without reflection, without any sort of clear conception, and I heard only as in a dream the shouting of the Captain, whose wide trousers on his massive legs were constantly before my eyes.
“Hurry quickly! Quickly!” he cried. “Into line! Into line!”
Of a sudden, a clear beam penetrated my brain. “Every fifth man,” sounded in my ears, and I comprehended the confidential message of Lieutenant Schuster.
“Every fifth man will be shot,” I whispered to myself. Oppressed with agony, I quickly counted from the right end. I was the tenth man. A tremendous fire and fright afflicted my soul and at that moment, with a strength that was not my own, I seized the man standing at my right, pushed him to the left and quickly leaped into his place. No one observed me and the fever within was relieved. I was saved.
Now, at last, I looked at the man standing to the left whom, by my one act, I had deprived of life.
It was Vaněk.
He stood calmly, good-humoredly, suspecting nothing, and holding in his work-calloused, bruised hands a gun. He was looking straight ahead with the same frank gaze which I had always known him to have, and with the trustfulness of an honest countryman he awaited a just decision. Even a slight, though very touching, smile played on his lips and in his eyes reposed a cheerful friendliness for all things on earth.
