Summary

Zanzuri gave the officer his knife. The officer remarked that Zanzuri’s knife had a broken compass, and Zanzuri blamed the damage on Shafik. The officer turned his attention to the captured Arab man. He opened the Arab man’s shirt, and Stein protested. When Stein stepped forward, the mute jeep driver hit him with a “truncheon” (80).

The officer ordered the mute to hold Stein’s head up so that Stein could witness the following events. The officer sliced the Arab man’s stomach open, and many miscellaneous items came out of it, such as “flags, flyers, candy, and phone tokens” (80). The officer warned the soldiers not to eat the candy because it was poisoned. Some soldiers took the phone tokens and others inspected the flags. The Russian soldier “folded” (80) the deflated body and placed it inside the case of his spare tire...