The Cross of Iron (54 page)

Steiner thrust his hands into his pockets. He was quite calm now, and observed with disdain the nervous timidity with which the lieutenant knocked on the door. But no one called to him to come in. Instead, Kiesel suddenly appeared on the threshold. Seeing Triebig, he raised his eyebrows in surprise. Then he caught sight of Steiner. For the fraction of a second a faint smile seemed to pass over his face. But since Steiner was not sure of it, he slowly took his hands from his pockets.

‘Did you want to see me?’ Kiesel asked Triebig.

‘Captain Stransky has sent me,’ Triebig said. ‘I must speak with the commander.’

Kiesel’s expression became reserved. ‘Concerning what? * he asked in a stiff official tone.

‘Concerning...’ Triebig glanced quickly at Steiner and fell silent. Then he gathered up his courage again. ‘I request permission to speak personally with the commander in regard to an official matter.’

‘One moment,’ Kiesel said, and went back into the room, closing the door behind him.

He was unusually long about returning. At last he reappeared and with a silent movement of his head indicated that Triebig was to come in. Before he followed he turned to Steiner. ‘The commander asks you to be patient for a few minutes more.’

‘Gladly,’ Steiner said. Kiesel turned swiftly. But before the door closed behind him, Steiner thought he caught a glimpse of a sardonic grin in his direction. Standing, Steiner looked down at his soiled boots. I should have polished them, he thought. But then he realized that there had been no chance to.

The wait proved long. To break his boredom Steiner wandered along the corridor, which was lit by two candles. At the end of the corridor was a flight of steps covered by a thick runner. He sat down on the lowest step and stretched out his legs. Suddenly he became aware of his weariness, and closed his eyes. The heil with it all and with all of them, Stransky, Triebig, Brandt and all the rest. He began whistling under his breath. Again he noticed his dirty boots. The sight of them troubled him, and he began wiping them off with a corner of the carpet. Then he settled back contentedly and tried to think of nothing at all. It was hard for him to keep his eyes open, and he began blinking. If I close them, he thought, I’ll fall asleep.

Suddenly a loud voice startled him. He stumbled to his feet, straightened up jerkily, and stared blankly about him. Kiesel was standing in front of him. ‘I think you fell asleep,’ he remarked.

‘Seems like it,’ Steiner murmured, rubbing his eyes.

Kiesel looked at him, shaking his head. ‘I wish I had your conscience. Come this way.’

They entered the room, and for a moment Steiner stood stock still in confusion. It was so stuffed with furniture that he did not see where the commander was until he heard his booming voice. Brandt sat behind a huge, clumsy desk piled with all sorts of useless objects, holding a lighted cigarette between his fingers. ‘So there you are,’ he said loudly. ‘Next time you’re wounded, give me a week’s notice that we’re going to lose you, haha. How are you, Steiner?’

‘I can’t complain,’ Steiner murmured weakly, feeling that he was acting the fool. But Brandt did not seem to think so. He stood up and shook hands heartily with Steiner. Then he gestured toward a chair. ‘Make yourself comfortable. I’ve heard that you’ve worked a great deal today.’

‘A man does what he can,’ Steiner muttered, cursing his sleepiness. As he sat down and took a cigarette from the case Brandt extended across the desk, he noticed that Kiesel had also taken a seat on an old-fashioned couch in the back of the room, and was looking on curiously. He suddenly realized that Triebig was not in the room. He lit his cigarette and looked attentively into the commander’s face.

‘How was it in the hospital?’ Brandt began.

Steiner smiled politely. ‘Pretty good,’ he said laconically. Apparently Brandt was in good humour, to judge by his expression. But it seemed unlikely to him that the commander had sent for him so late at night merely to ask how he was. Besides, why had Triebig accompanied him, and where was Triebig now?

The commander spoke again. ‘Tell me about your wound, won’t you? I hear that you were wounded again on your way back to Kanskoye.’

‘That’s right,’ Steiner said, and began to tell the story, keeping it as short as possible. While he spoke, the commander listened gravely. ‘Yes, that was a bad business,’ he sighed, when Steiner had finished. His face darkened at the memory of the several hundred men who had fallen in the unsuccessful counter-attack of the assault regiment.

Steiner puffed at his cigarette. The presence of Kiesel bothered him, for he felt that the captain was staring at him all the time. ‘I was afraid that would happen,’ he said. ‘I was glad not to have to cross over that hill a second time.’

