Works of Ivan Turgenev (Illustrated) (356 page)

When Akim drove away from her with Yefrem, leaving her alone in the field, for a long time she remained where she was, weeping. When she had wept away all her tears she went in the direction of her mistress’s house. It was very bitter for her to go into the house, still more bitter to go into the maids’ room. All the maids flew to meet her with sympathy and consideration. Seeing them, Avdotya could not restrain her tears; they simply spurted from her red and swollen eyes. She sank, helpless, on the first chair that offered itself. Someone ran to fetch Kirillovna. Kirillovna came, was very friendly to her, but kept her from seeing the mistress just as she had Akim. Avdotya herself did not insist on seeing Lizaveta Prohorovna; she had come to her old home simply because she had nowhere else to go.

Kirillovna ordered the samovar to be brought in. For a long while Avdotya refused to take tea, but yielded at last to the entreaties and persuasion of all the maids and after the first cup drank another four. When Kirillovna saw that her guest was a little calmer and only shuddered and gave a faint sob from time to time, she asked her where they meant to move to and what they thought of doing with their things. Avdotya began crying again at this question, and protesting that she wanted nothing but to die; but Kirillovna as a woman with a head on her shoulders, checked her at once and advised her without wasting time to set to work that very day to move their things to the hut in the village which had been Akim’s and in which his uncle (the old man who had tried to dissuade him from his marriage) was now living; she told her that with their mistress’s permission men and horses should be sent to help them in packing and moving. “And as for you, my love,” added Kirillovna, twisting her cat - like lips into a wry smile, “there will always be a place for you with us and we shall be delighted if you stay with us till you are settled in a house of your own again. The great thing is not to lose heart. The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away and will give again. Lizaveta Prohorovna, of course, had to sell your inn for reasons of her own but she will not forget you and will make up to you for it; she told me to tell Akim Semyonitch so. Where is he now?”

Avdotya answered that when he met her he had been very unkind to her and had driven off to Yefrem’s.

“Oh, to that fellow’s!” Kirillovna replied significantly. “Of course, I understand that it’s hard for him now. I daresay you won’t find him to - day; what’s to be done? I must make arrangements. Malashka,” she added, turning to one of the maids, “ask Nikanop Ilyitch to come here: we will talk it over with him.”

Nikanop Ilyitch, a feeble - looking man who was bailiff or something of the sort, made his appearance at once, listened with servility to all that Kirillovna said to him, said, “it shall be done,” went out and gave orders. Avdotya was given three waggons and three peasants; a fourth who said that he was “more competent than they were,” volunteered to join them and she went with them to the inn where she found her own labourers and the servant Fetinya in a state of great confusion and alarm.

Naum’s newly hired labourers, three very stalwart young men, had come in the morning and had not left the place since. They were keeping very zealous guard, as Naum had said they would -
 
- so zealous that the iron tyres of a new cart were suddenly found to be missing.

It was a bitter, bitter task for poor Avdotya to pack. In spite of the help of the “competent” man, who turned out, however, only capable of walking about with a stick in his hand, looking at the others and spitting on the ground, she was not able to get it finished that day and stayed the night at the inn, begging Fetinya to spend the night in her room. But she only fell into a feverish doze towards morning and the tears trickled down her cheeks even in her sleep.

Meanwhile Yefrem woke up earlier than usual in his lumber room and began knocking and asking to be let out. At first his wife was unwilling to release him and told him through the door that he had not yet slept long enough; but he aroused her curiosity by promising to tell her of the extraordinary thing that had happened to Akim; she unbolted the door. Yefrem told her what he knew and ended by asking “Is he awake yet, or not?”

“The Lord only knows,” answered his wife. “Go and look yourself; he hasn’t got down from the stove yet. How drunk you both were yesterday! You should look at your face -
 
- you don’t look like yourself. You are as black as a sweep and your hair is full of hay!”

“That doesn’t matter,” answered Yefrem, and, passing his hand over his head, he went into the room. Akim was no longer asleep; he was sitting on the stove with his legs hanging down; he, too, looked strange and unkempt. His face showed the effects the more as he was not used to drinking much.

“Well, how have you slept, Akim Semyonitch?” Yefrem began.

Akim looked at him with lustreless eyes.

“Well, brother Yefrem,” he said huskily, “could we have some again?”

Yefrem took a swift glance at Akim.... He felt a slight tremor at that moment; it was a tremor such as is felt by a sportsman when he hears the yap of his dog at the edge of the wood from which he had fancied all the game had been driven.

“What, more?” he asked at last.

“Yes, more.”

“My wife will see,” thought Yefrem, “she won’t let me out, most likely.

“All right,” he pronounced aloud, “have a little patience.”

He went out and, thanks to skilfully taken precautions, succeeded in bringing in unseen a big bottle under his coat.

Akim took the bottle. But Yefrem did not sit down with him as he had the day before -
 
- he was afraid of his wife -
 
- and informing Akim that he would go and have a look at what was going on at the inn and would see that his belongings were being packed and not stolen -
 
- at once set off, riding his little horse which he had neglected to feed -
 
- but judging from the bulging front of his coat he had not forgotten his own needs.

