“Very good,” says Kropp, getting up. “See up there where those little white clouds are. Those are antiaircraft. We were over there yesterday. Five dead and eight wounded. And that’s a mere nothing. Next time, when you go up with us, before they die the fellows will come up to you, click their heels, and ask stiffly: ‘Please may I go? Please may I hop it? We’ve been waiting here a long time for someone like you.’ ”

He sits down again and Himmelstoss disappears like a comet.

“Three days C.B. ,” Kat conjectures.

“Next time I’ll let fly,” I say to Albert.

But that is the end. The case comes up for trial in the evening. In the Orderly Room sits our Lieutenant, Bertink, and calls us in one after another.

I have to appear as a witness and explain the reason of Tjaden’s insubordination.