The Castle Read Online Free PDF

had to beg them to be quiet, saying he did not want to hear their opinion. The receiver gave out a buzz of a kind that K. had never before heard on a telephone. It was like the hum of countless children's voices - but yet not a hum, the echo rather of voices singing at an infinite distance - blended by sheer impossibility into one high but resonant sound which vibrated on the ear as if it were trying to penetrate beyond mere hearing. K. listened without attempting to telephone, leaning his left arm on the telephone shelf. He did not know how long he had stood there, but he stood until the landlord pulled at his coat saying that a messenger had come to speak with him.
    "Go away!" yelled K. in an access of rage, perhaps into the mouthpiece, for someone immediately answered from the other end. The following conversation ensued: "Oswald speaking, who's there?" cried a severe arrogant voice with a small defect in its speech, as seemed to K., which its owner tried to cover by an exaggerated severity. K. hesitated to announce himself, for he was at the mercy of the telephone, the other could shout him down or hang up the receiver, and that might mean the blocking of a not unimportant way of access. K.'s hesitation made the man impatient.
    "Who's there?" he repeated, adding, "I should be obliged if there was less telephoning from down there, only a minute ago somebody rang up."
    K. ignored this remark, and announced with sudden decision: "The Land Surveyor's assistant speaking"
    "What Land Surveyor? What assistant?"
    K. recollected yesterday's telephone conversation, and said briefly, "Ask Fritz."
    This succeeded, to his own astonishment But even more than at his success he was astonished at the organization of the Castle service. The answer came: "Oh, yes. That everlasting Land Surveyor. Quite so. What about it? What assistant?" 'Joseph,' said K.
    He was a little put out by the murmuring of the peasants behind his back, obviously they disapproved of his ruse. He had no time to bother about them, however, for the conversation absorbed all his attention.
    "Joseph?" came the question. "But the assistants arc called ..." there was a short pause, evidently to inquire the names from somebody else, "Arthur and Jeremiah."
    "These are the new assistants," said K.
    "No, they are the old ones."
    "They are the new ones, I am the old assistant; I came to-day after the Land Surveyor."
    "No," was shouted back.
    "Then who am I?" asked K. as blandly as before.
    And after a pause the same voice with the same defect answered him, yet with a deeper and more authoritative tone: "You are the old assistant."
    K. was listening to the new note, and almost missed the question: "What is it you want?"
    He felt like laying down the receiver. He had ceased to expect anything from this conversation. But being pressed, he replied quickly: "When can my master come to the Castle?"
    "Never," was the answer.
    "Very well," said K., and hung the receiver up.
    Behind him the peasants had crowded quite close. His assistants, with many side glances in his direction, were trying to keep them back. But they seemed not to take the matter very seriously, and in any case the peasants, satisfied with the result of the conversation, were beginning to give ground. A man came cleaving his way with rapid steps through the group, bowed before K., and handed him a letter. K. took it, but looked at the man, who for the moment seemed to him the more important. There was a great resemblance between this new-comer and the assistants, he was slim like them and clad in the same tightfitting garments, had the same suppleness and agility, and yet he was quite different. How much K. would have preferred him as an assistant. He reminded K. a little of the girl with the infant whom he had seen at the tanner's. He was clothed nearly all in white, not in silk, of course; he was in winter clothes like all the others, but the material he was wearing had the softness and dignity of silk. His face was