Stig goes. The door closes behind him. It closes tightly, hiding these two who are about to open their hearts to each other, closes on the perplexity of the struggle which the man who is to serve heaven must now take up. What is said in there is between themselves alone.

Then the man with the austere face is left on his own again in the narrow room. And he stares beyond it and out into the breadth of space, from where calmness and assurance should come. They do not come, and he takes it as a sign that he must act on his own initiative. He has taken a leap without having been given permission either way. One must. The house is cracking.

11

The Dark

The arrow polisher is standing on his ladder, polishing and deliberating. He is trying to calm down after the shock given him by the note on his desk.

He must keep under cover, and it seems safest to be in the middle of the lighted corridor, at his work. The gleaming arrows lend him a kind of courage as he rubs and polishes them. They are shining with power and well-being. And then every now and again someone with gilded arrows on his clothes goes past. He must admit that gives him courage too.

For now the others have threatened him.

They say the corridors are empty. They don’t know what they’re talking about, or else they say so in spite of knowing better. Plenty of people move about in them. Anyone who is here all the time knows far more about it than people who sit in corners sneering.

What did the note say? You are under observation.

Ridiculous. It is ridiculous really. Why bother one’s head about it? Especially if one isn’t guilty! It’s only the way some people plague others when they can’t find anything else to do. But one ought to be man enough to ridicule them, wherever they may be hiding themselves and writing stupid notes.

It’s probably one of their little ways. They seem determined to make life here so much worse than it might be.

So his thoughts run on as he is polishing. The message on the note stands in front of his eyes and sounds in his ears. He is seized by hatred.

You are under observation.

But why?

It seems to him he has the right to ask.

If only there were the slightest reason for being under observation. But what have I done besides my honest job? Nothing besides this job. Not a child is crying because I’ve harmed it. No one who is going hungry is doing so because I’ve destroyed anything. I have worked, and I will work! he says excitedly. But what about the people who wrote that note? What about the calamities they’ve caused in this house ?

He reassures himself of this over and over again. It gives him courage after the incident of the note.

When he found the note he was certain Stig was behind it. Now he doesn’t think so. Stig doesn’t act like that, he decides at random. Stig works with quite different matters. More important matters. One ought to become acquainted with him.