following the suggestion of the respected colleague Lothar Laaks, that he be removed for a considerable time for the purpose of mental recovery in a sanatorium.  Only the happenstance that the aggrieved pupil Mechenmal was hated equally by teachers and pupils, because of his overfriendly awkwardness and his malicious secret rabble-rousing, impeded such a decision.  Although colleague Laaks—­the only one who found words of appreciation for Mechenmal—­advocated it heatedly with the use of much dirty dialectic.  The colleagues were content to warn Doktor Bryller of the inappropriateness of his behavior.

One day, about a half year before the final incarceration of Berthold Bryller for life, in an insane asylum subsidized by the state, a yelling arose in the schoolyard of the Horror High School.  A crowd of mostly smaller pupils surged behind a dwarfish, care-worn, lop-sided boy whose back showed the slight beginnings of a hump.  They teased him cheerfully and spitefully—­the words were unintelligible because of the noise but surely malicious.  He was pushed so that he stumbled.  Many older high school pupils looked on, amused at the lively rough-housing.  Even senior teacher Laaks, who was supervising, failed to suppress an amused smile.  In a window was the motionless face of Doctor Bryller.

The malformed boy continued walking without defending himself.  With bent head.  Often he had to wipe his eyes with his hand.  Only once, when one of most impudent youths – who else but the second-year pupil Mechenmal—­spat into his face while the others raucously clapped approval, did he throw himself sobbing deeply against the attacker, who immediately ran away.  Through the middle of the shrieking crowd, which blocked his way in all directions, the crying humpback pursued his schoolmate.  Perhaps he would have reached Mechenmal if the perennial fourth-year pupil Spinoza Spass hadn’t suddenly grasped his hump as if with a hook.  Spinoza Spass grinned comfortably and maliciously into the monkey-shaped, longingly apathetic face, as he propelled the little despairing Kohn like a weight slowly through the sunny spring air.  By this heroic deed he became one of the most famous fourth-year pupils of the Horror High School.

Some sympathetic older high school pupils put an early end to the strange spectacle.  The gaunt, pale senior Paulus snatched the tiny unfortunate boy from the venemously peering Spass and threatened to beat up anyone who annoyed the lop-sided little Kohn further.  For fear of Paulus and some other like-minded boys, they left the flushed humpback in peace—­at least for the time being.  He walked along, pressing himself against the gray walls.  And would have most happily sunk into the ground.  When the school bell rang, he was glad to disappear into the classrooms.