Part 3 (1/2)

”Do not misunderstand the situation,” the Senator said to Karl; ”it may be a matter of justice, but at the same time it is a matter of discipline as well. Both matters, especially the latter, are for the captain to decide in this case.”

”So it is,” murmured the stoker. Those who heard and understood this smiled uneasily.

”In any event, we have kept the captain from his official duties far too long, and these undoubtedly acc.u.mulate immeasurably upon arriving in New York, so now it is high time we left the s.h.i.+p rather than make matters worse by turning this petty squabble between two engineers into a bigger incident through our completely unnecessary intervention. And I do understand your conduct perfectly, my dear nephew, but that is precisely what gives me the right to take you away from here posthaste.”

”I will have a boat lowered for you immediately,” said the captain, without, to Karl's utter amazement, raising the least objection to the uncle's words, although these could unquestionably be considered self-abas.e.m.e.nt on his uncle's part. The chief purser raced to his desk and telephoned the captain's order to the boatswain.

”Time's running out,” Karl said to himself, ”but I can do nothing without offending everyone. I can't desert my uncle after he's just found me again. The captain is certainly polite, but that's where it ends. When it comes to discipline, his courtesy stops, and I'm sure my uncle spoke from the captain's soul. I don't want to speak to Schubal and I regret I ever shook his hand. And all the other people here aren't worth a hill of beans.”

And with these thoughts in his mind, Karl walked slowly over and drew the stoker's right hand out of his belt, gently cupping it in his own. ”Why don't you say anything?” he asked. ”Why do you take everything lying down?”

The stoker merely furrowed his brow, as if searching for the right words to express what he had to say. Meanwhile he gazed down at Karl's hand and his own.

”You've been wronged like no one else on this s.h.i.+p, that I know.” And Karl ran his fingers to and fro between the fingers of the stoker, who peered around with gleaming eyes as if he were experiencing a joy that no one ought to begrudge him.

”But you must defend yourself, say yes and no; otherwise people will have no idea of the truth. You must promise me that you will do as I say, for I have every reason to fear that I will no longer be able to help you.” And now Karl wept as he kissed the stoker's hand, and then took that cracked and almost lifeless hand and pressed it to his cheeks like a treasure that must be forsaken. -But his uncle the Senator was already at his side, leading him away, if only with the gentlest of pressures.

”The stoker seems to have cast a spell over you,” he said, glancing knowingly at the captain over Karl's head. ”You felt lost, then you found the stoker, and now you feel grateful, that's all very commendable. But don't go too far, if only for my sake, and please try to understand your position.”

Noises erupted outside the door and shouts were heard, it even sounded as if someone were being brutally shoved against the door. A sailor entered in a rather disheveled state and had a girl's ap.r.o.n tied around his waist. ”There's a crowd of people out there,” he yelled, swinging his elbows as if he were still in the crowd. He finally collected himself and was about to salute the captain when he noticed the ap.r.o.n, ripped it off, threw it to the floor, and shouted: ”This is disgusting, they've tied a girl's ap.r.o.n on me.” Then he clicked his heels together and saluted. Someone almost laughed, but the captain said severely: ”That's what I call a good mood. Just who is it outside?”

”They're my witnesses,” said Schubal, stepping forward. ”I humbly beg your pardon for their improper behavior. When the crew has the voyage behind them, they sometimes go a little crazy.”

”Call them in immediately!” commanded the captain, and turning directly to the Senator, politely but rapidly said: ”Please be so good as to take your nephew and follow this sailor, who will bring you to the boat, Mr. Senator, sir. I hardly need say what an honor and a pleasure it has been, Mr. Senator, to have met you in person. I only hope to have the opportunity soon to continue our interrupted conversation about the state of the American fleet, sir, and that it may be interrupted in as agreeable a manner as today.”

”This one nephew is enough for now,” said Karl's uncle, laughing. ”And now please accept my deep grat.i.tude for your kindness, and I bid you farewell. It is by no means impossible, after all, that we”-he hugged Karl closely to himself-”might be able to spend a longer time with you on our next journey to Europe.”

