 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how to volunteer, please contact LibriVox.org. Recording by Peter Yersley. In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka. Translated by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University College, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. In the Penal Colony. It's a peculiar apparatus, said the officer to the traveller, gazing with a certain admiration at the device with which he was, of course thoroughly familiar. It appeared that the traveller 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 traveller, they 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 traveller 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 ladies' handkerchiefs under the collar of his uniform. These uniforms are really too heavy for the tropics, the traveller 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 traveller 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 traveller. 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 you. The traveller made a vague gesture with his hand. That was good enough for the officer for now he could explain the apparatus himself. This apparatus, he said, grasping a connecting rod and linear against it, is our previous commandant's invention. I also worked with him on the very first tests and took part in all the work right up to its completion. However, the credit for the invention belongs to him alone. Have you heard of our previous commandant? No. Well, I'm not claiming too much when I say that the organisation of the entire penal colony is his work. We, his friends, already knew at the time of his death that the administration of the colony was so self-contained that even if his successor had a thousand new plans in mind he would not be able to alter any of the old plan, at least not for several years. And our prediction has held. The new commandant has had to recognise that. It's a shame that you didn't know the previous commandant. However, the officer said, interrupting himself, I'm chattering and his apparatus stands here in front of us. As you see, it consists of three parts. With the passage of time certain popular names have been developed for each of these parts. The one underneath is called the bed, the upper one is called the inscriber and here in the middle this moving part is called the harrow. The harrow, the traveller asked, he had not been listening with full attention. The sun was excessively strong, trapped in the shadowless valley and one could hardly collect one's thoughts. So the officer appeared to him all the more admirable in his tights tunic, weighed down with epaulettes and festooned with braid, ready to go on parade as he explained the matter so eagerly and while he was talking adjusted screws here and there with a screwdriver. The soldier appeared to be in a state similar to the traveller. He had wound the condemned man's chain around both his wrists and was supporting himself with his hand on his weapon letting his head hang backward, not bothering about anything. The traveller was not surprised at that, for the officer spoke French and clearly neither the soldier nor the condemned man understood the language. So it was all the more striking that the condemned man in spite of that did what he could to follow the officer's explanation. With a sort of sleepy persistence he kept directing his gaze to the place where the officer had just pointed and when the question from the traveller interrupted the officer the condemned man looked at the traveller too, just as the officer was doing. Yes, the harrow said the officer. The name fits. The needles are arranged as in a harrow and the whole thing is driven like a harrow although it stays in one place and is in principle much more artistic. You'll understand in a moment. The condemned is laid out here on the bed. First I'll describe the apparatus and only then let the procedure go to work. That way you'll be able to follow it better. Also a sprocket in the inscriber is excessively worn. It really squeaks. When it's in motion one can hardly make oneself understood. Unfortunately replacement parts are difficult to come by in this place. So, here is the bed as I said. The whole thing is completely covered with a layer of cotton wool the purpose of which you'll find out in a moment. The condemned man is laid out on his stomach on the cotton wool, naked of course. There are straps for the hands here, for the feet here and for the throat here to tie him in securely. At the head of the bed here where the man as I have mentioned first lies face down is this small protruding lump of felt which can easily be adjusted so that it presses right into the man's mouth. Its purpose is to prevent him screaming and biting his tongue to pieces. Of course the man has to let the felt in his mouth otherwise the straps around his throat would break his neck. That's cotton wool, asked the traveller and bent down. Yes it is said the officer smiling. Fill it for yourself. He took the traveller's hand and led him over to the bed. It's especially prepared cotton wool, that's why it looks so unrecognisable. I'll get around to mentioning its purpose in a moment. The traveller was already being won over a little to the apparatus. With his hand over his eyes to protect them from the sun he looked at the apparatus in the hole. It was a massive construction. The bed and the inscriber were the same size and looked like two dark chests. The inscriber was set about two metres above the bed and the two were joined together at the corners by four brass rods which almost reflected the sun. The harrow hung between the chests on a band of steel. The officer had hardly noticed the earlier indifference of the traveller but he did have a sense now of how the latter's interest was being aroused for the first time. So he paused in his explanation in order to allow the traveller time to observe the apparatus undisturbed. The conned man imitated the traveller but since he could not put his hand over his eyes he blinked upward with his eyes uncovered. So now the man is lying down, said the traveller. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. Yes, said the officer, pushing his cap back a little and running his hand over his hot face. Now, listen, both the bed and the inscriber have their own electric batteries. The bed needs them for itself and the inscriber for the harrow. As soon as the man is strapped in securely the bed is set in motion. It quivers with tiny, very rapid oscillations from side to side and up and down simultaneously. You will have seen similar devices in mental hospitals. Only with our bed all movements are precisely calibrated for they must be meticulously coordinated with the movements of the harrow. But it's the harrow which has the job of actually carrying out the sentence. What is the sentence? The traveller asked. You don't even know that. Asked the officer in astonishment and bit his lip. Forgive me if my explanations are perhaps confused. I really do beg your pardon. Previously it was the commandant's habit to provide such explanations but the new commandant has excused himself from this honourable duty. The fact that with such an eminent visitor the traveller tried to deflect the honour with both hands but the officer insisted on the expression that with such an eminent visitor he didn't even once make him aware of the form of our sentencing. Yet again something new which he had a curse on his lips but controlled himself and said merely I was not informed about it. It's not my fault. In any case I am certainly the person best able to explain our style of sentencing for here I am carrying carrying he patted his breast pocket the relevant diagrams drawn by the previous commandant diagrams made by the commandant himself asked the traveller then was he in his own person a combination of everything was he soldier, judge, engineer chemist and draftsman he was indeed said the officer nodding his head with a fixed and thoughtful expression then he looked at his hands examining them they didn't seem to him clean enough to handle the diagrams so he went to the bucket and washed them again then he pulled out a small leather folder and said our sentence does not sound severe the law which a condemned man has violated is inscribed on his body with the harrow this condemned man for example and the officer pointed to the man will have inscribed on his body honour your superiors the traveller had a quick look at the man the officer was pointing at him the man kept his head down and appeared to be directing all his energy into listening in order to learn something but the movements of his thick pouting lips showed clearly that he was incapable of understanding anything the traveller wanted to raise various questions but after looking at the condemned man he merely asked does he know his sentence no said the officer he wished to get on with his explanation right away but the traveller interrupted him he doesn't know his own sentence no said the officer once more he then paused for a moment as if he was asking the traveller for a more detailed reason for his question and said it would be useless to give him that information he experiences it on his own body the traveller really wanted to keep quiet at this point but he felt how the condemned man was gazing at him he seemed to be asking whether he could approve of the process the officer had described so the traveller who had up to this point been leaning back bent forward again and kept up his questions but does he nonetheless have some general idea that he's been condemned not that either said the officer and he smiled at the traveller as if he was still waiting for some strange revelations from him no said the traveller wiping his forehead then does the man also not yet know how his defence was received he has had no opportunity to defend himself said the officer and looked away as if he was talking to himself and wished not to embarrass the traveller with an explanation of matters so self-evident to him but he must have had a chance to defend himself said the traveller and stood up from his chair the officer recognised that he was in danger of having his explanation of the apparatus held up for a long time so he went to the traveller looking by the arm pointed with his hand at the condemned man who stood there stiffly now that the attention was so clearly directed at him the soldier was also pulling on his chain and said the matter stands like this here in the penal colony I have been appointed a judge in spite of my youth for I stood at the side of our old commandant in all matters of punishment and I also know the most about the apparatus the basic principle I use for my decisions is this guilt is always beyond a doubt other courts could not follow this principle for they are made up of many heads and in addition have even higher courts above them but that is not the case here or at least it was not that way with the previous commandant it's true the new commandant has already shown a desire to get mixed up in my court but I've succeeded so far in fending him off and I'll continue to be successful you want this case explained it's simple just like all of them this morning a captain laid a charge that this man who is assigned to him as a servant and who sleeps before his door had been sleeping on duty for his task is to stand up every time the clock strikes the hour and salute in front of the captain's door that's certainly not a difficult duty and it's necessary since he is supposed to remain fresh both for guarding and for service yesterday night the captain wanted to check whether his servant was fulfilling his duty he opened the door on the stroke of two and found him curled up asleep he got his horse whip and hit him across the face now instead of standing up and begging for forgiveness the man grabbed his master by the legs shook him and cried out throw away that whipper I'll eat you up those are the