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shut, even though that would still do nothing to remove all
the dangers he faced. It was regrettable that he had given
Franz a shove, and it could only be excused by the heat of
the moment.
In the distance, he heard the steps of the servitors; he
did not want them to be too aware of his presence, so he
closed the window and walked towards the main staircase.
At the door of the junk room he stopped and listened for
a little while. All was silent. The two policemen were en-
tirely at the whip-man’s mercy; he could have beaten them
to death. K. reached his hand out for the door handle but
drew it suddenly back. He was no longer in any position
to help anyone, and the servitors would soon be back; he
did, though, promise himself that he would raise the mat-
ter again with somebody and see that, as far as it was in
his power, those who really were guilty, the high officials
whom nobody had so far dared point out to him, received
their due punishment. As he went down the main stairway
at the front of the bank, he looked carefully round at ev-
eryone who was passing, but there was no girl to be seen
who might have been waiting for somebody, not even with-
in some distance from the bank. Franz’s claim that his bride
was waiting for him was thus shown to be a lie, albeit one
that was forgivable and intended only to elicit more sym-
pathy.
The policemen were still on K.’s mind all through the fol-
lowing day; he was unable to concentrate on his work and
had to stay in his office a little longer than the previous day
so that he could finish it. On the way home, as he passed

10 The Trial