“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 embarrassment 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 assistant 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 assigned 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.