facts the captain came to me an hour ago I wrote up his statement and right after that the sentence then I had the man chained up it was all very simple if I had first summoned the man and interrogated him the result would have been confusion he would have lied and if I had been successful in refuting his lies he would have replaced them with new lies and so forth but now I have him and I won't release him again now does that clarify everything? but time is passing we should be starting the execution and I haven't finished explaining the apparatus yet he urged the traveller to sit down in his chair moved to the apparatus again and started as you see the shape of the harrow corresponds to the shape of a man this is the harrow for the upper body and here are the harrows for the legs this small cutter is the only one designated for the head is that clear to you? he leaned forward to the traveller in a friendly way ready to give the most comprehensive explanation the traveller looked at the harrow with a wrinkled frown the information about the judicial procedures had not satisfied him however he had to tell himself that here it was a matter of a penal colony that in this place special regulations were necessary and that one had to give precedence to military measures right down to the last detail beyond that however he had some hopes in the new commandant who obviously, although slowly was intending to introduce a new procedure which the limited understanding of this officer could not cope with following this train of thought the traveller asked will the commandant be present at the execution? let is not certain said the officer embarrassingly affected by the sudden question and his friendly expression made a grimace that's why we need to hurry up as much as I regret the fact I'll have to make my explanation even shorter but tomorrow once the apparatus is clean again the fact that it gets so very dirty is its only fault I could add a detailed explanation so now, only the most important things when the man is lying on the bed and it starts quivering the harrow sinks onto the body it positions itself automatically in such a way that it touches the body only lightly with the needle tips once the machine is set in this position the steel cable tightens up into a rod and now the performance begins someone who is not an initiate sees no external difference among the punishments the harrow seems to do its work uniformly as it quivers it sticks the tips of its needles into the body which is also vibrating from the movement of the bed now to enable someone to check on how the sentence is being carried out the harrow is made of glass and we've rised to certain technical difficulties with fastening the needles securely but after several attempts we were successful we didn't spare any efforts and now, as the inscription is made on the body everyone can see through the glass don't you want to come closer and see the needles for yourself the traveller stood slowly moved up and bent over the harrow you see, the officer said two sorts of needles in a multiple arrangement each long needle has a short one next to it the long one inscribes and the short one squirts water out to wash away the blood and to keep the inscription always clear the bloody water is then channeled here in small grooves and finally flows into these main gutters and the outlet pipe takes it to the pit the officer pointed with his finger to the exact path which the bloody water had to take as he began to demonstrate with both hands the outlet pipe in order to make his account as clear as possible the traveller raised his head and feeling behind him with his hand wanted to return to his chair then he sought his horror that the condemned man had also, like him accepted the officer's invitation to inspect the arrangement of the harrow up close he had pulled the sleeping soldier holding the chain a little forward and was also bending over the glass one could see how the other confused gaze he also was looking for what the two gentlemen had just observed but how, he didn't succeed because he lacked the explanation he leaned forward this way and that he kept running his eyes over the glass again and again the traveller wanted to push him back for what he was doing was probably punishable but the officer held the traveller firmly with one hand and with the other he took a lump of earth from the wall and threw it at the soldier to the start saw what the condemned man had dared to do let his weapon fall braced his heels in the earth and pulled the condemned man back so that he immediately collapsed the soldier looked down at him as he writhed around making his chain clink stand him up, cried the officer then he noticed that the condemned man was distracting the traveller too much the latter was even leaning out away from the harrow without paying any attention to it wanting to find out what was happening to the condemned man handle him carefully the officer yelled again he ran around the apparatus personally grabbed the condemned man under the armpits and with the help of the soldier stood the man whose feet kept slipping upright now I know all about it said the traveller as the officer turned back to him again except the most important thing said the latter grabbing the traveller by the arm and pointing up high is the mechanism which determines the movement of the harrow and this mechanism is arranged according to the diagram on which the sender is set down I still use the diagrams of the previous commandant here they are he pulled some pages out of the leather folder unfortunately I can't handle them to you they are the most cherished thing I possess sit down and I'll show you them from this distance then you'll be able to see it all well he showed the first sheet the traveller would have been happy to say something appreciative but all he saw was a labyrinthine series of lines crisscrossing each other in all sorts of ways these covered the paper so thickly that only with difficulty could one make out the white spaces in between read it said the officer I can't but it's clear said the officer it's very elaborate said the traveller evasively yes said the officer smiling and putting the folder back again it's not calligraphy for school children one has to read it a long time you too will finally understand it clearly of course it has to be a script that isn't simple you see it's not supposed to kill right away but on average over a period of 12 hours the turning point is set for the sixth hour there must also be many many embellishments surrounding the basic script the essential script moves around the body only in a narrow belt the rest of the body is reserved for decoration can you now appreciate the work of the arrow and the whole apparatus just look at it he jumped up the ladder turned a wheel and called down watch out move to the side everything started moving if the wheel had not squeaked it would have been marvellous the officer threatened the wheel with his fist as if he was surprised by the disturbance it created then he spread his arms apologizing to the traveller and quickly clambered down in order to observe the operation of the apparatus from below something was still not working properly something only he noticed he clambered up again and reached with both hands into the inside of the inscriber then in order to descend more quickly instead of using the ladder he slid down one of the poles and to make himself understandable through the noise strained his voice to the limit as he held in the traveller's ear do you understand the process the harrow is starting to write when it's finished with the first part of the script on the man's back the layer of cotton wool rolls and turns the body slowly onto its side to give the harrow a new area meanwhile those parts lacerated by the inscription are lying on the cotton wool which because it has been specially treated immediately stops the bleeding and prepares the script for a further deepening here as the body continues to rotate prongs on the edge of the harrow then pull the cotton wool from the wounds throw it into the pit and the harrow goes to work again in this way it keeps making the inscription deeper for twelve hours for the first six hours the condemned man goes on living almost as before he suffers nothing but pain after two hours the felt is removed for at that point the man has no more energy for screaming here at the head of the bed into this electrically heated bowl from this the man, if he feels like it can help himself to what he can lap up with his tongue no one passes up this opportunity I don't know of a single one and I've had a lot of experience he first loses his pleasure in eating around the sixth hour I usually kneel down at this point and observe the phenomenon the man rarely swallows the last bit he turns it around in his mouth and spits it into the pit when he does that I have to lean aside or else he'll get me in the face but how quiet the man becomes around the sixth hour the most stupid of them begin to understand it starts around the eyes and spreads out from there a look that could tempt one to lie down under the harrow nothing else happens the man simply begins to decipher the inscription he purses his lips as if he is listening you've seen that it is not easy to figure out the inscription with your eyes but our man deciphers it with his wounds true, it takes a lot of work it requires six hours to complete but then the harrow spits him right out and throws him into the pit where he splashes down into the bloody water and cotton wool then the judgment is over and we, the soldier and I, quickly bury him the traveller had leaned his ear towards the officer and with his hands in his coat pockets he began to begin at work the condemned man was also watching but without understanding he bent forward a little and followed the moving needles as the soldier, after a signal from the officer cut through his shirt and trousers with a knife from the back so that they fell off the condemned man he wanted to grab the falling garments to cover his bare flesh but the soldier held him up and shook the last rags from him the officer turned the machine off and in the silence which then ensued he went out under the harrow the chains were taken off and the straps fastened in their place for the condemned man it seemed at first glance to signify almost a relief and now the harrow sunk down a stage lower for the condemned was a thin man as the needle tips touched him a shudder went over his skin while the soldier was busy with the right hand the condemned man stretched out his left with no sense of its direction but it was pointing to where the traveller was standing the officer kept looking at the traveller from the side without taking his eyes off him as if he was trying to read from his face the impression he was getting of the execution which he had now explained to him at least superficially the strap meant to hold the wrist ripped off the soldier probably had pulled on it too hard the soldier showed the officer the torn off piece of strap wanting him to help so the officer went over to him and said with his face turned towards the traveller the machine is very complicated now and then something has to tear or break one shouldn't let that detract from one's overall opinion anyway, we have an immediate replacement for the strap I'll use a chain even though that will affect the sensitivity of the movement for the right arm and while he put the chain in place he kept talking our resources for maintaining the machine are very limited at the moment under the previous commandant I had free access to a cash box there was a storeroom here in which all possible replacement parts were kept I admit I made almost extravagant use of it I mean earlier, not now, as the new commandant claims for him everything serves only as a pretext to fight against the old arrangements now he keeps the cash box for machinery under his own control