should be arrested, before they issue the warrant. There's no mistake
there. Our authorities as far as I know, and I only know the lowest
grades, don't go out looking for guilt among the public; it's the guilt
that draws them out, like it says in the law, and they have to send us
police officers out. That's the law. Where d'you think there'd be any
mistake there?" "I don't know this law," said K. "So much the worse for
you, then," said the policeman. "It's probably exists only in your
heads," said K., he wanted, in some way, to insinuate his way into the
thoughts of the policemen, to re-shape those thoughts to his benefit or
to make himself at home there. But the policeman just said dismissively,
"You'll find out when it affects you." Franz joined in, and said, "Look
at this, Willem, he admits he doesn't know the law and at the same time
insists he's innocent." "You're quite right, but we can't get him to
understand a thing," said the other. K. stopped talking with them; do I,
he thought to himself, do I really have to carry on getting tangled up
with the chattering of base functionaries like this?--and they admit
themselves that they are of the lowest position. They're talking about
things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway.
It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of
themselves. I just need few words with someone of the same social
standing as myself and everything will be incomparably clearer, much
clearer than a long conversation with these two can make it. He walked
up and down the free space in the room a couple of times, across the
street he could see the old woman who, now, had pulled an old man, much
older than herself, up to the window and had her arms around him. K. had
to put an end to this display, "Take me to your superior," he said. "As
soon as he wants to see you. Not before," said the policeman, the one
called Willem. "And now my advice to you," he added, "is to go into your
room, stay calm, and wait and see what's to be done with you. If you
take our advice, you won't tire yourself out thinking about things to no
purpose, you need to pull yourself together as there's a lot that's
going to required of you. You've not behaved towards us the way we
deserve after being so good to you, you forget that we, whatever we are,
we're still free men and you're not, and that's quite an advantage. But
in spite of all that we're still willing, if you've got the money, to go
and get you some breakfast from the café over the road."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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