Zdeněk Bartl

"I walked slowly into the courtroom. I sat down at the table and waited to be called. I was called. Something along the lines of what I had allowed myself to do and that I was already in my eighties. Anyway... they shooed me out into the corridor and told me to wait for the court to deliberate and then they would call me. I just sat down in the corridor, and as if by chance Lieutenant Váňa, who at that time was questioning me about [Hašek's] Lipnice, walked by, then again... it was he who rushed me to work. Just Lieutenant Váňa. Now he just sat down and said to me: 'So what? You are in the army now, right? I said: 'Yes, in the army.' And he said: 'Where are you?' I said: 'Well, in Josefov as a guard, even as a dog handler.' And he said: 'Oh, you could join us when you come back from the army. Look, two and a half thousand in hand. And I said to him, 'And if I go to the station, I'll get a free ticket and a deputy's coal.' So he shut up, got up and said, 'Anyway. Make up your mind.' And he walked away. I don't think I've seen him since."