and if I ask him for a new strap he demands the torn one as a piece of evidence the new one doesn't arrive for ten days and it's an inferior brand not much use to me but how am I supposed to get to the machine to work in the meantime without a strap no one's concerned about that the traveller was thinking it's always questionable to intervene decisively in strange circumstances he was neither a citizen of the penal colony nor a citizen of the state to which it belonged if he wanted to condemn the execution or even hinder it people could say to him you're a foreigner, keep quiet he could have nothing in response to that but could only add that he did not understand what he was doing on this occasion for the purpose of his travelling was merely to observe and not to alter other people's judicial systems in any way true, at this point the way things were turning out it was very tempting the injustice of the process and the inhumanity of the execution were beyond doubt no one could assume that the traveller was acting out of any sense of his own self-interest the welcomed man was a stranger to him not a countryman and not someone who invited sympathy in any way the traveller himself had letters of reference from high officials and had been welcomed here with great courtesy the fact that he had been invited to this execution even seemed to indicate that people were asking for his judgement of this trial this was all the more likely since the commandant as he had now heard only too clearly was no supporter of this process and maintained an almost hostile relationship with the officer then the traveller heard a cry of rage from the officer he had just shoved the stub of felt in the condemned man's mouth not without difficulty when the condemned man overcome by an irresistible nausea shut his eyes and threw up the officer quickly yanked him up off the stump and wanted to turn his head aside toward the pit but it was too late the vomit was already flowing down onto the machine this is all a commandant's fault cried the officer and mindlessly rattled the brass rods at the front my machines as filthy as a pigsty with trembling hands he showed the traveller what had happened haven't I spent hours trying to make the commandant understand that a day before the execution there should be no more food served but the new lenient administration has a different opinion before the man is led away the commandant's women cram sugary things down his throat his whole life he's fed himself on stinking fish and now he has to eat sweets but that would be all right I'd have no objections but why don't they get a new felt the way I've been asking him for three months now how can anyone take this felt into his mouth without feeling disgusted something that a hundred men have sucked and bitten on it as they were dying the condemned man had laid his head down and appeared peaceful the soldier was busy cleaning up the machine with the condemned man's shirt the officer went up to the traveller who feeling some premonition took a step backwards but the officer grasped him by the hand and pulled him aside I want to speak a few words to you in confidence he said may I do that? of course said the traveller and listened with his eyes lowered this process and execution which you now have an opportunity to admire have no more open supporters in our colony I am its only defender just as I am the single advocate for the old commandant I can no longer think about a more extensive organisation of the process I'm using all my powers to maintain what there is at present when the old commandant was alive the colony was full of his supporters I have something of the old commandant's power of persuasion but I completely lack his power and as a result the supporters have gone into hiding there are still a lot of them but no one admits to it if you go into a tea house today that is to say on a day of execution and keep your ears open perhaps you'll hear nothing but ambiguous remarks they are all supporters but under the present commandant considering his present views they are totally useless to me and now I'm asking you should such a life's work he pointed to the machine come to nothing because of this commandant and the women influencing him should people let that happen? even if one is a foreigner and only on our island for a couple of days but there's no time to lose people are already preparing something against my judicial proceedings discussions are already taking place in the commandant's headquarters to which I am not invited even your visit today seems to me typical of the whole situation people are cowards and send you out, a foreigner you should have seen the executions in earlier days the entire value is overflowing with people even a day before the execution they all came merely to watch early in the morning the commandant appeared with his women fanfares woke up the entire campsite I delivered the news that everything was ready the whole society and every high official had to attend arranged itself around the machine this pile of cane chairs is a sorry leftover from that time the machine was freshly cleaned and glowed for almost every execution I had new replacement parts in front of hundreds of eyes all the spectators stood on tiptoe right up to the hills there the condemned man was laid down under the harrow by the commandant himself what nowadays is done by a common soldier was then my work as the senior judge and it was an honour for me and then the execution began no discordant note disturbed the work of the machine many people did not look any more at all but lay down with closed eyes in the sand they all knew now justice was being carried out in silence people listened to nothing but the groans of the condemned man muffled by the felt these days the machine had no longer managed to squeeze a strong groan out of the condemned man something the felt is not capable of smothering but back then the needles which made the inscription drip to caustic liquid were not permitted to use any more today well then came the sixth hour it was impossible to grant all the requests people made to be allowed to watch from up close the commandant in his wisdom arranged that the children should be taken care of before all the rest naturally I was always allowed to stand close by because of my official position often I crouched down there with two small children in my arms on my right and left how we all took in the expression on the martyred face how we held our cheeks in the glow of disjustice finally attained and already passing away what times we had my friend the officer had obviously forgotten who was standing in front of him he had put his arm around the traveller and laid his head on his shoulder the traveller was extremely embarrassed impatiently he looked away over the officer's head the soldier had ended his task of cleaning and had just shaken some rice pudding into the bowl from a tin no sooner had the condemned man who seemed to have fully recovered already noticed this then his tongue began to lick at the pudding the soldier kept pushing him away for the pudding was probably meant for a later time but in any case it was not proper for the soldier to reach in and grab some food with his dirty hands and eat it in front of the famished condemned man the officer quickly collected himself I didn't want to upset you in any way he said I know it is impossible to make someone understand those days now beside the machine still works and operates on its own it operates on its own even when it is standing alone in this valley and at the end the body still keeps falling in that incredibly soft flight into the pit even if hundreds of people are not gathered like flies around the hole the way they used to be he had to erect a strong railing around the pit it was pulled out long ago the traveller wanted to turn his face away from the officer and looked aimlessly around him the officer thought he was looking at the wasteland of the valley so he grabbed his hands turned him around in order to catch his gaze and asked do you see the shame of it but the traveller said nothing the officer left him alone for a while with his legs apart and his hands on his hips he stood still and looked at the ground then he smiled at the traveller cheerfully and said yesterday I was nearby when the commandant invited you I heard the invitation I know the commandant I understood right away what he intended with his invitation although his power might be sufficiently great to take action against me he doesn't yet dare to but my guess is that with you he is exposing me to the judgment of a respected foreigner he calculates things with care you are now in your second day on the island you didn't know the old commandant and his way of thinking you are trapped in a European way of seeing things perhaps you are fundamentally opposed to the death penalty in general and to this kind of mechanical style of execution in particular moreover you see how the execution is a sad procedure without any public participation using a partially damaged machine now if we take all of this together so the commandant thinks surely one could easily imagine that you would not consider my procedure proper and if you didn't consider it right you wouldn't keep quiet about it I'm still speaking the mind of the commandant for you no doubt have faith that your tried and true convictions are correct it's true that you have seen many peculiar things among many peoples and have learnt to respect them thus you will probably not speak out against the procedure with your full power as you would perhaps in your own homeland but the commandant doesn't really need that a casual word merely a careless remark is enough it doesn't have to match your convictions at all so long as it corresponds to his wishes I'm certain he will use all his shrewdness to interrogate you and his women will stand around in a circle and perk up their ears you will say something like among us the judicial procedures are different or with us the accused is questioned before the verdict we had torture only in the middle ages for you these observations appear as correct as they are self evident innocent remarks which do not impugn my procedure but how will the commandant take them I see him our excellent commandant the way he immediately pushes his stall aside and hurries out to the balcony I see his women how they stream after him I hear his voice the women call it a thunder voice and now he's speaking a great western explorer has been commissioned to inspect judicial procedures in all countries has just said that our process based on old customs is inhuman after the verdict of such a personality it is of course no longer possible for me to tolerate this procedure so from this day on I'm ordering and so forth you want to intervene you didn't say what he is reporting you didn't call my procedure inhuman by contrast in keeping with your deep insight you consider it most humane and most worthy of human beings you also admire this machinery but it is too late you don't even go on to the balcony which is already filled with women you want to attract attention you want to cry out but a lady's hand is covering your mouth and I and the old commandant's works are lost the traveller had to suppress a smile so the work which he had considered so difficult was easy he said evasively you're exaggerating my influence the commandant has read my letters of recommendation he knows that I'm no expert in judicial processes if I were to express an opinion it would be that of a lay person no more significant than the opinion of anyone else and in any case far less significant than the opinion of the commandant who as I understand it has very extensive powers in this penal colony if his views of this procedure are as definite as you think they are then I'm afraid the time has come for this procedure to end without any need for my humble opinion did the officer understand by now no he did not