”That would please me greatly,” said the captain. The two gentlemen shook hands, Karl could only mutely grasp the captain's hand, for the captain was already preoccupied with the fifteen or so people led by Schubal, who were pouring into the room slightly cowed but still very noisy. The sailor asked the Senator if he could be permitted to lead the way, and then he cleared a path through the crowd for the Senator and Karl, who pa.s.sed easily through the bowing people. It was apparent that these people, a good-natured bunch in general, regarded Schubal's quarrel with the stoker as a joke that was still amusing even in the presence of the captain. Among them, Karl noticed Line the kitchen maid, who, winking gaily at him, put on and tied the ap.r.o.n the sailor had thrown down, for it belonged to her.

Still following the sailor, they left the office and turned into a short pasageway, which, after a few steps, brought them to a smaller door from which a short ladder led down to the boat that had been made ready for them. The sailors in the boat, into which their guide had leapt in a single bound, stood up and saluted. The Senator was just admonis.h.i.+ng Karl to exercise caution in climbing down when Karl, still on the topmost rung, burst into violent sobs. The Senator put his right hand under Karl's chin and held him tight, stroking him with his left hand. Clinging together in this way, they slowly descended step-by-step and landed in the boat, where the Senator selected a comfortable seat for Karl just opposite himself. At a sign from the Senator the sailors pushed off from the s.h.i.+p and were immediately rowing at full steam. They were hardly a few yards from the s.h.i.+p when Karl made the unexpected discovery that they were on the same side of the s.h.i.+p as the windows of the office. All three windows were filled by Schubal's witnesses, who greeted them with friendly waves; even Karl's uncle acknowledged them with a wave, and a sailor accomplished the feat of blowing them a kiss without ever breaking his even stroke. It was truly as if the stoker no longer existed. Karl more closely examined his uncle, whose knees were almost touching his, and he began to doubt whether, for him, this man could ever replace the stoker. And his uncle, avoiding his gaze, stared out at the waves jostling their boat.

In the Penal Colonyi.

”IT'S AN EXCEPTIONAL APPARATUS,” the officer said to the world traveler and, with a certain admiration, surveyed the apparatus that was, after all, quite familiar to him. The traveler appeared to have accepted purely out of politeness the commandant's invitation to attend the execution of a soldier, who had been condemned for insubordination and insulting a superior officer. There did not seem to be much interest in the execution throughout the penal colony itself. In any event, the only other persons present besides the officer and the traveler in this small but deep and sandy valley, surrounded by barren slopes on all sides, were the condemned man-a dull, thick-lipped creature with a disheveled appearance-and a soldier, who held the heavy chain that controlled the smaller chains attached to the condemned man's ankles, wrists, and neck, chains that were also linked together. But the condemned man looked so submissively doglike that it seemed as if he might have been allowed to run free on the slopes and would only need to be whistled for when the execution was due to begin.

The traveler was not particularly enthralled by the apparatus and he paced back and forth behind the condemned man with almost visible indifference while the officer made the final preparations, one moment crawling beneath the apparatus that was deeply embedded in the ground, another climbing a ladder to inspect its uppermost parts. These were tasks that could really have been left to a mechanic, but the officer performed them with energetic eagerness, perhaps because he was a devoted admirer of the apparatus or because, for whatever other reasons, the work could be entrusted to no one else. ”Now everything's ready!” he called out at last, and climbed down from the ladder. He had worked up a sweat and was breathing with his mouth wide open; he had also tucked two very fine ladies' handkerchiefs under the collar of his uniform. ”Surely these uniforms are too heavy for the tropics,” said the traveler instead of inquiring, as the officer expected, about the apparatus. ”Of course,” the officer said, was.h.i.+ng the oil and grease from his hands in a nearby bucket of water, ”but they represent home for us; we don't want to forget about our homeland-but now just take a look at this machine,” he immediately added, drying his hands on a towel and simultaneously indicating the apparatus. ”Up to this point I have to do some of the operations by hand, but from now on the apparatus works entirely by itself.” The traveler nodded and followed the officer. Then the officer, seeking to prepare himself for all eventualities, said: ”Naturally there are sometimes problems; I hope of course there won't be any problems today, but one must allow for the possibility. The apparatus should work continually for twelve hours, but even if anything does go wrong, it will be something minor and easy to repair at once.”

