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extremely good, and, looking ahead, particularly promising. For the
moment of course the greatest improvement in their situation was
bound to come simply from a change of dwelling; they proposed to
take an apartment that was smaller and cheaper, but in a better loca-
tion and generally more practical than their present one, which was
still the one that Gregor had chosen. While they were talking like this
together, it occurred to Herr and Frau Samsa at almost the same
time, as they looked at their daughter becoming more and more full
of life, how, in spite of all the distress that had made her cheeks so
pale, she had blossomed of late into a handsome, full-figured girl.
Growing quieter and coming almost unconsciously to an under-
standing as they exchanged glances, they reflected that it was also
getting to be time to look for a good husband for her. And they felt
it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions
when, as they came to the end of their journey, their daughter was
the first to rise from her seat, and she stretched her young body.
In the Penal Colony
 It is a remarkable apparatus, said the officer to the enquiring travel-
ler,* surveying the apparatus with some admiration in his eyes,
though it must have been long familiar to him. It seemed that it was
only out of courtesy that the traveller had accepted the command-
ant s invitation to attend the execution of a soldier who had been
condemned for disobedience and insulting behaviour towards his
superior. In the penal colony, too, interest in this execution was
probably not very great. At least, here in the deep, sandy little valley,
cut off by the bare hillsides all round, the only figures present, apart
from the officer and the traveller, were the condemned man, a dull-
witted, wide-mouthed being with unkempt hair and a wild expres-
sion, and one soldier, who was holding the heavy chain attached to
the small chains which fettered the condemned man by his ankles
and wrists as well as by his neck, and which were also linked to one
another by connecting chains. However, the condemned man looked
so submissive and dog-like that it seemed as if one could let him run
free on the hillsides, and would only have to whistle at the start of the
execution for him to come.
The traveller had little interest in the apparatus, and paced to and
fro behind the condemned man with almost visible detachment,
while the officer attended to the final preparations, at one moment
crawling beneath the apparatus, which had been built deep in the
earth, at another climbing a ladder to examine the upper parts. These
were tasks that really could have been left to a mechanic, but the
officer carried them out with great zeal, whether it was because he
was a devotee of the apparatus, or whether it was for other reasons
that the work could not be entrusted to anyone else.  Now everything
is ready! he called at last, and climbed down from the ladder. He was
utterly exhausted, breathed with his mouth wide open, and he had
pushed two delicate ladies handkerchiefs into his uniform collar.
 Surely these uniforms are too heavy for the tropics, said the travel-
ler, instead of enquiring after the apparatus as the officer had
expected.  Indeed, said the officer, washing hands dirty from oil and
grease in a waiting bucket of water,  but they mean home; we don t
want to lose contact with our home country. But just look at this
76 In the Penal Colony
apparatus, he promptly added, drying his hands on a towel, at the
same time pointing to the apparatus.  Up to this point it needs to be
adjusted by hand, but from now on it will work quite of its own
accord. The traveller nodded and followed the officer. The officer,
attempting to cover himself against all possible accidents, then said:
 Of course, malfunctions do occur; I certainly hope that won t hap-
pen today; all the same, we have to reckon with them. The apparatus
should actually run for twenty-four hours without interruption. But
even if malfunctions do occur, they are very slight after all, and they
will be put right straight away.
 Won t you sit down? he asked finally, pulling a wicker chair from
a pile of them and offering it to the traveller, who could hardly
refuse. He sat at the edge of a ditch, and cast a fleeting glance into it.
It was not very deep. To one side the excavated earth had been
heaped up into a rampart; on the other side stood the apparatus.
 I don t know , said the officer,  whether the commandant has explained
the apparatus to you already. The traveller made a vague gesture
with his hand. The officer desired nothing better, for now he could
explain it himself.  This apparatus , he said, taking hold of a crank-
shaft,  is an invention of our old commandant. I was involved from
the start in the very first trials, and took part in all the work until it
was completed. However, the credit for the invention belongs solely
to him. Have you heard of our old commandant? No? Well, I am not
putting it too strongly when I say that the organization of the entire
penal colony is his work. As his friends, we already knew by the time
he died that the organization of the colony was so highly integrated
that his successor, however many thousands of new plans he has in
his head, will not be able to change anything the old one set up, at
least not for many years. And what we predicted has come true; the
new commandant has had to acknowledge it. A shame that you didn t
know our old commandant!  But, the officer interrupted himself,
 I m chattering, and here is his apparatus before us. It is made up, as
you see, of three parts. In the course of time what you might call
popular names have developed for each of them. The lower part is
called the Bed; the upper part is called the Marker, and this pulsating
part between them is called the Harrow.  The Harrow? queried the
traveller. He had not been listening with full attention  the sun was
too strong, trapped in the shadeless valley; it was hard to collect one s
thoughts. The officer seemed to him all the more admirable as he
In the Penal Colony 77
explained his purpose so eagerly in his tight uniform, weighed down
with epaulettes and hung with cords, fit for parade, and in addition,
even while he was speaking, he was also still busy with his screw-
driver on a screw here or there. The soldier seemed to be in a condi- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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