Soon after he had gone, Akim was on the stove again, sleeping like the dead.... He did not wake up, or at least gave no sign of waking when Yefrem returned four hours later and began shaking him and trying to rouse him and muttering over him some very muddled phrases such as that “everything was moved and gone, and the ikons have been taken out and driven away and that everything was over, and that everyone was looking for him but that he, Yefrem, had given orders and not allowed them, ...” and so on. But his mutterings did not last long. His wife carried him off to the lumber room again and, very indignant both with her husband and with the visitor, owing to whom her husband had been drinking, lay down herself in the room on the shelf under the ceiling.... But when she woke up early, as her habit was, and glanced at the stove, Akim was not there. The second cock had not crowed and the night was still so dark that the sky hardly showed grey overhead and at the horizon melted into the darkness when Akim walked out of the gate of the sacristan’s house. His face was pale but he looked keenly around him and his step was not that of a drunken man.... He walked in the direction of his former dwelling, the inn, which had now completely passed into the possession of its new owner -
 
- Naum.

Naum, too, was awake when Akim stole out of Yefrem’s house. He was not asleep; he was lying on a bench with his sheepskin coat under him. It was not that his conscience was troubling him -
 
- no! he had with amazing coolness been present all day at the packing and moving of all Akim’s possessions and had more than once addressed Avdotya, who was so downcast that she did not even reproach him ... his conscience was at rest but he was disturbed by various conjectures and calculations. He did not know whether he would be lucky in his new career; he had never before kept an inn, nor had a home of his own at all; he could not sleep. “The thing has begun well,” he thought, “how will it go on?” ... Towards evening, after seeing off the last cart with Akim’s belongings (Avdotya walked behind it, weeping), he looked all over the yard, the cellars, sheds, and barns, clambered up into the loft, more than once instructed his labourers to keep a very, very sharp look - out and when he was left alone after supper could not go to sleep. It so happened that day that no visitor stayed at the inn for the night; this was a great relief to him. “I must certainly buy a dog from the miller to - morrow, as fierce a one as I can get; they’ve taken theirs away,” he said to himself, as he tossed from side to side, and all at once he raised his head quickly ... he fancied that someone had passed by the window ... he listened ... there was nothing. Only a cricket from time to time gave a cautious churr, and a mouse was scratching somewhere; he could hear his own breathing. Everything was still in the empty room dimly lighted by the little glass lamp which he had managed to hang up and light before the ikon in the corner.... He let his head sink; again he thought he heard the gate creak ... then a faint snapping sound from the fence.... He could not refrain from jumping up; he opened the door of the room and in a low voice called, “Fyodor! Fyodor!” No one answered.... He went out into the passage and almost fell over Fyodor, who was lying on the floor. The man stirred in his sleep with a faint grunt; Naum roused him.

“What’s there? What do you want?” Fyodor began.

“What are you bawling for, hold your tongue!” Naum articulated in a whisper. “How you sleep, you damned fellows! Have you heard nothing?”

“Nothing,” answered the man.... “What is it?”

“Where are the others sleeping?”

“Where they were told to sleep.... Why, is there anything ...”

“Hold your tongue -
 
- come with me.”

Naum stealthily opened the door and went out into the yard. It was very dark outside.... The roofed - in parts and the posts could only be distinguished because they were a still deeper black in the midst of the black darkness.

“Shouldn’t we light a lantern?” said Fyodor in a low voice.

But Naum waved his hand and held his breath.... At first he could hear nothing but those nocturnal sounds which can almost always be heard in an inhabited place: a horse was munching oats, a pig grunted faintly in its sleep, a man was snoring somewhere; but all at once his ear detected a suspicious sound coming from the very end of the yard, near the fence.

Someone seemed to be stirring there, and breathing or blowing. Naum looked over his shoulder towards Fyodor and cautiously descending the steps went towards the sound.... Once or twice he stopped, listened and stole on further.... Suddenly he started.... Ten paces from him, in the thick darkness there came the flash of a bright light: it was a glowing ember and close to it there was visible for an instant the front part of a face with lips thrust out.... Quickly and silently, like a cat at a mouse, Naum darted to the fire.... Hurriedly rising up from the ground a long body rushed to meet him and, nearly knocking him off his feet, almost eluded his grasp; but Naum hung on to it with all his strength.

“Fyodor! Andrey! Petrushka!” he shouted at the top of his voice. “Make haste! here! here! I’ve caught a thief trying to set fire to the place....”

The man whom he had caught fought and struggled violently ... but Naum did not let him go. Fyodor at once ran to his assistance.

“A lantern! Make haste, a lantern! Run for a lantern, wake the others!” Naum shouted to him. “I can manage him alone for a time -
 
- I am sitting on him.... Make haste! And bring a belt to tie his hands.”

Fyodor ran into the house.... The man whom Naum was holding suddenly left off struggling.

“So it seems wife and money and home are not enough for you, you want to ruin me, too,” he said in a choking voice.

Naum recognised Akim’s voice.

“So that’s you, my friend,” he brought out; “very good, you wait a bit.”

“Let me go,” said Akim, “aren’t you satisfied?”

“I’ll show you before the judge to - morrow whether I am satisfied,” and Naum tightened his grip of Akim.

The labourers ran up with two lanterns and cords. “Tie his arms,” Naum ordered sharply. The men caught hold of Akim, stood him up and twisted his arms behind his back.... One of them began abusing him, but recognising the former owner of the inn lapsed into silence and only exchanged glances with the others.

“Do you see, do you see!” Naum kept repeating, meanwhile throwing the light of the lantern on the ground, “there are hot embers in the pot; look, there’s a regular log alight here! We must find out where he got this pot ... here, he has broken up twigs, too,” and Naum carefully stamped out the fire with his foot. “Search him, Fyodor,” he added, “see if he hasn’t got something else on him.”