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Half the men labored while the other half stood guard, alternating each hour with
an hour off at noon. Olson directed this work. Bradley, von Schoenvorts and I,
with Miss La Rue's help, staked out the various buildings and the outer wall.
When the day was done, we had quite an array of logs nicely notched and ready
for our building operations on the morrow, and we were all tired, for after the
buildings had been staked out we all fell in and helped with the logging--all but
von Schoenvorts. He, being a Prussian and a gentleman, couldn't stoop to such
menial labor in the presence of his men, and I didn't see fit to ask it of him, as
the work was purely voluntary upon our part. He spent the afternoon shaping a
swagger-stick from the branch of jarrah and talking with Miss La Rue, who had
sufficiently unbent toward him to notice his existence.
We saw nothing of the wild men of the previous day, and only once were we
menaced by any of the strange denizens of Caprona, when some frightful
nightmare of the sky swooped down upon us, only to be driven off by a fusillade
of bullets. The thing appeared to be some variety of pterodactyl, and what with
its enormous size and ferocious aspect was most awe-inspiring. There was
another incident, too, which to me at least was far more unpleasant than the
sudden onslaught of the prehistoric reptile. Two of the men, both Germans, were
stripping a felled tree of its branches. Von Schoenvorts had completed his
swagger-stick, and he and I were passing close to where the two worked.
One of them threw to his rear a small branch that he had just chopped off, and
as misfortune would have it, it struck von Schoenvorts across the face. It
couldn't have hurt him, for it didn't leave a mark; but he flew into a terrific rage,
shouting: "Attention!" in a loud voice. The sailor immediately straightened up,
faced his officer, clicked his heels together and saluted. "Pig!" roared the Baron,
and struck the fellow across the face, breaking his nose. I grabbed von
Schoenvorts' arm and jerked him away before he could strike again, if such had
been his intention, and then he raised his little stick to strike me; but before it
descended the muzzle of my pistol was against his belly and he must have seen in
my eyes that nothing would suit me better than an excuse to pull the trigger.
Like all his kind and all other bullies, von Schoenvorts was a coward at heart,
and so he dropped his hand to his side and started to turn away; but I pulled him
back, and there before his men I told him that such a thing must never again
occur--that no man was to be struck or otherwise punished other than in due
process of the laws that we had made and the court that we had established. All
the time the sailor stood rigidly at attention, nor could I tell from his expression
whether he most resented the blow his officer had struck him or my interference
in the gospel of the Kaiser-breed. Nor did he move until I said to him: "Plesser,
you may return to your quarters and dress your wound." Then he saluted and
marched stiffly off toward the U-33.
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