yet get it he shook his head vigorously briefly looked back at the condemned man and the soldier who both flinched and stopped eating the rice went up really close to the traveller without looking into his face but gazing at parts of his jacket and said more gently than before you don't know the commandant where he and all of us are concerned you are, forgive the expression to a certain extent innocent your influence, believe me cannot be overestimated in fact I was blissfully happy when I heard that you were to be present at the execution by yourself this order of the commandant was aimed at me but now I'll turn it to my advantage without being distracted by false insinuations and disparaging looks which could not have been avoided with a greater number of participants at the execution you have listened to my explanation looked at the machine to review the execution your verdict is no doubt already fixed if some small uncertainties remain witnessing the execution will remove them and now I'm asking you help me with the commandant the traveller did not let him go on talking how can I do that he cried it's totally impossible I can help you as little as I can harm you you could do it said the officer with some apprehension served that the officer was clenching his fists you could do it repeated the officer even more emphatically I have a plan which must succeed you think your influence is insufficient I know it will be enough but assuming you're right doesn't saving this whole procedure require one to try even those methods which may be inadequate so listen to my plan to carry it out it's necessary above all for you to keep as quiet as possible today in the colony about your verdict on this procedure unless someone ask you directly you should not express any view whatsoever but what you do say must be short and vague people should notice that it's difficult for you to speak about the subject that you feel bitter that if you were to speak openly you'd have to burst out cursing on the spot I'm not asking you to lie not at all you should only give brief answers something like yes I've seen the execution or yes I've heard the full explanation that's all nothing further for that will be enough of an indication for people to observe in you a certain bitterness even if that's not what the commandant will think naturally he will completely misunderstand the issue and interpret it in his own way my plan is based on that tomorrow a large meeting of all the higher administrative officials takes place at headquarters under the chairmanship of the commandant he of course understands how to turn such a meeting into a spectacle a gallery has been built which is always full of spectators I'm compelled to take part in the discussions though they fill me with disgust in any case you will certainly be invited to the meeting if you follow my plan today and behave accordingly the invitation will become an emphatic request but should you for some inexplicable reason still not be invited you must make sure you request an invitation then you'll receive one without question now tomorrow you're sitting with the women in the commandant's box with frequent upward glances he reassures himself that you are there after various trivial and ridiculous agenda items designed for the spectators mostly harbour construction always harbour construction the judicial process comes up for discussion if it's not raised by the commandant himself or does not occur soon enough I'll make sure that it comes up I'll stand up and report on today's execution really briefly just the report such a report is not really customary however I'll do it nonetheless the commandant thanks me as always with a friendly smile and now he cannot restrain himself he seizes this excellent opportunity the report of the execution he'll say or something like that has just been given I would like to add to this report only that the fact that this particular execution was attended by the great explorer whose visit confers such extraordinary honour in our colony as you all know even the significance of our meeting today has been increased by his presence should we not now ask this great explorer for his appraisal of the execution based on old customs and of the process which preceded it of course there is the noise of applause everywhere universal agreement and I'm louder than anyone the commandant bows before you and says then in everyone's name I'm putting the question to you and now you step up to the railing otherwise the ladies will grab them and play with your fingers and now finally come your remarks I don't know how I'll bear the tension up to then in your speech you mustn't hold back let truth resound lean over the railing and shout it out yes yes roar your opinion at the commandant your unshakable opinion but perhaps you don't want to do that it doesn't suit your character perhaps in your country people behave differently in such situations that's all right that's perfectly satisfactory at all just say a couple of words whisper them so that only the officials underneath you can just hear them that's enough you don't even have to say anything at all about the lack of attendance at the execution or about the squeaky wheel the torn strap or the disgusting felt no I'll take over all further details and believe me if my speech doesn't chase him out of the room it will force him to his knees so he'll have to admit it old commandant I bow down before you that's my plan do you want to help me carry it out but of course you want to more than that you have to and the officer gripped the traveller by both arms and looked at him breathing heavily into his face he had yelled the last sentences so loudly that even the soldier and the condemned man were paying attention although they couldn't understand a thing they stopped eating and looked over at the traveller still chewing from the start the traveller had had no doubts about the answer he must give he had experienced too much in his life to be able to waver here basically he was honest and unafraid still with the soldier and the condemned man looking at him he hesitated a moment but finally he said as he had to no the officer's eyes blinked several times but he did not take his eyes off the traveller would you like an explanation asked the traveller the officer nodded dumbly I am opposed to this procedure said the traveller even before you took me into your confidence and of course I will never abuse your confidence under any circumstances I was already thinking about whether I was entitled to intervene against this procedure and whether my intervention could have the smallest chance of success and if that was the case it was clear to me whom I had to turn to first of all naturally to the commandant you clarified the issue for me even more but without reinforcing my decision in any way quite the reverse I find your conviction genuinely moving even if it cannot deter me the officer remained quiet turned towards the machine grabbed one of the brass rods and then leaning back a little looked up at the inscriber as if he was checking that everything was in order the soldier and the condemned man seemed to have made friends with each other the condemned man was making signs to the soldier although there was a lot of straps on him this was difficult for him to do the soldier was leaning into him the condemned man whispered something to him and the soldier nodded the traveller went over to the officer and said you don't yet know what I'll do yes I will tell the commandant my opinion of the procedure not in a meeting but in private in addition I won't stay here long enough to be able to get called into some meeting or other early tomorrow morning I leave or at least I go on board ship and look as if the officer had been listening so the process has not convinced you he said to himself smiling the way an old man smiles over the silliness of a child concealing his own true thoughts behind that smile well then it's time he said finally and suddenly looked at the traveller with bright eyes which contained some sort of demand some appeals for participation time for what? asked the traveller uneasily but there was no answer you're free! the officer told the condemned man in his own language at first the man did not believe him you're free now! said the officer for the first time the face of the condemned man showed signs of real life was it the truth? was it only the officer's mood which could change had the foreign traveller brought him a reprieve what was it? that's what the man's face seemed to be asking but not for long whatever the case might be he wanted to be truly free and he began to shake back and forth as much as the harrow permitted you're tearing my straps! cried the officer be still we'll undo them right away and giving a signal to the soldier he set to work with him the condemned man said nothing and smiled slightly to himself he turned his face to the officer and then to the soldier and then back again without ignoring the traveller pull him out! the officer ordered the soldier to be required a certain amount of care because of the harrow the condemned man already had a few small wounds on his back thanks to his own impatience from this point on however the officer paid him hardly any attention he went up to the traveller pulled out the small leather folder once more leafed through it finally found the sheet he was looking for and showed it to the traveller read that! he said I can't! said the traveller I've already told you I can't read these pages at the page! said the officer and moved up right next to the traveller in order to read with him when that didn't help he raised his little finger high up over the paper as if the page must not be touched under any circumstances so that using this he might make the task of reading easier for the traveller the traveller also made an effort so that at least he could satisfy the officer but it was impossible for him then the officer began to spell out the inscription and then read out once again the joined up letters be just it states he said now you can read it the traveller bent so low over the paper that the officer, afraid he might touch it moved it further away the traveller didn't say anything more but it was clear that he was still unable to read anything be just it says the officer remarked once again that could be said the traveller good said the officer at least partially satisfied he climbed up the ladder holding the paper with great care he set the page and the inscriber and appeared to rotate the gear mechanism completely around this was very tiring work it must have required him to deal with extremely small wheels he had to inspect the gears so closely that sometimes his head disappeared completely into the inscriber the traveller followed this work from below without looking away he grew stiff and his eyes found the sunlight pouring down from the sky, painful the soldier and the condemned man were keeping each other busy with the tip of his bayonet the soldier pulled out the condemned man's shirt and trousers which were lying in the hole the shirt was horribly dirty and the condemned man washed it in the bucket of water when he was putting on his shirt and trousers the soldier and the condemned man had to laugh out loud for the pieces of clothing were cut in two up the back perhaps the condemned man thought that it was his duty to amuse the soldier in his ripped up clothes he circled around the soldier who crouched down on the ground laughed and slapped his knees but they restrained themselves out of consideration for the two gentlemen present when the officer was finally finished up on the machine with a smile he looked over the whole thing and all its parts one more time and this time closed the cover of the inscriber which had been open up to this point he climbed down looked into the hole and then at the condemned man observed with satisfaction that he had pulled out his clothes then went