tc_od1

AN OUTLAW'S DIARY 8stood empty in the water on the road. Their coatstoo looked as if they were empty, and the waterdrizzled from their worn-out hats on to the collars oftheir coats. Clearly they were petty officials. Forthirty years and more they have been accustomed togo at this time of the day to their office. Now theyhave found suddenly that the path has slipped awayfrom under their feet, and they don't know what todo : this was an unlawful business . . . the officialoath . . . their conscience ... If it were not forthe question how to live ! What about the others ?Perhaps they have gone already. One ought to takecounsel with the head of the department . . .They discussed the matter, started to go, stopped,then started again. Finally, when I looked afterthem they were walking on steadily, as if they hadfound the accustomed groove from which it wasimpossible for them to swerve.Posters, fastened to poles, were floating in the air.Underneath, in a steady throng, people passed incessantly,walking as if under compulsion, asifthey could not stop, as if they had lost the powerof altering their direction. It was as though somehuge dark animal crawled along the pavement, ayoke on its neck, and as it crawled slowlyit cheered.I felt an inarticulate cry rising in my throat, andI wanted to shout to them to stop and to turn back.But in the flowing crowd there was already somethinglike predestination, something which cannot bestopped. And yet occasionally its course wasdeviated. The throng parted now and then, and inbetween motor cars passed in regular, short jerks.And in the cars, decorated with national colouredribbons and white chrysanthemums, were typicallySemitic faces. Behind them, in the middle of theroad, the human waves closed up again.I turned off into a by-street. A peasant's littlewooden cart came towards me. Swabian peasantwomen from Hidegkut were being shaken about init> gay and broad among the milk cans. Suddenly—I did not notice whence they came— three sailorsstepped into the cart's path. One caught hold ofthe horse's bridle while the two others jumped on tothe cart. Everything happened in a flash . . .At first the women thought it was a joke, and turned