They went on talking and had reached their third cigarette when Brandt suddenly leaned forward, elbows on the desk, and casually asked whether Steiner knew that Captain Stransky had led Second Company’s counter-thrust that night just before the beginning of the big Russian offensive. Steiner looked at him in surprise. He recalled that Schnurrbart and Krüger had also been questioned, and became alert. ‘The counter-thrust was led by Lieutenant Meyer,’ he stated. ‘Captain Stransky was nowhere in sight at any time.’

He caught Brandt exchanging a glance with Kiesel, and Kiesel now asked whether he was sure of that. ‘Absolutely,’ Steiner affirmed. ‘In the first place I would have seen him, and in the second place, directly after the business Lieutenant Meyer had to report to the captain what had been happening in the lines.’

‘How do you know that?’ Kiesel asked.

‘I was there myself when he made his report,’ Steiner replied.

Brandt gave an exclamation. ‘When was that?’ he asked.

Steiner, not understanding the cause of his excitement, looked in puzzlement at his flushed face. ‘Right afterwards,’ he declared, and began sketching in the order of events.

When he finished, Brandt let his head droop and sat thinking. Something in his expression warned Steiner to step cautiously. But whatever the threat was, it apparently was not directed toward him, for when the commander looked up again there was a faint smile around his mouth. He turned to Kiesel. ‘Fetch Triebig,’ he ordered sharply. While Kiesel was out of the room, Brandt remained silent.

Triebig bit his lips when he came into the room with Kiesel and saw Steiner sitting so much at ease beside the desk. It was, he felt, alarmingly quiet in the room.

When Brandt spoke, his voice sounded unusually soft and low. ‘You gave your name, Lieutenant Triebig. Were you present when Captain Stransky led the counter-thrust?’

Triebig hesitated. He seemed to be struggling to come to a decision. Finally he hunched his shoulders and spoke. ‘I accompanied the commander to the hill and saw him calling several men around him. Then he sent me back to the command post.’

‘Why did he do that?’ Brandt asked.

‘He thought someone ought to be in the command post in case you called, sir.’

‘Then how do you know that Stransky really led the counterattack? You signed a statement to that effect as a witness, Lieutenant Triebig.’

Triebig’s reply came without hesitation this time: ‘I learned of it from wounded men who were returning.’

At this point Kiesel intervened. He turned to the commander. ‘Will you permit me to ask a question, sir?’ When Brandt nodded, he addressed Triebig: ‘Can you give me the name of one of these wounded men?’

‘They weren’t staff men but company men,’ Triebig replied evasively. ‘I knew them only by sight. Besides, it was pitch dark when I spoke with them. I saw no reason to doubt their statements.’ ‘You should have noted their names,’ Kiesel said.

Triebig shrugged. ‘In all that confusion?’ he murmured. ‘I’d practically lost my head myself.’

‘You may yet,’ Brandt said icily. ‘I want you to know, Lieutenant Triebig, that I have been having your statements checked. Captain Kiesel will now inform you of the results of our investigations into this matter.’

Steiner had been listening to the conversation with mounting wonder. He watched as Kiesel took a sheet of paper out of his pocket, studied the contents for a moment, and then raised his head. ‘Our investigation so far,’ he stated placidly, ‘have disclosed that at the moment there are forty-two men in Second Company who took part in the aforementioned counter thrust. They declare unanimously that the attack was led by Lieutenant Meyer. None of them saw Captain Stransky and none of them heard that he was even with the company at the time the attack was launched.’

‘Very well,’ Brandt said. He turned again to Triebig, who looked as if he were standing against a wall watching an execution squad line up in front of him. ‘You are not going to try to tell me that all this is a matter of sheer chance. If it should turn out that Captain Stransky has deliberately sent in a false report, I shall take the matter up with Division. In that case, Lieutenant Triebig, you yourself would have to justify your conduct before a court of honour.’

Steiner, watching Triebig from the side, noticed the fine beads of perspiration on his forehead. But he felt no sympathy at all. Now that he had wind of what was going on here, he could feel nothing but contempt. Iron Cross hyenas, he thought, and recalled that neither Schnurrbart nor Krüger wore any special decorations, although they had earned them a hundred times over.

Triebig seemed to have recovered somewhat from his funk. He attempted to lend firmness to his voice as he said: ‘I acted out of my deepest convictions, sir.’

