noon
Mechanically he completed his toilet and then went to the barracks to report himself to the captain for having missed the morning service . He kept silence about Röse 's flight , saying to himself that if the deserter had the start of pursuit by a sufficiency of time , say forty-eight hours , he would be a bigger fool indeed than Borgert took him to be if he had not reached a safe retreat across the frontier . And that , of course , would spare Borgert himself the unpleasant predicament of facing a court-martial because of systematic maltreatment of a subordinate . When he returned home at noon , Borgert found a letter . It was the reply of the financial man in Berlin to whom , in his quandary , he had turned . The letter told the recipient in curt terms that his application had been rejected . No loan could be made to him , it said , since inquiries about Borgert and his co-called bondsmen , and the endorsement of Leimann , had `` demonstrated a financial status highly unfavorable . ''