”Won't you sit down?” he inquired at last, pulling out a cane chair from a whole heap of them and offering it to the traveler, who was unable to refuse. The traveler was now sitting at the edge of a pit, and he glanced cursorily in its direction. It was not very deep. On one side of the pit, the excavated earth had been piled up to form an embankment, on the other side of the pit stood the apparatus. ”I don't know,” said the officer, ”whether the commandant has already explained the apparatus to you.” The traveler made a vague gesture with his hand, and the officer could not have asked for anything better, for now he was free to explain the apparatus himself. ”This apparatus,” he said, grabbing hold of the crankshaft and leaning against it, ”was the invention of our former commandant. I myself was involved in the very first experiments and also shared in the work all the way to its completion, but the credit for the invention belongs to him alone. Have you ever heard of our former commandant? No? Well, it wouldn't be too much to say that the organization of the whole penal colony is his work. We who were his friends knew long before his death that the organization of the colony was so perfectly self-contained that his successor, even if he had a thousand new schemes brewing in his head, would find it impossible to alter a thing from the old system, at least for many years to come. Our prediction has indeed come true, and the new commandant has had to acknowledge as much. It's too bad you never met the old commandant!-but,” the officer interrupted himself, ”I'm rambling, and here is his apparatus standing right in front of us. It consists, as you can see, of three parts. In the course of time each part has acquired its own nickname. The lower part is called the bed, the upper one is the designer, and this one in the middle here that hovers between them is called the harrow.” ”The harrow?” asked the traveler. He had not been listening very intently; the sun beat down brutally into the shadeless valley and it was difficult to collect one's thoughts. He had to admire the officer all the more: He wore his snugly fitting dress uniform, hung with braiding weighted with epaulettes; he expounded on his subject with zeal and tightened a few screws here and there with a screwdriver while he spoke. As for the soldier, he seemed to be in much the same condition as the traveler: He had wound the condemned man's chain around both his wrists and propped himself up with one hand on his rifle; his head hung down and he took no notice of anything. The traveler was not surprised by this, as the officer was speaking in French and certainly neither the soldier nor the condemned man understood French. It was therefore that much more remarkable that the condemned man nevertheless strove to follow the officer's explanations. With a drowsy sort of persistence he directed his gaze wherever the officer pointed, and when the traveler broke in with his question, he, like the officer, looked at the traveler.

”Yes, the harrow,” answered the officer, ”a perfect name for it. The needles are arranged similarly to the teeth of a harrow and the whole thing works something like a harrow, although it is stationary and performs with much more artistry. You'll soon understand it anyway. The condemned man is laid here on the bed-you see, first I want to explain the apparatus and then start it up, that way you'll be able to follow it better; besides, one of the gears in the designer is badly worn, it makes a horrible screeching noise when it's turning and you can hardly hear yourself speak; unfortunately spare parts are difficult to come by around here-well, so here is the bed, as I said before. It's completely covered with a layer of cotton wool, you'll find out what that's for later. The condemned man is laid facedown on the cotton wool, naked of course; here are straps for the hands, the feet, and here for the neck, in order to hold him down. So, as I was saying, here at the head of the bed, where the condemned man is at first laid facedown, is the little felt gag that can be adjusted easily to fit straight into the man's mouth. It's meant to keep him from screaming or biting his tongue. The man has to take the felt in his mouth since otherwise the neck strap would break his neck.” ”That's cotton wool?” asked the traveler, leaning forward. ”It certainly is,” the officer said with a smile, ”feel for yourself.” He grabbed hold of the traveler's hand and guided it over the bed's surface. ”It's specially prepared cotton wool, which is why you don't recognize it; I'll come to its purpose in a minute.” The traveler was starting to feel the stirrings of interest in the apparatus; he gazed up at it with one arm raised to s.h.i.+eld his eyes from the sun. It was a large structure. The bed and the designer were the same size and looked like two dark steamer trunks. The designer hung about two meters above the bed; they were joined at the corners by four bra.s.s rods that practically gleamed in the sunlight. The harrow was suspended on a steel band between the two trunks.

