We'll win this war !' "

"I couldn't stand by and do nothing," declared Schweik, fixing his guileless eyes upon his inquisitor's face. "It fairly riled me to see them all reading the royal proclamation and not showing any signs that they was pleased about it. Nobody shouted hooray or called for three cheers—nothing at all, your worship. Anyone'd think it didn't concern them a bit. So, being an old soldier of the 91st, I couldn't stand it and that's why I shouted those remarks and I think that if you'd been in my place, you'd have done just the same as me. If there's a war, it's got to be won, and there's got to be three cheers for the Emperor. Nobody's going to talk me out of that."

Quelled and contrite the black-yellow beast of prey flinched from the gaze of Schweik, the guileless lamb, and plunging his eyes into official documents, he said :

"I thoroughly appreciate your enthusiasm, but I only wish it had been exhibited under other circumstances. You yourself know full well that you were brought here by a police officer, because a patriotic demonstration of such a kind might, and indeed, inevitably would be interpreted by the public as being ironical rather than serious."

"When a man is being run in by a police officer," replied Schweik, "it's a critical moment in his life. But if a man even at such a moment don't forget the right thing to do when there's a war on, well, it strikes me that a man like that can't be a bad sort after all."

The black-yellow beast of prey growled and had another look at Schweik.

Schweik met his eye with the innocent, gentle, modest and tender warmth of his gaze.

For a while they looked fixedly at each other.

"Go to blazes, Schweik," said the jack-in-office at last, "and if you get brought here again, I'll make no bones about it, but off you'll go before a court-martial. Is that clear?" ,

But before he realized what was happening, Schweik had come up to him, had kissed his hand and said :

"God bless you for everything you've done. If you'd like a thoroughbred dog at any time, just you come to me. I'm a dog fancier."

And so Schweik found himself again at liberty and on his way home.

He considered whether he ought not first of all to look in at The Flagon, and so it came about that he opened the door through which he had passed a short while ago in the company of Detective Bretschneider.

There was a deathlike stillness in the bar. A few customers were sitting there, among them the verger from St. Apolinnaire's. They looked gloomy. Behind the bar sat the landlady, Mrs. Palivec, and stared dully at the beer handles.

"Well, here I am back again," said Schweik gaily, "let's have

a glass of beer. Where's Mr. Palivec? Is he home again too?"

Instead of replying, Mrs. Palivec burst into tears, and, concentrating her unhappiness in a special emphasis which she gave to each word, she moaned :

"They—gave—him—ten—years—a—week—ago."

"Fancy that, now," said Schweik. "Then he's already served seven days of it."

"He was that cautious," wept Mrs. Palivec. "He himself always used to say so."

The customers in the taproom maintained a stubborn silence, as if the spirit of Palivec were hovering about and urging them to even greater caution.

"Caution is the mother of wisdom," said Schweik, sitting down to his glass of beer. "We're living in such queer times that a man can't be too cautious."

"We had two funerals yesterday," said the verger of St. Apolinnaire's, changing the subject.

"Somebody must have died," said another customer, whereupon a third man inquired :

"Did they have a regular hearse?"

"I'd like to know," said Schweik, "what the military funerals are going to be like now that there's a war on."

The customers rose, paid for their drinks and went out quietly. Schweik was left alone with Mrs. Palivec.

"I never thought," he said, "that they'd sentence an innocent man to ten years. I've already heard of an innocent man getting five years, but ten—that's a bit too much."

"And then my husband admitted everything," wept Mrs. Palivec. "What he said about the flies and the pictures, he repeated it word for word at the police station and in court.