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“It’s a peculiar apparatus,” said the Officer to the Traveler, gazing with a certain
admiration at the device, with which he was, of course, thoroughly familiar. It appeared
that the Traveler had responded to the invitation of the Commandant only out of
politeness, when he had been invited to attend the execution of a soldier condemned for
disobeying and insulting his superior. Of course, interest in the execution was not very
high, not even in the penal colony itself. At least, here in the small, deep, sandy valley,
closed in on all sides by barren slopes, apart from the Officer and the Traveler there were
present only the Condemned, a vacant-looking man with a broad mouth and dilapidated
hair and face, and the Soldier, who held the heavy chain to which were connected the
small chains which bound the Condemned Man by his feet and wrist bones, as well as by
his neck, and which were also linked to each other by connecting chains. The Condemned
Man had an expression of such dog-like resignation that it looked as if one could set him
free to roam around the slopes and would only have to whistle at the start of the execution
for him to return.
The Traveler had little interest in the apparatus and walked back and forth behind the
Condemned Man, almost visibly indifferent, while the Officer took care of the final
preparations. Sometimes he crawled under the apparatus, which was built deep into the
earth, and sometimes he climbed up a ladder to inspect the upper parts. These were really
jobs which could have been left to a mechanic, but the Officer carried them out with great
enthusiasm, maybe because he was particularly fond of this apparatus or maybe because
there was some other reason why one could not trust the work to anyone else. “It’s all
ready now!” he finally cried and climbed back down the ladder. He was unusually tired,
breathing with his mouth wide open, and he had pushed two fine lady’s handkerchiefs
under the collar of his uniform.
“These uniforms are really too heavy for the tropics,” the Traveler said, instead of
asking some questions about the apparatus, as the Officer had expected. “That’s true,” said
the Officer. He washed the oil and grease from his dirty hands in a bucket of water
standing ready, “but they mean home, and we don’t want to lose our homeland.” “Now,
have a look at this apparatus,” he added immediately, drying his hands with a towel and
pointing to the device. “Up to this point I had to do some work by hand, but from now on
the apparatus should work entirely on its own.” The Traveler nodded and followed the
Officer. The latter tried to protect himself against all eventualities by saying, “Of course,
breakdowns do happen. I really hope none will occur today, but we must be prepared for
it. The apparatus is supposed to keep going for twelve hours without interruption. But if
any breakdowns do occur, they’ll only be very minor, and we’ll deal with them right
away.”
“Don’t you want to sit down?” he asked finally, as he pulled out a chair from a pile of
cane chairs and offered it to the Traveler. The latter could not refuse. He sat on the edge of
the pit, into which he cast a fleeting glance. It was not very deep. On one side of the hole
the piled earth was heaped up into a wall; on the other side stood the apparatus. “I don’t
know,” the officer said, “whether the Commandant has already explained the apparatus to
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book In the Penal Colony"
In the Penal Colony
Translated from the German by Ian Johnston
- Title
- In the Penal Colony
- Author
- Franz Kafka
- Date
- 1919
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 19
- Category
- International