But then, I can’t tell – nobody can tell.

He cannot hold back a shudder at this small reservation.

‘Are you shivering?’ he is asked.

He jerks away. He must have closed his eyes. When he opens them he sees the prisoner standing right over him, looking at him closely. How is it he notices every little detail ? Yet other matters are quite beyond him.

‘I can see very well that you’re shivering,’ he continues. ‘You must tell me why.’

‘I’m so tired,’ says Stig. ‘And I’ll have to go back to those fellows again soon.’

‘You mustn’t go. You must stay with me.’

‘We can’t decide for ourselves, you and I.’

‘What are you going to do then?’

Stig does not answer him. His weakness overwhelms him, and he bows his head and allows it to get the upper hand.

The other man is standing motionless, looking at him. He understands that he must be left in peace. He watches him, fascinated, comparing him with the swine.

Time passes.

But what is this? The prisoner shudders, just as Stig did just now. He stares at Stig, and as he does so Stig changes: he sees Stig lying stretched out and white somewhere in the darkness. Someone is telling him that Stig is not going to stay with him, but is to lie stretched out and white in the darkness.

And now they are on their way here to fetch him! The prisoner knows this, looking at Stig as if in a trance. He tries to imprint it all on his memory, and his poor memory is open and receptive – and at the same time he hears footsteps coming nearer and nearer, while Stig is lying stretched out and white in a darkness that he cannot fathom.

And he suddenly understands that there are many, many things he has to talk about to Stig. But he cannot. And no one else can say them for him. And therefore they will never be said.

But they must be said to Stig now! For now they are going to take him away, and will never bring him back.

Stig is brought out of his doze, so intently are the prisoner’s eyes fixed on him. ‘What is it?’ he asks, shocked by the intensity of these eyes right in front of him.

‘They will never be said!’ stammers the prisoner, looking exhausted and desperate. ‘But we ought not to be separated like this!’ he continues, on tenterhooks, for he can hear the footsteps approaching.

‘I don’t know. What you…’

The prisoner interrupts him: ‘Listen!’

‘What is it? I don’t hear anything.’

‘They’re coming,’ whispers the prisoner.

‘But who?’

‘They’re coming for you. They’re in the corridor. But we can’t be separated like this, can we?’

Stigs jerks himself awake.

‘Are they here?’

‘Yes, yes. They’re coming in this direction.’

Stig listens as well. And now there really are footsteps outside. They halt. And someone is turning the key in the lock.