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Once he touched the ground Wladek tried to run, but his legs were so weak and painful that he could only walk slowly Hoished he could rid himself of that limp He did not look back at the hospital until he was lost in the throng of the crowd in thefood on the stalls and decided to buy an orange and so in his suit; surely the ht arer there, and far worse, the silver band had also gone The men in the white coats had stolen his possessions He considered going back to the hospital to retrieve the lost heirloo to eat Perhaps there was still soe overcoat pocket and immediately found the three notes and soether with the doctor’s map and the silver band Wladek was overjoyed at the discovery He slipped the silver band on, and pushed it above his elbow

Wladek chose the largest orange he could see and a handful of nuts The stallkeeper said so to him that he could not understand Wladek felt the easiest way out of the language barrier was to hand over a fifty ruble note The stallkeeper looked at it, laughed, and threw his ar back the nuts and the orange froer Wladek walked off in despair; a different language meant different money, he supposed In Russia he had been poor; here he was pennilness He would have to steal an orange; if he Nwre caught, he would throw it back to the staUkeeper Viladek walked to the other end of the market place in the same way as Stefan had done, but he couldn’t ier, and he didn’t feel the same confidence He chose the end staU and when he was sure no one atching, he picked up an orange and started to run Suddenly there was uproar It see round Six or seven people seized hold of different parts of hJs body while a larger group thronged around as he was dragged back to the stall A policeman awaited thee between the stall owner and the police with each new statement The policeman then turned to Wladek and shouted at him too, but Wladek could not understand a word The policeed his shoulders and marched Wladek off by the car People continued to bawl at him Some of them spat on hiround and thrown into a tiny cell, already occupied by twenty or thirty cris, thieves or he knew not what Wladek did not speak to them, and they showed no desire to talk to hi, quiet, terrified For at least a day and a night, he was left there with no food or light The s left in hieons in Sloni Wladek was dragged frouards and marched to a hall where he was lined up with several other prisoners They were all roped to each other around the waist and led froe crowd had gathered outside and their loud cheer of welco some time for the prisoners to appear The crowd followed the and shouting - for what reason Wladek feared even to contemplate The line came to a halt when they reached the market square The first prisoner was unleashed from his rope and taken into the centre ol the square, which was already cra at the top of their voices

Wladek watched the scene in disbelief When the first prisoner reached the uard and then his right hand was strapped to a wooden block by a giant of a ht it doith terrible force, aied to catch the tips of the fingers The prisoner serraain This time the sword hit the wrist but still did not finish the job properly and the wrist dangled fro out on to the sand The sas raised for a third time, and for the third tiround The crowd roared its approval The prisoner was at last released, and he slued off by a disinterested guard and left on the edge of the crowd A weeping woman, his wife, Wladek presumed, hurriedly tied a tourniquet of dirty cloth around the bloody stump The second prisoner died of shock before the fourth bloas struck The giant executioner was not interested in death so he continued his task; he was paid to remove hands