to the bucket of water to wash his hands recognized too late that it was disgustingly dirty and was upset that now he couldn't wash his hands finally he pushed them into the sand this option didn't satisfy him but he had to do what he could in the circumstances then he stood up and began to unbutton the coat of his uniform as he did this the two ladies' handkerchiefs which he had pushed into the back of his collar fell into his hands here you have your handkerchiefs he said and threw them over to the condemned man and to the traveller he said by way of an explanation presents from the ladies in spite of the obvious speed with which he took off the coat of his uniform and then undressed himself completely he handled each piece of clothing very carefully putting his fingers over the silver braids on his tunic with special care and shaking a tassel into place but in great contrast to this care as soon as he was finished handling an article of clothing he immediately flung it angrily into the hole the last items he had left were his short sword and its harness he pulled the sword out of its scabbard broke it into pieces gathered up everything the pieces of his sword, the scabbard and the harness and threw them away so forcefully that they rattled against each other down in the pit now he stood there naked the traveller bit his lip and said nothing for he was aware what would happen but he had no right to hinder the officer in any way if the judicial process to which the officer clung was really so close to the point of being cancelled perhaps as a result of the intervention of the traveller something to which he for his part felt duty bound then the officer was now acting in a completely correct manner in his place the traveller would not have acted any differently the soldier and the condemned man at first didn't understand a thing to begin with they didn't look, not even once the condemned man was extremely happy to get the handkerchiefs back but he couldn't enjoy them very long but the soldier snatched them from him with a quick grab which he had not anticipated the condemned man then tried to pull the handkerchiefs out from the soldier's belt he had put them for safekeeping but the soldier was too wary so they were fighting half in jest only when the officer was fully naked did they start to pay attention the condemned man especially seemed to be struck by a premonition of some sort of significant transformation what had happened to him was now taking place with the officer perhaps this time the procedure would play itself out to its conclusion the foreign traveller had probably given the order so that was revenge without having suffered all the way to the end himself nonetheless he would be completely revenge a wide silent laugh now appeared on his face and did not go away the officer however had turned towards the machine if earlier on it had already become clear that he understood the machine thoroughly one might well get alarmed now at the way he handled it and how it obeyed he only had to bring his hand near the harrow for it to rise and sink several times until it had reached the correct position to make room for him he only had to grasp the bed by the edges and it already began to quiver the stump of felt moved up to his mouth one could see how the officer really didn't want to accept it but his hesitation was only momentary he immediately submitted and took it in everything was ready the field hung down on the sides but they were clearly unnecessary the officer did not have to be strapped down when the condemned man saw the loose straps he thought the execution would be incomplete unless they were fastened he waved eagerly to the soldier and they ran over to strap in the officer the latter had already stuck out his foot to kick the crank designed to set the inscriber in motion then he saw the two men coming so he pulled his foot back and let himself be strapped in but he could no longer reach the crank neither the soldier nor the condemned man would find it and the traveler was determined not to touch it but that was unnecessary hardly were the straps attached when the machine already started working the bed quivered the needles danced on his skin and the harrow swung up and down the traveler had already been staring for some time before he remembered that a wheel in the inscriber was supposed to squeak but everything was quiet without the slightest audible hum because of its silent working the machine did not really attract attention the traveler looked over at the soldier and the condemned man the condemned man was the livelier of the two everything in the machine interested him at times he bent down at other times he stretched up all the time pointing with his forefinger in order to show something to the soldier for the traveler it was embarrassing he was determined to remain here until the end but he could no longer endure the sight of the two men go home he said the soldier might have been ready to do that but the condemned man took the order as a direct punishment with his hands folded he begged and pleaded to be allowed to stay there and when the traveler shook his head and was unwilling to give in he even knelt down seeing that orders were of no help here the soldier wanted to go over and chase the two away then he heard a noise from up in the inscriber he looked up so what's the gear wheel going out of alignment but it was something else the lid on the inscriber was lifting up slowly then it fell completely open the teeth of a cogwheel were exposed and lifted up soon the entire wheel appeared it was as if some huge force was compressing the inscriber so that there was no longer sufficient room for this wheel it rolled all the way to the edge of the inscriber fell down rolled up right a bit in the sand and then fell over and lay still but already up on the inscriber another gear wheel was moving upward several others followed large ones, small ones ones hard to distinguish with each of them the same thing happened one kept thinking that now the inscriber must surely be empty but then a new cluster with lots of parts would move up, fall down and still with all this going on the condemned man totally forgot the traveller's order the gear wheels completely delighted him he kept wanting to grab one and at the same time he was urging the soldier to help him but he kept pulling his hand back startled for immediately another wheel followed which at least in its initial rolling surprised him the traveller by contrast was very upset obviously the machine was breaking up its quiet operation had been an illusion he felt as if he had to look after the officer now that the latter could no longer look after himself but while the falling gear wheels were claiming all his attention he had neglected to look at the rest of the machine however when he now bent over the harrow once the last gear wheel had left the inscriber he had a new even more unpleasant surprise the harrow was not writing but only stabbing and the bed was not rolling the body it was moving it quivering up into the needles the traveller wanted to reach in to stop the whole thing if possible this was not the torture the officer wished to attain it was murder, pure and simple he stretched out his hands but at that point the harrow was already moving upwards and to the side with the skewered body just as it did in other cases but only in the twelfth hour blood flowed out in hundreds of streams not mixed with water the water tubes had also failed to work this time then one last thing went wrong the body would not come loose from the needles its blood streamed out but it hung over the pit without falling the harrow wanted to move back to its original position but as if it realised that it could not free itself of its load it remained over the whole how the traveller yelled out to the soldier and the condemned man he grabbed the officer's feet he wanted to push against the feet himself and have the two others grab the officer's head from the other side so that he could be slowly taken off the needles but now the two men could not make up their mind whether to come or not the condemned man turned away at once the traveller had to go over to him and drag him to the officer's head by force at this point almost against his will he looked at the face of the corpse it was as it had been in his life he wanted to discover no sign of the promised transfiguration what all the others had found in the machine the officer had not his lips were pressed firmly together his eyes were open and looked as they had when he was alive his gaze was calm and convinced the tip of a large iron needle had gone through his forehead as the traveller with the soldier and the condemned man behind him came to the first houses in the colony the first one had said that's the tea house on the ground floor of one of the houses was a deep low room like a cave with smoke covered walls and ceiling on the street side it was open all along its full width although there was little difference between the tea house and the rest of the houses in the colony which were all very dilapidated except for the commandant's palatial structure the traveller was struck by the impression of historical memory he felt the power of earlier times followed by his companions he walked closer going between the unoccupied tables which stood in the street in front of the tea house and took a breath of the cool stuffy air which came from inside the old man is buried here said the soldier a place in the cemetery was denied him by the chaplain for a long time people were undecided where they should bury him finally they buried him here of course the officer explained none of that to you for naturally he was the one most ashamed about it he tried to dig up the old man at night but he was always chased off where is the grave? asked the traveller who could not believe the soldier instantly both men the soldier and the condemned man ran in front of him and with hands outstretched pointed to the place where the grave was located they led this traveller to the back room where guests were sitting at a few tables they were presumably dock workers strong men with short shiny black beards none of them wore coats and their shirts were torn they were poor oppressed people as the traveller came closer a few got up leaned against the wall and looked at him a whisper went up around the traveller it's a foreigner he wants to look at the grave they pushed one of the tables aside under which there was a real gravestone it was a symbol stone low enough for it to remain hidden under a table it bore an inscription in very small letters in order to read it the traveller had to kneel down it read when the traveller had read it and got up he saw the men standing around him and smiling as if they had read the inscription with him found it ridiculous and were asking him to share their opinion the traveller acted as if he hadn't noticed distributed some coins among them waited until the table was pushed back over the grave left the tea house and went to the harbour in the tea house the soldier and the condemned man had come across some people they knew who detained them they were looking free of them soon because by the time the traveller found himself in the middle of a long staircase which led to the boats they were already running after him they probably wanted to force the traveller at the last minute to take them with him while the traveller was haggling at the bottom of the stairs of the sailor about his passage out to the steamer the two men were racing down the steps in silence for they didn't dare cry out but as they reached the bottom the traveller was already in the boat at once cast off from shore they could still have jumped into the boat but the traveller picked up a heavy knotted rope from the boat bottom threatened them with it and thus prevented them from jumping in End of In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka recorded by Peter