117
The next morning he declared to us, like a parrot, green out of fright.
“Dear companions! I will starve with you too.”
The general answer was:
“Starve by yourself!”
And he did starve himself. We did not wish to believe it. Just as you do not believe it, we supposed that he did eat something in secret. The inspectors thought the same. And when, at the end of his fast, he became ill with typhoid we only shrugged our shoulders and said: “Poor little pig!” But one of us who never laughed, remarked gloomily: “He is our companion. Let us go to him.”
He spoke during the fever, and in his delirium he expressed the sadness of the whole of his life. He spoke of his favourite books, and of his mother and brothers; asked for some cake, and confessed that he was innocent, and asked forgiveness. He
