A little bit later, his wife grabbed him and shook him: "Look," she said, "you slug! While you were busy sleeping, they've stolen our house." And in fact, an unbroken sky stretched out on all sides. "Bah, what's done is done," he thought.
A little bit later, there was a loud racket. It was a train bearing down on them at full speed. "The way it's hurrying," he thought, "it will certainly get there before we do," and he went back to sleep.
Then, the cold wake him up. He was completely drenched in blood. Several pieces of his wife were strewn near him. "Where there's blood," he thought, "all sorts of trouble always come up; if only that train hadn't gone past, I'd be a lot happier. But since it already has gone past..." and he went back to sleep.
—See here, said the judge, how do you explain your wife being hurt so badly that they found her broken into eight pieces, without you, who were at her side, having raised a hand to prevent it, in fact without even noticing it. That's the mystery. That's the crux of the matter.
—I can't be of any help along these lines, thought Plume, and he went back to sleep.
—The execution will take place tomorrow. Does the accused have anything to add?
—Excuse me, he said, I haven't been following the matter. And he went back to sleep.