"It's a peculiar apparatus,"said the Officer to the Traveler, gazing with a certain admirationat the device, with which he was, of course, thoroughly familiar.It appeared that the Traveler had responded to the invitation ofthe Commandant only out of politeness, when he had been invited toattend the execution of a soldier condemned for disobeying andinsulting his superior. Of course, interest in the execution wasnot very high, not even in the penal colony itself. At least, herein the small, deep, sandy valley, closed in on all sides by barrenslopes, apart from the Officer and the Traveler there were presentonly the Condemned, a vacant-looking man with a broad mouth anddilapidated hair and face, and the Soldier, who held the heavychain to which were connected the small chains which bound theCondemned Man by his feet and wrist bones, as well as by his neck,and which were also linked to each other by connecting chains. TheCondemned Man had an expression of such dog-like resignation thatit looked as if one could set him free to roam around the slopesand would only have to whistle at the start of the execution forhim to return.
The Traveler had little interest in the apparatus and walkedback and forth behind the Condemned Man, almost visiblyindifferent, while the Officer took care of the final preparations.Sometimes he crawled under the apparatus, which was built deep intothe earth, and sometimes he climbed up a ladder to inspect theupper parts. These were really jobs which could have been left to amechanic, but the Officer carried them out with great enthusiasm,maybe because he was particularly fond of this apparatus or maybebecause there was some other reason why one could not trust thework to anyone else. "It's all ready now!" he finally cried andclimbed back down the ladder. He was unusually tired, breathingwith his mouth wide open, and he had pushed two fine lady'shandkerchiefs under the collar of his uniform.
"These uniforms are really too heavy for the tropics," theTraveler said, instead of asking some questions about theapparatus, as the Officer had expected. "That's true," said theOfficer. He washed the oil and grease from his dirty hands in abucket of water standing ready, "but they mean home, and we don'twant to lose our homeland." "Now, have a look at this apparatus,"he added immediately, drying his hands with a towel and pointing tothe device. "Up to this point I had to do some work by hand, butfrom now on the apparatus should work entirely on its own." TheTraveler nodded and followed the Officer. The latter tried toprotect himself against all eventualities by saying, "Of course,breakdowns do happen. I really hope none will occur today, but wemust be prepared for it. The apparatus is supposed to keep goingfor twelve hours without interruption. But if any breakdowns dooccur, they'll only be very minor, and we'll deal with them rightaway."
"Don't you want to sit down?" he asked finally, as he pulled outa chair from a pile of cane chairs and offered it to the Traveler.The latter could not refuse. He sat on the edge of the pit, intowhich he cast a fleeting glance. It was not very deep. On one sideof the hole the piled earth was heaped up into a wall; on the otherside stood the apparatus. "I don't know," the officer said,"whether the Commandant has already explained the apparatus toyou." The Traveler made an vague gesture with his hand. That wasgood enough for the Officer, for now he could explain the apparatushimself.
"This apparatus," he said, grasping a connecting rod and leaningagainst it, "is our previous Commandant's invention. I also workedwith him on the very first tests and took part in all the workright up to its completion. However, the credit for the inventionbelongs to him alone. Have you heard of our previous Commandant?No? Well, I'm not claiming too much when I say that theorganization of the entire penal colony is his work. We, hisfriends, already knew at the time of his death that theadministration of the colony was so self-contained that even if hissuccessor had a thousand new plans in mind, he would not be able toalter anything of the old plan, at least not for several years. Andour prediction has held. The New Commandant has had to recognizethat. It's a shame that you didn't know the previousCommandant!"
"However," the Officer said, interrupting himself, "I'mchattering, and his apparatus stands here in front of us. As yousee, it consists of three parts. With the passage of time certainpopular names have been developed for each of these parts. The oneunderneath is called the bed, the upper one is called theinscriber, and here in the middle, this moving part is called theharrow." "The harrow?" the Traveler asked. He had not beenlistening with full attention. The sun was excessively strong,trapped in the shadowless valley, and one could hardly collectone's thoughts. So the Officer appeared to him all the moreadmirable in his tight tunic weighed down with epaulettes andfestooned with braid, ready to go on parade [...]
