Instead of replying Mrs Palivec burst into tears and concentrating all her misery on to a special stress on every word groaned out:
'A week ago he- got- ten-years.' .
'There you are, then,' said Svejk, 'so he's already served seven days of it.'
'He was always so careful,' sobbed Mrs Palivec.
'He always said that about himself.'
The customers in the bar maintained a stubborn silence, as though the spirit of Palivec was haunting the room and urging them to even greater caution.
'Caution is the mother of wisdom,' said Svejk, sitting down at a table to a glass of beer. In the foam there were little holes made by Mrs Palivec's tears as they fell into it when she brought the glass to the table for Svejk.
'We're living in such times that we are forced to be cautious.'
'Yesterday we had two funerals,' said the sexton of St Apollinaire, changing the subject.
'That means somebody must have died,' said another customer, whereupon a third added:
'Were they funerals with a catafalque?'
'I'd like to know,' said Svejk, 'what military funerals are going to be like now there's a war on.'
The customers rose, paid and went out noiselessly.
Svejk was left alone with Mrs Palivec.
'I never imagined that they'd sentence an innocent man to ten years,' he said.
'Sentencing an innocent man to five years, that's something I've heard of, but ten, that's a bit too much.'
'Well, you see, he confessed everything, my old man,' sobbed Mrs Palivec.
'What he was saying here about those flies and that picture he repeated at police headquarters and before the court.
I was a witness at the trial, but what evidence could I give when they told me that as I was in a state of relations with my husband I could forgo giving evidence? I was so scared of that "state of relations", in case it might lead to something else, that I got out of giving evidence and he, poor dear, gave me such a look! I shall never forget that look to my dying day.
And after the sentence had been passed and they were leading him off he shouted to them in the passage, as though he'd gone off his head:
"Long live Free Thinking!" '
'And Mr Bretschneider doesn't come here any more?' asked Svejk.
'He's been here several times,' answered Mrs Palivec.
'He drank a beer or two, asked me who comes here and listened to the customers talking about football.
As soon as they catch sight of him they start talking about nothing else but football. And he had the jerks as though any moment he'd go mad and have a fit.
And all that time he only succeeded in catching an upholsterer from PHcna Street.'
'It's all a matter of training,' observed Svejk.
'Was that upholsterer a stupid fellow?'
'Rather like my husband,' she replied, weeping.
'Mr Bretschneider asked him if he would fire against the Serbs.
And he said he couldn't shoot, that he was once at the shooting range and shot through a whole crown.
Then we all heard how Mr Bretschneider took out his notebook and said:
"Aha, and here's another nice case of treason!", and he went away with that upholsterer from Pficmi Street, who never came back.'
'Lots of them never come back,' said Svejk.
'Can I have a rum, please?'
Svejk was just having a second glass of rum, when Bretschneider came into the bar.
Throwing a quick glance at the bar and the empty rooms he sat down next to Svejk and ordering a beer waited to see what he would say.
Svejk took down a newspaper from the hanger and looking at the last page of advertisements said:
'Well, I never! Look at that! A Mr Cimpera of Straskov no. 5, near Racineves, is selling a farm with nine acres ofland convenient for school and railway station.'
Bretschneider drummed his fingers nervously and turning to Svejk said:
'I'm surprised that you're interested in farming, Mr Svejk.'
'Oh, it's you, is it?' said Svejk, shaking his hand.
'I couldn't recognize you at first.
I have a very bad memory.
The last time we parted, if I remember aright, was in the reception office at police headquarters.
What have you been doing since then?
Do you come here often?'
'I've come here today because of you,' said Bretschneider.
'I was told at police headquarters that you sell dogs.
I need a nice miniature pinscher or a porn or something of that kind.'