Yersley this recording is in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Last of the Troubadours by O. Henry inexorably Sam Galloway saddled his pony he was going away from the Rancho Al Tito at the end of a three months visit it is not to be expected that a guest should put up with wheat, coffee, and biscuits yellow streaked with saladis for longer than that Nick Napoleon the big Negro man cook had never been able to make good biscuits once before when Nick was cooking at the Willow Ranch Sam had been forced to fly from his Cuisine after only a six weeks sojourn on Sam's face was an expression of sorrow deepened with regret and slightly tempered patient forgiveness of a connoisseur who cannot be understood but very firmly and inexorably he buckled his saddle cinches looped his stake rope and hung it to his saddle horn tied his slicker and coat on the cantile and looped his quirk on his right wrist the Mary-Dews householders of the Rancho Al Tito men, women children and servants vassals, visitors employees, dogs and casual callers were grouped in the gallery of the ranch house all with faces set to the tune of melancholy and grief for as the coming of Sam Galloway to any ranch camp or cabin between the rivers Frio or Bravo del Norte arouse joy although his departure caused mourning and distress and then during absolute silence except for the bumping of a hind elbow of a hound dog as he pursued a wicked flea Sam tenderly and carefully tied his guitar across his saddle on top of his slicker and coat the guitar was in a green duck bag and if you catch the significance of it it explains Sam Sam Galloway was the last of the troubadours of course you know about the troubadours the encyclopedia says they flourished between the 11th and the 13th centuries what they flourished doesn't seem clear you may be pretty sure it wasn't a sword maybe it was a fiddle-bow or a fork full of spaghetti or a lady's scarf anyhow Sam Galloway was one of them Sam put on a martyred expression as he mounted his pony but the expression on his face was hilarious compared with the one on his ponies you see a pony gets to know his rider mighty well and it is not unlikely that cow ponies in pastures and at hitching racks had often guide Sam's pony for being ridden by a guitar player instead of by a rollicking cussing all-wool cowboy no man is a hero to his saddle horse and even an escalator in a department store might be excused for tripping up a troubadour oh I know I'm one and so are you you remember the stories you memorize and the card tricks you study and that little piece on the piano how's it go to Tom, to Tom, to Tom those little Arabian ten minute entertainments that you furnish when you go up to call on your rich Aunt Jane you should know that omni personi in Trace Partes de Vizaisunt namely barons, troubadours and workers barons have no inclination to read such falderol as this and workers have no time so I know you must be a troubadour and that you will understand Sam Galloway whether we sing act, dance, write, lecture or paint we are only troubadours so let us make the worst of it the pony with the Dante Oligieri face guided by the pressure of Sam's knees bore that wandering menstrual sixteen miles south eastward nature was in her most benignant mood league after league of delicate sweet flowerettes made fragrant the gently undulating prairie the east wind tempered the spring warmth wool white clouds flying in from the Mexican Gulf hindered the direct rays of the April sun Sam sang songs as he rode under his pony's bridle he had tucked some sprigs of chaparral to keep away the deer flies thus crowned the long-faced quadruped looked more dantesque than before and judging by his countenance he seemed to think of Beatrice straight as topography permitted Sam rode to the sheep ranch of Old Man Ellison a visit to the sheep ranch seemed to him desirable just then there had been too many people, too much noise argument, competition, confusion at Rancho Altito he had never conferred upon Old Man Ellison the favor of sojourning at his ranch but he knew he would be welcome the troubadour is his own passport everywhere the workers in the castle let down the drawbridge to him and the baron sets him at his left-handed table in the banquet hall there ladies smile upon him and applaud his songs and stories while the workers bring boar's heads and flaggons if the baron nods once or twice in his carved oaken chair he does not do it maliciously Old Man Ellison welcomed the troubadour flatteringly he had often heard praises of Sam Galloway from other ranch men who had been complimented by his visits but had never aspired to such an honor for his own humble barony I say barony because Old Man Ellison was the last of the barons of course Mr. Bollwer let and lived too early to know him or he wouldn't have conferred that sobriquet upon Warwick in life it is the duty and the function of the baron to provide work for the workers and lodging and shelter for the troubadours Old Man Ellison was a shrunken old man with a short yellow white beard and a face lined and seamed by past and gone smiles his ranch was a little two-room box house in a grove of hackberry trees in the lonesomeest part of the sheep country his household consisted of a Indian man cook four hounds, a pet sheep and a half-tamed coyote chained to a fence post he owned three thousand sheep which he ran on two sections of leased land and many thousands of acres neither leased nor owned three or four times a year someone who spoke his language would ride up to his gate and exchange a few bald ideas with him those were red letter days to Old Man Ellison then in what illuminated embossed and gorgeously decorated capitals must have been written today on which a troubadour a troubadour who according to the encyclopedia should have flourished between the 11th and 13th centuries drew rain at the gates of his baronial castle Old Man Ellison's smiles came back and filled his wrinkles when he saw Sam he hurried out of the house in his shuffling, limping way to greet him hello Mr. Ellison called Sam cheerfully thought I'd drop over and see you a while notice you've had fine rains on your range they ought to make good grazing for your spring lambs well well well said Old Man Ellison I'm mighty glad to see you Sam I never thought you'd take the trouble to ride over to as out of the way an old ranch as this but you're mighty welcome Light I got a sack of new oats in the kitchen shall I bring out a feed for your house Oats for him said Sam derisively No Surrey he's as fat as a pig now on grass he don't get road enough to keep him in condition I'll just turn him in the horse faster with the drag rope on if you don't mind I am positive that never during the 11th and 13th centuries did Baron Troubadour and worker amalgamate as harmoniously as their parallels did that evening at Old Man Ellison's Sheep Ranch the Kiowa's biscuits were light and tasty in his coffee strong ineradicable hospitality and appreciation glowed on Old Man Ellison's weather tanned face as for the Troubadour he said to himself that he had settled upon pleasant places indeed a well cooked abundant meal a host whom his lightest attempt to entertain seemed to delight far beyond the merits of the exertion and the reposeful atmosphere that his sensitive soul at that time craved united to confer upon him a satisfaction and luxurious ease that he had seldom found on his tours of the ranches after the delectable supper Sam untied the green duck bag and took out his guitar not by way of payment mind you neither Sam Galloway nor any of the other Troubadour's are lenient descendants of the late Tommy Tucker you have read of Tommy Tucker in the works of the esteemed but often obscure mother goose Tommy Tucker sang for his supper no true Troubadour would do that he would have his supper and then sang for art's sake Sam Galloway's repertoire comprised about 50 funny stories in between 30 and 40 songs he by no means stopped there he could talk through 20 cigarettes on any topic that you brought up and he never sat up when he could lie down and never stood when he could sit I am strongly disposed to linger with him for I am drawing a portrait as well as a blunt pencil and a tattered of the Saras will allow I wish you could have seen him he was small and tough and inactive beyond the power of imagination to conceive he wore an ultra marine blue woolen shirt laced down the front with a pearl gray exaggerated sort of shoestring indestructible brown duck clothes inevitable high heel boots with Mexican spurs and a Mexican sombrero that evening Sam and old man Ellison dragged their chairs out under the hackberry trees they lighted cigarettes and the Troubadour gaily touched his guitar many of the songs he sang were the weird melancholy minor keyed canciones that he had learned from the Mexican sheepherders and vaqueros one in particular charmed and sued the soul as a lonely baron it was a favorite song of the sheepherders beginning which being translated means fly fly little dove Sam sang it for old man Ellison many times that evening the Troubadour stayed on at the old man's ranch there was peace and quiet and appreciation there such as he had not found in the noisy camps of the cattle kings the audience in the world could have crowned the work of poet, musician or artist with more worshipful and unflagging approval than that bestowed upon his efforts by old man Ellison no visit by a royal personage to a humble woodchopper or peasant could have been received with more flatter and thankfulness and joy on a cool canvas covered cot in the shade of the hackberry trees Sam Galloway passed on to him as a part of his time there he rolled his brown paper cigarettes read such tedious literature as the ranch afforded and added to his repertoire of improvisations that he played so expertly on his guitar to him as a slave ministering to a great lord the Kiowa brought cool water from the red jar hanging under the brush shelter and food when he called for it the prairie zeffers fanned him mildly and when he competed with but scarce equaled the sweet melodies of his lyre a perfumed stillness seemed to fill all his world while old man Ellison was pottering among his flocks of sheep on his mile an hour pony and while the Kiowa took his siesta in the burning sunshine at the end of the kitchen Sam would lie on his cot thinking what a happy world he lived in and how kind it is to the ones whose mission in life was a pleasure here he had food and lodging as good as he had ever longed for absolute immunity from care or exertion or strife an endless welcome and a host whose delight at the sixteenth repetition of a song or a story was as keen as at its initial given was there ever a troubadour of old who struck upon as royal a castle in his wanderings he would play thus meditating upon his blessings little brown cotton tails would shyly frolic through the yard a covey of white top-knotted blue quail would run past in single file twenty yards away a paisano bird out hunting for tarantulas would hop upon the fence and salute him with sweeping flourishes of its long tail in the eighty acre horse pasture the pony with the dante-esque face the door was at the end of his wanderings old man ellison was his own viciero that means he supplied his sheep camps with wood, water, and rations by his own labours instead of hiring a viciero on small ranches it is often done one morning he started for the camp of Incarnation Felipe de la Cruz E Montepiedras one of his sheep herders with the week's usual rations brown beans, coffee, meal, and sugar two miles away on the trail from Old Fort Ewing he met face to face a terrible being called King James mounted on a fiery prancing Kentucky bread horse King James's real name was James King but people reversed it because it seemed to fit him better and also because it seemed to please his majesty King James was the biggest cattleman between the Alamo Plaza in San