The lackeys arrived soon after me, with a lot of noise, and made their way to another set of doors, where the prospectives started gathering.

  -Get out of the way.

  -Make way.

  -Let’s move it.

  Every now and then, a group of twelve would coagulate from the gathered prospectives and were called inside.

  After some fifteen minutes they began to come out individually, exhilarated and often still putting their clothes back on.

  Some of them, already processed, milled around in lieu of leaving.

  They talked with colleagues and examined studiously what had been entered in their military booklets. This and that.

  And right before finally making their way to the exit, they’d entice themselves to one more serving of free soup.

  Others buggered off quickly and were gone.

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  The least of the fearful, an account of being in this big city, panned one more bloodcurdling experience—riding an elevator in a nearby building.

  The building was very close, and architecturally trying for a skyscraper in Chicago or New York.

  It was somewhat difficult to get inside, because the security guards and porters, knowing immediately for what purpose fellows like this appeared, shoed them away.

  Often, though, if one of these guards was given a few z?oty, it would be possible to get through smoothly. Because of the elevator in the building, this was worth it.

  It was kind of like a carousel turned on its side, as if from a childhood dream.

  The exterior looked kind of like a strange large walk-in cabinet.

  Through one of the doors you could see that these cabinets were constantly lifting, and through the other, that they were constantly falling.

  The entire time, creaking and trembling, all of this was in constant motion, during which time you had to quickly get in, and out.

  The biggest thrill was riding to the very top in this cabinet, something in any case sourly prohibited, the so-called “reverse.”

  In a moment of superculmination, the cabinet, after several throes, most likely resembling some horrible earthquake, turned through the top of the shaft and went back down.

  This was nonetheless a calling for the farthest removed from civilization to the most cultured of adventurers.

  The rest of course gladly gawked and were amazed. But for fear that maybe it would tear their hand off or for example, God forbid, their johnson, for no treasures did they enter the elevator.