The officer had barely noticed the traveler's previous indifference but definitely sensed his burgeoning interest, so he paused in his explanations in order to give the traveler time for undisturbed observation. The condemned man imitated the traveler, but since he could not s.h.i.+eld his eyes with a hand, he blinked up into the sun.

”So, the man lies down,” said the traveler, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs.

”Yes,” said the officer, pus.h.i.+ng his cap back a little and mop-ping his sweaty face with his hand, ”now listen! Both the bed and the designer have their own electric battery; the bed needs one for itself and the designer needs one for the harrow. As soon as the man is strapped in, the bed is set in motion. It quivers with tiny, rapid vibrations, both from side to side and up and down. You will have seen similar contraptions in sanitariums, but for our bed, all the movements are calibrated precisely, for they must correspond to movements of the harrow. But it is the harrow that actually carries out the sentence.”

”And just what is the sentence?” inquired the traveler. ”You don't know that either?” the officer said in astonishment, and bit his lip. ”Excuse me if my explanations seem a bit incoherent, I beg your pardon. The commandant always used to take care of the explanations, but the new commandant seems to scorn this duty; but that such a distinguished visitor”-the traveler attempted to wave this distinction away with both hands, but the officer insisted on the expression-”that such a distinguished visitor should not even be made aware of the form our sentencing takes is a new development, which”-an oath was about to pa.s.s his lips but he checked himself and said only: ”I was not informed of this, it's not my fault. In any case, I'm certainly the man best equipped to explain our sentencing, since I have here”-he patted his breast pocket-”the relevant drawings made by our former commandant.”

”Drawings by the commandant himself?” the traveler asked. ”Was he everything himself? Was he soldier, judge, engineer, chemist, draftsman?”

”Yes sir, he was,” the officer answered, nodding his head with a remote, contemplative look. Then he examined his hands closely; they did not seem to be clean enough for him to handle the drawings, so he went over to the bucket and washed them again. Then he drew out a small leather folder and said: ”The sentence does not sound severe. Whatever commandment the condemned man has transgressed is engraved on his body by the harrow. This man, for example”-the officer indicated the man-”will have inscribed on his body: 'Honor thy superiors!' ”

The traveler briefly looked at the man, who stood, as the officer pointed him out, with bowed head, apparently straining with all his might to catch something of what was said. But the movement of his thick, closed lips clearly showed that he understood nothing. There were a number of questions the traveler wanted to ask, but at the sight of the man he asked only: ”Does he know his sentence?” ”No,” said the officer, eager to continue his explanations, but the traveler interrupted him: ”He doesn't know his own sentence?” ”No,” repeated the officer, and paused for a moment as if he were waiting for the traveler to elaborate on the reason for his question, then said: ”It would be pointless to tell him. He'll come to know it on his body.” The traveler would not have spoken further, but he felt the condemned man's gaze trained on him; it seemed to be asking if the traveler approved of all this. So after having already leaned back in his chair, he bent forward again and asked another question: ”But does he at least know that he's been sentenced?” ”No, not that either,” the officer replied, smiling at the traveler as if expecting him to make more strange statements. ”Well,” said the traveler, ”then you mean to tell me that the man is also unaware of the results of his defense?” ”He has had no opportunity to defend himself,” said the officer, looking away as if talking to himself and trying to spare the traveler the embarra.s.sment of having such self-evident matters explained to him. ”But he must have had some opportunity to defend himself,” the traveler said, and got up from his seat.