Anton and Bill Hopper Saloon in Brownsville also he was the loudest and most offensive bully and braggart and bad man in southwest Texas and he always made good whenever he bragged and the more noise he made the more dangerous he was in the story papers it is always the quiet, mild mannered man with light blue eyes and a low voice who turns out to be really dangerous but in real life and in this story such is not the case give me my choice between assault and a large loud mouth roughhouser and an inoffensive stranger with blue eyes sitting quietly in a corner and you will see something doing in the corner every time King James as I intended to say earlier was a fierce 200 pound sunburned blonde man as pink as an October strawberry and with two horizontal slits under shaggy red eyebrows for eyes on that day he wore a flannel shirt that was tan colored with the exception of certain large areas which were darkened by transudations due to the summer sun there seemed to be other clothing and garnishings about him such as brown duck trousers stuffed into immense boots and red handkerchiefs and revolvers and a shotgun laid across his saddle and a leather belt with millions of cartridges shining in it but your mind skidded off such accessories what held your gaze was just the two little horizontal slits that he used for eyes this was the man that old man Ellison met on the trail and when you count up in the Baron's favor that he was 65 and weighed 98 pounds and had heard of King James's record and that he the Baron had a hankering for the Vita Simplex and had no gun with him and wouldn't have used it if he had you can't censure him if I tell you that the smiles with which the troubadour had filled his wrinkles went out of them and his pain wrinkles again but he was not the kind of Baron that flies from danger he reigned in the mile an hour pony no difficult fate and saluted the formidable monarch King James expressed himself with royal directness you're that old snoozer that's running sheep on this range, ain't ya said he what rot have you got to do it do you own any land or lease any I have two sections lease from the state said old man Ellison mildly not by no means you haven't said King James your lease expired yesterday and I had a man at the land office on the minute to take it up you don't control a foot of grass in Texas you sheep men have got to get your times up it's a cattle country and there ain't any room in it for snoozers this range you've got your sheep on is mine I'm putting up a wire fence 40 by 60 miles and if there's a sheep inside of it when it's done it'll be a dead one I'll give you a week to move yours away if they ain't gone by then I'll send six men over here with Winchester to make mutton out of the whole lot and if I find you here at the same time this is what you'll get King James padded the breach of his shotgun warningly old man Ellison rode on to the camp of Incarnacion he sighed many times and the wrinkles in his face grew deeper rumors that the old order was about to change had reached him before the end of free grass was in sight other troubles too had been accumulating upon his shoulders his flocks were decreasing instead of growing the price of wool was declining at every clip even Bradshaw the storekeeper at Frio City at whose store he bought his ranch supplies was done in him for his last six months bill and threatening to cut him off and so this last greatest calamity suddenly dealt out to him by the terrible King James was a crusher when the old man got back to the ranch at sunset he found Sam Galloway lying on his cot propped against a roll of blankets and wool sacks fingering his guitar hello Uncle Ben the troubadour called cheerfully you rolled in early this morning I've been trying a new twist on the Spanish Fandango today I just about got it here's how she goes listen that's fine that's mighty fine said old man Ellison sitting on the kitchen step and rubbing his white scotch terrier whiskers I reckon you got all the musicians beat east and west Sam as far as the roads are cut out oh I don't know said Sam reflectively but I certainly do get there on variations I guess I can handle anything in five flats about as well as any of them but you look kind of fagged out Uncle Ben ain't you feeling right well this evening little tired that's all Sam if you ain't played yourself out let's have that Mexican piece that starts off with we lay we lay palomita it seems that that song kind of soothes and comforts me after I've been riding far anything bothers me why say guramente senor said Sam I'll hit her up for you as often as you like and before I forget about it Uncle Ben you want to jerk Brad show up about them last hams he sent us they're just a little bit strong a man 65 years old living on a sheep ranch and beset by complication of disasters not successfully and continuously dissemble moreover a troubadour has eyes quick to see unhappiness in others around him because it disturbs his own ease so on the next day Sam again questioned the old man about his air of sadness and abstraction then old man Ellison told him the story of King James's threats and orders and that pale melancholy and red ruin appeared to have marked him for their own the troubadour took the news thoughtfully he had heard much about King James on the third day of the seven days of grace allowed him by the autocrat of the range old man Ellison drove his buttboard to Frio City to fetch some necessary supplies for the ranch Bradshaw was hard but not implacable he divided the old man's order by two and let him have a little more time one article secured was a new fine hem for the pleasure of the troubadour five miles out of Frio City on his way home the old man met King James riding into town his majesty could never look anything but fierce and menacing but today his slit's eyes appeared to be a little wider than they usually were good day said the king gruffly I've been wanting to see you I hear it said by Calmyn from Sandy yesterday that you was from Jackson County Mississippi originally I want to know but that's a fact born there said old man Ellison and raised there till I was 21 this man says went on King James that he thinks you was related to the Jackson County Reeves's is was he right Aunt Caroline Reeves said the old man was my half sister she was my aunt King James I run away from home when I was 16 now let's re-talk over some things that we discussed a few days ago they call me a bad man and they're only half right there's plenty of room in my pasture for your bunch of sheep and they're increased for a long time to come Aunt Caroline used to cut out sheep in cake dough and bake them for me you keep your sheep where they are and use all the reins you want how's your finances the old man related his woes in detail dignifiedly with restraint and kinder she used to smuggle extra grub into my school basket I'm speaking of Aunt Caroline said King James I'm going over to Frio City today and I'll ride back by your ranch tomorrow I'll draw $2,000 out of the bank there and bring it over to you and I'll tell Bradshaw to let you have everything you want on credit you are bound to have heard that the Jackson County Reeves's and King's would stick closer by each other than chestnut burrs well I'm a King yet whenever I run across the Reeves so you look out for me along about sundown tomorrow and don't worry about nothing shouldn't wonder if the dry spell don't kill out the young grass old man Ellison drove happily ranchward once more the smiles filled out his wrinkles very suddenly by the magic of kinship and the good that lies somewhere in all hearts his troubles had been removed on reaching the ranch he found that Sam Galloway was not there his guitar hung by its buckskin string to a hackberry limb moaning as the golf breeze blew across its masterless strings the Kiowa endeavored to explain Sam he catch pony said he and say he ride to Frio City what fork and no damn sabby say he come back tonight maybe so that's all as the first stars came out the Trubidor rode back to his haven he pastured his pony and went into the house his spurs jangling marshally old man Ellison sat at the kitchen table having a tin cup of before supper coffee he looked contented and pleased hello Sam said he I'm darn glad to see you back I don't know how I managed to get along on this ranch anyhow before you dropped in to cheer things up I'll bet you've been skylarking around with some of them Frio City gals now that's kept you so late and then old man Ellison took another look at Sam's face and saw that the minstrel had changed to a man of action and while Sam is unbuckling from his waist old man Ellison six shooter that the latter had left behind when he drove to town we may well pause to remark that anywhere and whenever a Trubidor lays down the guitar and takes up the sword trouble is sure to follow it is not the expert thrust of Athas nor the cold skill of Aramis nor the iron wrist of porthos that we have to fear it is the Gaskins fury the wild and unacademic attack of the Trubidor the sword of D'Artagnan I done it said Sam I went over to Frio City to do it I couldn't let him put the ski bunk on you Uncle Ben I met him Summers his saloon I knowed what to do I said a few things to him that nobody else heard he reached for his gun first he doesn't fell as saw him do it but I got mine unlimbered first three doses I gave him right around the lungs and a saucer could have covered up all of them he won't bother you no more this is King James you speak of asked old man Ellison while he sipped his coffee you bet it was and they took me before the county judge and the witnesses what saw him draw his gun first all there well of course they put me under $300 bond to appear before the court but there was four or five boys on the spot ready to sign the bail he won't bother you no more Uncle Ben you ought to have seen how close them bullet holes was together I reckon playing a guitar as much as I do must kinda limber a fella's trigger finger up a little don't you think Uncle Ben then there was a little silence in the castle except for the sputtering of a venison steak that the coyote was cooking Sam said old man Ellison stroking his white whiskers with a tremulous hand would you mind getting a guitar and playing that we lay, we lay palomita piece once or twice it always seems to be kinda soothing and comforting when a man's tired and fagged out there is no more to be said except that the title of the story is wrong it should have been called the last of the barons there never will be an end to the troubadours and now and then it does seem that the jingle of their guitars will drown the sound of the muffles blows the pickaxes and trip hammers of all the workers in the world end of The Last of the Troubadours by O. Henry this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org a letter to American Boys by George Macdonald my dear cousins shall I really be talking to you as I sit here in my study with the river Thames now flowing, now air being past my window I am uttering no word I am only writing and you are not listening, not reading for it will be a long time air what I am now thinking shall reach you over the millions of waves that swell and sink between us I shall be talking to you in like manner with divine differences God began to talk to us ages before we were born I will not say before we began to be for in a sense that very moment God thought of us we began to exist for what God thinks of is we have been lying for ages in his heart without knowing it but now we have begun to know it we are here with a great beginning and before us an end so great but we must take heed or else the very greatness will turn to confusion and terror shall I explain what made me begin my letter to you just this way I was sitting in my room as I am now thinking what I should say to you and as I sat thinking after something worth saying and fit to say my room spoke to me that is out