Page 271 - the-trial

is granted to no other light.
After exchanging a few courtesies about who was to car-
ry out the next tasks the gentlemen did not seem to have
been allocated specific functions one of them went to K. and
took his coat, his waistcoat, and finally his shirt off him. K.
made an involuntary shiver, at which the gentleman gave
him a gentle, reassuring tap on the back. Then he carefully
folded the things up as if they would still be needed, even if
not in the near future. He did not want to expose K. to the
chilly night air without moving though, so he took him un-
der the arm and walked up and down with him a little way
while the other gentleman looked round the quarry for a
suitable place. When he had found it he made a sign and the
other gentleman escorted him there. It was near the rock-
face, there was a stone lying there that had broken loose. The
gentlemen sat K. down on the ground, leant him against the
stone and settled his head down on the top of it. Despite
all the effort they went to, and despite all the co-operation
shown by K., his demeanour seemed very forced and hard
to believe. So one of the gentlemen asked the other to grant
him a short time while he put K. in position by himself, but
even that did nothing to make it better. In the end they left
K. in a position that was far from the best of the ones they
had tried so far. Then one of the gentlemen opened his frock
coat and from a sheath hanging on a belt stretched across his
waistcoat he withdrew a long, thin, double-edged butcher’s
knife which he held up in the light to test its sharpness. The
repulsive courtesies began once again, one of them passed
the knife over K. to the other, who then passed it back over

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