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to meet him; the spot where they encountered each other was no longer visible from the inn.
    "Barnabas," said K., and could not keep his voice from trembling, "I have something else to say to you. And that reminds me that it's a bad arrangement to leave me dependent on your chance comings for sending a message to the Castle. If I hadn't happened to catch you just now - how you fly along, I thought you were still in the house - who knows how long I might have had to wait for your next appearance."
    "You can ask the Chief," said Barnabas, "to send me at definite times appointed by yourself."
    "Even that would not suffice," said K., "I might have nothing to say for a year at a time, but something of urgent importance might occur to me a quarter of an hour after you had gone."
    "Well," said Barnabas, "shall I report to the Chief that between him and you some other means of communication should be established instead of me?"
    "No, no," said K., "not at all, I only mention the matter in passing, for this time I have been lucky enough to catch you."
    "Shall we go back to the inn," said Barnabas, "so that you can give me the new message there?"
    He had already taken a step in the direction of the inn.
    "Barnabas," said K., "it isn't necessary, I'll go a part of the way with you."
    "Why don't you want to go to the inn?" asked Barnabas.
    "The people there annoy me," said K., "you saw for yourself how persistent the peasants are."
    "We could go into your room," said Barnabas.
    "It's the maids' room," said K., "dirty and stuffy - it's to avoid staying there that I want to accompany you for a little, only," he added, in order finally to overcome Barnabas's reluctance, "you must let me take your arm, for you are surer of foot than I am."
    And K. took his arm. It was quite dark, K. could not see Barnabas's face, his figure was only vaguely discernible, he had had to grope for his arm a minute or two. Barnabas yielded and they moved away from the inn. K. realized, indeed, that his utmost efforts could not enable him to keep pace with Barnabas, that he was a drag on him, and that even in ordinary circumstances this trivial accident might be enough to ruin everything, not to speak of side-streets like the one in which he had got stuck that morning, out of which he could never struggle unless Barnabas were to carry him. But he banished all such anxieties, and was comforted by Barnabas's silence; for if they went on in silence then Barnabas, too, must feel that their excursion together was the sole reason for their association.
    They went on, but K. did not know whither, he could discern nothing, not even whether they had already passed the church or not. The effort which it cost him merely to keep going made him lose control of his thoughts. Instead of remaining fixed on their goal they strayed. Memories of his home kept recurring and filled his mind. There, too, a church stood in the marketplace, partly surrounded by an old graveyard which was again surrounded by a high wall. Very few boys had managed to climb that wall, and for some time K., too, had failed. It was not curiosity which had urged them on. The graveyard had been no mystery to them. They had often entered it through a small wicket-gate, it was only the smooth high wall that they had wanted to conquer. But one morning - the empty, quiet marketplace had been flooded with sunshine, when had K. ever seen it like that either before or since? - he had succeeded in climbing it with astonishing ease; at a place where he had already slipped down many a time he had clambered with a small flag between his teeth right to the top at the first attempt. Stones were still rattling down under his feet, but he was at the top. He stuck the flag in, it flew in the wind, he looked down and round about him, over his shoulder, too, at the crosses mouldering in the ground, nobody was greater than he at that place and that moment. By chance the teacher had come past and with a stern face had made K.