The officer realized that his explanations of the apparatus were in danger of being held up for quite some time, so he approached the traveler, put his arm through his, and gestured toward the condemned man, who was standing up straight now that he was so obviously the center of attention-the soldier had also given the chain a jerk-and said: ”Here's the situation. I have been appointed judge in this penal colony-despite my youth-as I was the previous commandant's a.s.sistant in all penal matters and also know the apparatus better than anyone else. The guiding principle for my decisions is this: Guilt is unquestionable. Other courts cannot follow that principle because they have more than one member and even have courts that are higher than themselves. That is not the case here, or at least it was not so during the time of the former commandant. Although the new one has shown signs of interfering with my judgments, I have succeeded in fending him off so far and shall continue to do so-you wanted to have this case explained; it's quite simple, as they all are. A captain reported to me this morning and charged this man-who is a.s.signed to him as an orderly and sleeps in front of his door-with sleeping on duty. You see, it is his duty to get up every time the hour strikes and salute the captain's door. This is certainly not a tremendously difficult task but a necessary one, as he must be alert both to guard and wait on his master. Last night the captain wanted to find out whether the orderly was performing his duty. When the clock struck two, he opened the door and found the man curled up asleep. He took his horsewhip and lashed him across the face. Now instead of rising and begging for pardon, the man grabbed his master by the legs, shook him, and cried: 'Throw away that whip or I'll swallow you whole'-those are the facts. The captain came to me an hour ago, I wrote down his statement and immediately followed it up with the sentence. Then I had the man put in chains. That was quite simple. If I had called for this man first and interrogated him, it would only have resulted in confusion. He would have lied, and had I been successful in exposing those lies, he would just have replaced them with new ones, and so on. But as it stands now, I have him and I won't let him go-is everything clear now? But time's marching on, the execution ought to be starting and I haven't finished explaining the apparatus yet.” He pressed the traveler back into his seat, returned to the apparatus, and began: ”As you can see, the shape of the harrow corresponds to the human form; here is the harrow for the upper body, here are the harrows for the legs. For the head there is just this one small spike. Is that clear?” He bent forward toward the traveler amiably, eager to furnish the most comprehensive explanations.

With a furrowed brow the traveler examined the harrow. He was not satisfied with the explanation of the judicial process. Still, he had to remind himself, this was a penal colony, special measures were needed here, military procedures must be adhered to up to the very end. He also placed some hope in the new commandant, who intended to introduce, albeit slowly, new procedures that the officer's narrow mind could not conceive of. These thoughts led him to his next question: ”Will the commandant attend the execution?” ”It's not certain,” the officer said, wincing at the direct question, and his friendly expression clouded over. ”That is why we must hurry. As much as it pains me, I'll have to cut my explanations short. But of course tomorrow, after the apparatus has been cleaned-its only drawback is that it gets so messy-I can go into more detail. So for now, just the essentials: When the man is laid down on the bed and it has started vibrating, the harrow is lowered onto his body. It automatically adjusts itself so that the needles just graze the skin; once the adjustment is completed, the steel band promptly stiffens to form a rigid bar. And now the performance begins. An uninformed observer would not be able to differentiate between one punishment and another. The harrow appears to do its work in a uniform manner. As it quivers, its points pierce the body, which is itself quivering from the vibrations of the bed. So that the progress of the sentencing can be seen, the harrow is made of gla.s.s. Securing the needles in the gla.s.s presented some technical difficulties, but after many attempts we were successful. We spared no effort, you understand. And now anyone can observe the sentence being inscribed on the body. Don't you want to come closer and examine the needles?”

The traveler rose to his feet slowly, walked across, and bent over the harrow. ”You see,” said the officer, ”there are two types of needles arranged in various patterns. Each long needle has a short one adjacent to it. The long needle does the writing, and the short one flushes away the blood with water so that the writing is always clearly legible. The b.l.o.o.d.y water is then conducted through grooves and finally flows into this main pipe, which empties into the pit.” With his finger the officer outlined the exact route the b.l.o.o.d.y water had to take. When, in order to make the image as vivid as possible, he cupped his hands under the mouth of the pipe as if to catch the outflow, the traveler drew his head back and, groping behind him with one hand, tried to return to his chair. To his horror he then saw that the condemned man had also accepted the officer's invitation to examine the harrow more closely. He had tugged the sleepy soldier forward a little and was leaning over the gla.s.s. One could see that he was searching, with a puzzled expression, for what the gentlemen had been examining, but since he had not heard the explanation he was not successful. He bent this way and that; he repeatedly ran his eyes over the gla.s.s. The traveler wanted to drive him back because what he was doing was probably a criminal offense, but the officer restrained the traveler with a firm hand and with the other hand picked up a clump of dirt from the embankment and hurled it at the soldier. The soldier jerked awake and saw what the condemned man had dared to do; he dropped his rifle, dug in his heels, yanked the condemned man back so forcefully that he immediately fell, and then stood over him, watching him writhe around and rattle his chains. ”Get him on his feet!” shouted the officer, for he noticed that the traveler was dangerously distracted by the condemned man. The traveler even leaned across the harrow, taking no notice of it, only concerned with what was happening to the condemned man. ”Be careful with him!” the officer yelled again. He circled the apparatus and grasped the condemned man under the armpits himself; with the help of the soldier he hauled him to his feet, which kept slipping and sliding.