of its condition an appearance came a thought into my mind and that you may understand how it came and how it was what it was I will first show you what my room at this moment is like but the thought had nothing to do with the sun outside or the shining river or the white-sailed boats neither with the high wind that is tossing the rosy Hawthorne bloom before my windows or with the magnolia trained up the wall and looking in at one of them it had only to do with the inside of the room it is rather a long room the greater part has its walls filled with books and I am sitting at one end quite surrounded by them but when I lift my eyes I look to the other end and into the heart of the stage for acting upon feeling all the width and a third part of the length of the room it is surrounded with curtains but those in front of it are withdrawn and there the space of it lies before me a bare empty hollow of green and blue and red which tomorrow evening will be filled with group after group of moving talking shining acting men and women boys and girls it looked to me like a human heart waiting to be filled with the scenes of its own story with this difference that the heart itself will determine of what sort those groups shall be then they grew up in my mind the following little parable which to those who do not care to understand it will be dark but those who desire to know its meaning may give light there was once a wise man to whom was granted the power to send forth his thoughts in shapes that other people could see and as he walked abroad in the world he came upon some whom his wisdom might serve one day having in a street of the city where he dwelt rescued from danger a boy about ten years of age he went with him to his mother and begged that he might take him to his house for a week when they heard his name the parents willingly let their son go with him and he taught him many things and the boy loved and trusted him when the boy was asleep in bed the wise man would go to his room at midnight and lay his ear to his ear and hock into his dreams then he would stand and spread out his arms over him and look up and the boy would smile and his sleep was the deeper once just an hour after the sage had thus visited him the boy woke and found himself alone in the middle of the night he could not get to sleep again and grew so restless that he rose and went down to the stair the moon shone in every western window and his wave was now in glimmer and now in gloom on the first landing he saw a door wide open which he had never seen open until now it was the door of the wizard's room within all was bright with moonlight and the boy first peeped then stepped in and peered timidly about him the father end of the room was hidden by a curtain stretched quite across it and curious to see what was behind he approached it but ere he reached it to the curtain slowly divided in the middle and drawn back to each side revealed a place with just enough light in it from the moonshine to show that it was a dungeon in the middle of it upon the floor sat a prisoner with fetters to his feet and manacles to his hands an iron collar was around his neck and a chain from the collar had its last link in an iron staple deep fixed in the stone floor his head was sunk in his bosom and he sat abject and despairing what a wicked man he must be thought the boy and was turning to run away in terror when the man lifted his head and his look caught and held him for he saw a pale worn fierce countenance which somehow through all the added years and all the dirt that defiled it he recognized as his own for a moment the prisoner gazed at him mournfully then a wild passion of rage and despair seized him he dragged and tore at his chains raved and shrieked and dashed himself on the ground like one mad with imprisonment for a time he lay exhausted then half rose and sat as before gazing helplessly upon the ground by and by a spider came creeping along the bar of his fetters he put out his hand and with the manacle on his wrist crushed it and smiled instantly through the gloom came a strong, clear yet strangely sweet voice and the very sweetness had in it something that made the boy think of fire and the voice said so in the midst of misery thou takest delight in destruction as it not well thou art chained if thou wast free thou wouldst in time destroy the world tame thy wild beast or sit there till I tame him the prisoner peered and stared through the dusk but good see no one he fell into another fit of furious raving but not a hair-breath would one link of chain yield to his wildest endeavor oh my mother he cried brave of exhaustion thy mother is gone from thee said the voice outworn by thine evil ways thou didst choose to have thyself and not thy mother and there thou hast thyself and she is gone I only am left to care for thee not with kisses and sweet words but with a dungeon unawares to thyself thou hast forged thine own chains and riveted them upon thy limbs to search imprisonment the man burst out weeping and cried with sobs what then am I to do for the burden of them is intolerable what I will tell thee said the voice for so shall thy chains fall from thee I will do it said the man thy prison is foul said the voice it is answered the prisoner cleanse it then how can I cleanse it when I cannot move thy hands were upon thy face a moment ago and now they are upon the floor near one of these hands lies a dead mouse yonder is an open window cast the dead thing out into the furnace of life that it may speedily make an end thereof with sudden obedient resolve the prisoner made the endeavor to reach it the chain pulled the collar hard and the manacle wrenched his fist but he caught the dead thing by the tail and with a fierce effort through it the window had flew and fell and the air of his dungeon seemed already clearer after a silence came the voice again behind thee lies a broom it said reach forth and take it and sweep around thee as far as thy chains will yield thee scope the man obeyed and as he swept at every stroke he reached farther at length how it came he could not tell for his chains hung heavy upon him still he found himself sweeping the foot of the walls a moment more and he stood at the open window looking out into the world a dove perched upon the windowsill and walked inquiringly in he caught it in his hands and looked how to close the window that he might secure its company then came the voice will thou a prisoner make of thyself a jailer he opened his hands and the dove darted into the sunlight and it fluttered and flashed for a moment like a bird of snow then re-entered and flew into his very hands he stroked and kissed it the bird went and came and was his companion still his chains hung about him and he sighed and groaned under their weight said thee down said the voice and polish thine irons he obeyed rubbing link against link busily with his hands and thus he laboured in the vision day after day until at last every portion within his reach of fetter and chain and collar glittered with brightness go to the window then said the voice and lay thee down in the sunshine he went and lay down and fell asleep when he awoke he began to raise himself heavily but lo the sun had melted all the burnish parts of his bonds the rest dropped from him and he sprung to his feet for very joy of lightness he ran about the room like a frolicking child then said the voice once more now carve thee out of the wall the figure of a man as perfect as thou canst think and make it at last said the prisoner to himself I know not how to carve or fashion the image of anything but as he said it he turned with a sigh to find among the fragments of his fetters what piece of iron might best serve him for a chisel to work he said the weary were the hours he wrought for his attempts appeared to him nothing better than those of a child and again and ever again as he carved he had to change his purpose and cut away what he had carved for the thing he wrought would not conform itself to the thing he thought and it seemed he made no progress in the task that was set him but he did not know that it was because his thought was not good enough to give strength and skill to his hand that it seemed too good for his hand to follow he wrought hard by the glimmer of his retid lamp until overwearyed he fell asleep and slept like one dead when he awoke lo a man of light lovely and grand who stood where he had been so wearily carving the unresponsive stone he rose and drew nigh behold it was an opening in the wall through which his freedom shone the man of light was the door into the universe and he darted through the wall as he vanished from his sight the boy felt the wind of the morning lay his forehead but with the prisoner vanished the vision he was alone with the moon shining through the windows too solemn to be afraid he crept back to his bed and fell fast asleep in the morning he knew there had come to him what he now took for a strange dream but he remembered little of it and thought less about it and the same day the wizard took him home his mother was out when he arrived and he had not been in five minutes before it began to rain it was holiday time and there were no lessons and the school room looked dismal as a new street he had not a single companion and the rain came down with slow persistence he tried to read but could not find any enjoyment in it his thoughts grew more and more gloomy until at last his very soul was disquieted within him when his mother came home and sought him in the school room she found him lying on the floor and unkind although he knew her step as she entered he never looked up and when she spoke to him he answered like one aggrieved I'm sorry you are unhappy said his mother sweetly I did not know you were to be home today come with me to my room he answered his mother insolently I don't want to go with you I only want to be left alone his mother turned away and without another word left the room the cat came in went up to him purring and rubbed herself against him he gave her such a blow that she flew out again in angry fright with her back high above her head and the rain rained faster and the wind began to blow and the misery settled down upon his soul like lead at last he wept with his face on the floor quite over mastered by the most contemptible of passions self-pity again the voice of his mother came to him the wizard had in the meantime come to see her and had just left her get up my boy she said in a more commanding tone than he had ever heard from her before with her words the vision returned upon him clear and plain and strong he started in terror almost expecting to hear the chains rattle about him get up and make the room tidy see how you have thrown the books about said his mother he dared not disobey her he sprung to his feet as he reduced the little chaos around him to order first calmness descended and then shame arose as he fulfilled her word his mother stood and looked on the moment he had finished he ran to her he threw his arms about her neck burst into honest worthy tears and cried mother then after a while he sobbed out I'm sorry I was so cross and rude to my mother she kissed him and put her arms around him and with his mind's eye he saw the flap of the white dove's wing she took him by the hand and led him to the window the sun was shining and a grand rainbow stood against the black curtain of the receding cataract come my child she said we will go out together it was long years ere the boy understood all the meanings of the vision I doubt if he understands them all yet but he will one day and I can say no more for the wisest of the readers or for the writer himself of this parable the father of all the boys on earth and in heaven be with the boys of America and when they grow up may they and the men of England understand love and help each other amen your friend George Macdonald read for LibriVox.org on the 22nd of November 2006 by alexfoster.me.uk