of excitement.

Müller hasn’t finished yet. He tackles Kropp again.

“Albert, if you were really at home now, what would you do?”

Kropp is contented now and more accommodating:

“How many of us were there in the class exactly?”

We count up: out of twenty, seven are dead, four wounded, one in a madhouse. That makes twelve.