”Now I know all there is to know about it,” the traveler said as the officer returned to his side. ”All but the most important thing,” he replied, seizing the traveler by the arm and pointing upward. ”Up there in the designer is the machinery that controls the movements of the harrow, and this mechanism is then programmed to correspond with the drawing of the prescribed sentence. I am still using the former commandant's drawings. Here they are”-he pulled some sheets out of the leather folder-”unfortunately I can't let you touch them, they're my most prized and valuable possession. Just sit, and I'll show them to you from here, then you'll be able to see everything perfectly.” He held up the first drawing. The traveler would gladly have said something complimentary, but all he saw was a labyrinth of crisscross ing lines that covered the paper so thickly that it was difficult to discern the blank s.p.a.ces between them. The officer said: ”Read it.” ”I can't,” said the traveler. ”Well, it's clear enough,” remarked the officer. ”It's very artistic,” the traveler offered evasively, ”but I can't make it out.” ”Sure,” agreed the officer, with a laugh, and put away the folder, ”it's not calligraphy for schoolchildren. It must be carefully studied. I'm sure you'd eventually understand it too. Of course the script can't be too simple: It's not meant to kill on first contact, but only after twelve hours, on average; but the turning point is calculated to come at the sixth hour. So the lettering itself must be surrounded by lots and lots of flourishes; the actual wording runs around the body only in a narrow strip, and the rest of the body is reserved for the ornamentation. Now do you appreciate the work of the harrow and the whole apparatus? -Just watch!” and he leaped up the ladder, rotated a wheel, and called out: ”Look out, step to the side!” then everything started up. If it had not been for the screeching gear it would have been fantastic. As if he were surprised by the noisy gear, he shook his fist at it, then shrugged apologetically to the traveler and clambered down the ladder to check the working of the apparatus from below. Something that only he could detect was still not in order; he climbed up again and reached inside the designer with both hands, then, instead of using the ladder, slid down one of the rails to get down quicker and started hollering into the traveler's ear at the top of his lungs in order to be heard above the din: ”Are you following the process? First, the harrow begins to write; as soon as it has finished the initial draft of the inscription on the man's back, the layer of cotton wool is set rolling and slowly turns the body onto its side, giving the harrow fresh room to write. Meanwhile, the raw flesh that has already been inscribed rests against the cotton wool, which is specially prepared to staunch the bleeding immediately and ready everything for a further deepening of the script. Then, as the body continues to turn, these teeth here at the edge of the harrow tear the cotton wool away from the wounds and toss it into the pit; now there is fresh work for the harrow. So it keeps on writing more and more deeply for all twelve hours. For the first six hours the condemned man is alive almost as before, he only suffers pain. The felt gag is removed after two hours, as he no longer has the strength to scream. This electrically heated bowl at the head of the bed is filled with warm rice gruel, and the man is welcome, should he so desire, to take as much as his tongue can reach. No one ever pa.s.ses up the opportunity; I don't know of one, and my experience is vast. The man loses his pleasure in eating only around the sixth hour. At this point I usually kneel down to observe the phenomenon. The man rarely swallows the last mouthful but merely rolls it around in his mouth and spits it into the pit. I have to duck just then, otherwise he would spit it in my face. But how still the man becomes in the sixth hour! Enlightenment comes to even the dimmest. It begins around the eyes, and it spreads outward from there-a sight that might tempt one to lie down under the harrow oneself. Nothing more happens, just that the man starts to interpret the writing, he screws up his mouth as if he were listening. You've seen yourself how difficult the writing is to decipher with your eyes, but our man deciphers it with his wounds. Of course it is hard work and it takes him six hours to accomplish it, but then the harrow pierces him clean through and throws him into the pit, where he's flung down onto the cotton wool and b.l.o.o.d.y water. This concludes the sentence and we, the soldier and I, bury him.”