Page 270 - the-trial

were gravel paths with comfortable benches where K. had
stretched himself out on many summer’s days. “I didn’t ac-
tually want to stop here,” he said to his companions, shamed
by their compliance with his wishes. Behind K.’s back one
of them seemed to quietly criticise the other for the mis-
understanding about stopping, and then they went on. The
went on up through several streets where policemen were
walking or standing here and there; some in the distance
and then some very close. One of them with a bushy mous-
tache, his hand on the grip of his sword, seemed to have
some purpose in approaching the group, which was hardly
unsuspicious. The two gentlemen stopped, the policeman
seemed about to open his mouth, and then K. drove his
group forcefully forward. Several times he looked back cau-
tiously to see if the policeman was following; but when they
had a corner between themselves and the policeman K. be-
gan to run, and the two gentlemen, despite being seriously
short of breath, had to run with him.
In this way they quickly left the built up area and found
themselves in the fields which, in this part of town, began
almost without any transition zone. There was a quarry,
empty and abandoned, near a building which was still like
those in the city. Here the men stopped, perhaps because
this had always been their destination or perhaps because
they were too exhausted to run any further. Here they re-
leased their hold on K., who just waited in silence, and took
their top hats off while they looked round the quarry and
wiped the sweat off their brows with their handkerchiefs.
The moonlight lay everywhere with the natural peace that