Chapter 56 Part One - Fifty Three

Nekhludoff walked back along the wide corridor (it was lunch time, the cell doors were open), and saw a number of prisoners in light yellow prison robes, baggy shorts and cotton shoes scrutinized him, and could not help feeling excited. A strange feeling: sympathy for these people in prison, fear and bewilderment for those who imprisoned them, and shame for being a spectator of all this. In a corridor, a man in cotton shoes ran past.He ran into the cell, and then several people came running out, stopped Nekhludoff, and bowed to him. "I'm sorry, sir, I don't know how to address you, please make the decision for us."

"I'm not an officer, I don't know anything." "It's all the same anyway, please speak to one of the officers," said one angrily. "We're not guilty of anything, but we've been locked up for more than a month." "What? How could it be?" asked Nekhludoff. "You see, that's how we're put in prison. We've been in prison for more than a month, and we don't even know why." "Yes, it was a last resort," said the deputy warden. "These people were arrested because they didn't have ID cards. They should have been sent back to their country of origin, but the prison over there was on fire and the provincial government came to contact us. Ask us not to send them back. You see, all the other provinces have sent back, and they are the only ones left."

"Why, is that the reason?" asked Nekhludoff, stopping at the door. A group of about forty persons, all in prison uniforms, surrounded Nekhludoff and the deputy warden.Immediately, several people started talking in a hurry.The deputy warden stopped them and said: "Say it by a man." A farmer in his fifties stepped out of the crowd, tall and well-proportioned.He explained to Nekhludoff that they were deported and imprisoned because they did not have ID cards.In fact, they have their ID cards, but they have expired for two weeks.ID cards expire every year, and no one has ever been punished. This year, they were treated as criminals and locked up here for more than a month.

"We're all masons in the same workshop. They say the provincial prison burned down. But we can't blame us for that. For God's sake, please do me a favor!" Nekhludoff listened, but could hardly catch what the good-looking old man was saying, for he had been watching how a large dark gray louse with many legs crawled through the crevices of the mason's whiskers. . "How can it be? Is it because of this?" Nekhludoff asked the deputy warden. "Yes, this is the negligence of the officers, and they should be sent back to their hometowns," said the deputy warden.

As soon as the deputy warden's words fell, another short man walked out of the crowd, also wearing a prison robe, with his mouth curled up in a strange manner, talking about how they were tortured here for no reason. "We're worse off than dogs..." he said. "Hey, hey, don't talk nonsense, shut up, or you will know..." "What do you want me to know?" said the little man desperately. "Are we guilty of anything?" "Shut up!" the officer yelled, and the short man fell silent. "How did this happen?" Nekhludoff asked himself, coming out of the cell.Hundreds of pairs of eyes were fixed on him by the prisoners looking out of the cell doors and coming towards him, and it seemed to him as if he were passing through a row of firing squads that were battered with clubs.

"Is it true that a large number of innocent people are locked up like this?" said Nekhludoff, coming out of the corridor with the deputy warden. "What can I do, please? But they're talking a lot of nonsense. According to them, no one is guilty," said the deputy warden. "However, those people did not commit any crime just now." "Those people, let's be like this. But the common people have become bad, and they must be strictly controlled. Some guys are really fearless, so they are not easy to mess with. Well, there were two people who had to be punished yesterday."

"How?" asked Nekhludoff. "Whipped with a tree on command..." "Hasn't corporal punishment been abolished?" "People who have been deprived of public rights are not included. Corporal punishment can still be imposed on them." Nekhludoff recalled what he had seen yesterday while waiting in the porch, and he realized that that was when the execution took place.He felt curious, sentimental, and bewildered.The mood made him feel a mental sickness that gradually turned into an almost physical sickness.Although this feeling has been there before, it has never been as strong as it is now.

He no longer listened to the deputy warden, nor looked around, but hastily left the corridor and walked towards the office.The warden was busy with other things in the corridor just now, and forgot to send someone to call Vera.It was not until Nekhludoff entered the office that he remembered that he had promised him to find her. "I'm going to send for her right now, and sit down a moment," he said.