‘Whether you acted out of deepest conviction is not in question.’ Brandt replied coldly. ‘You can only corroborate what you yourself saw, not what was allegedly told to you. To my mind there is nothing more contemptible than snatching the laurels that properly belong to a man who fell on the field of battle. I shall abide by Sergeant Steiner’s testimony. He was in the immediate vicinity of Meyer. If he stands by his statement that Captain Stransky was not with the company during the time in question, I shall be compelled to institute disciplinary proceedings against the captain.’

He turned to Steiner. ‘Do you stand by your statement?’

There was a deep silence in the room. Steiner hesitated, torn between his knowledge of the truth and the feeling that it would be unfair to dispose of his enemy in this cheap and easy manner. He disliked the idea of others intervening in the contest between himself and Stransky. It was his business.

‘Would it be possible for me to think that over for a few days? he asked Brandt.

Brandt was taken aback. ‘Think it over?’ he said, anger and disappointment in his voice. ‘What is there to think over? Did you see Stransky? Yes or no!’

Steiner bit his lips. But at this juncture he unexpectedly received aid.

Kiesel had stood up and came swiftly over to them. ‘I think Sergeant Steiner is right,’ he said to Brandt, who sat glowering behind his desk ‘A question as important as this one ought to be considered very carefully.’

Brandt jumped to his feet. ‘Are you starting the same nonsense. Common sense ought to tell you that...’ He broke off abruptly. Kiesel had been furiously winking at him. He turned to Triebig and Steiner and ordered them to wait outside.

As soon as they were gone, Brandt asked sharply: ‘What’s this nonsense all about?’

‘Of course it’s nonsense,’ Kiesel said. ‘Steiner knows perfectly well where Stransky was during the counter-attack.’ He took a few strides about the room, then turned swiftly. ‘You have two alternatives,’ he said quietly. ‘Either you can pursue the matter and perhaps bring Stransky up before a court-martial. But then Steiner would have to appear as a witness. That is a role he is not going to love. Perhaps that’s why he wants to stall.’

Brandt rubbed his chin. ‘We could leave him out of it,’ he said reluctantly, after a long pause.

Kiesel shook his head dubiously. ‘Stransky would wonder,’ he retorted. ‘If we don’t bring up the principal witness against him, he’ll think about it and probably draw false conclusions. It wouldn’t be a good idea for us to leave ourselves open that way. Moreover, we can’t load forty-two men of the second company on a truck and transport them God knows where as witnesses.’ Observing the gathering frown on the commander’s face, he stepped closer to him and argued pleadingly: ‘If I were you, I would avoid doing anything that might bring Steiner into a tussle before a court-martial for the second time. Stransky would certainly refer to Steiner’s past, and we’d be in for ticklish complications. And the question still remains: would we succeed in convincing the judges?’

‘That’s ridiculous!’ Brandt thundered, pounding on the table ‘He can’t pull a trick like this on me and get away with it!’

‘Not at all,’ Kiesel replied. ‘I spoke of two alternatives. You can administer a much more thorough slap to Stransky if you accept my proposal.’

‘Well, what is it?’ Brandt asked.

Kiesel dropped into a chair and crossed his legs. ‘I have been watching Steiner this evening, and I think I know something about men’s reactions. I can well imagine that he not only wants to avoid testifying before a court-martial, but that the idea of being the principal witness against Stransky is also distasteful to him.’ 

Brandt shook his head. ‘Why, in Heaven’s name? To judge by what März has said, he must have every reason to want revenge.’ He laughed irritably. ‘That’s sheer fantasy, Kiesel. Steiner must wish him in hell. Incidentally, I’d be curious to learn what happened this evening.’ He rubbed his chin again. His voice sounded reproachful now. ‘I told you right off there would be trouble between those two.’

Kiesel shrugged ruefully. ‘It’s been hard to know what was going on every minute. In the future I’ll be able to keep tabs on the two of them much more easily because my brother-in-law will keep me better informed than Meyer did. But you must remember that I can’t be present unobserved at every run-in between Stransky and Steiner. To see the whole clearly, we must understand the motives.’

‘I’ll find them out from Steiner,’ Brandt retorted forcefully. 

Kiesel smiled. ‘I hardly think so. My impression is that he regards his differences with Stransky as a private matter. And as for Stransky, he would talk about the effects but not the causes. What will you do if he sends in his recommendation that Steiner be disciplined?’