A Reckless Character | Page 8

do not wish to live any longer."
The speculator fairly flung apart his hands in surprise.--"You do not wish to live?"
M��sha cast a menacing glance at the speculator:--"Does that surprise you? Are not you the cause of it all?... Is it not you?... Is it not thou?...[15] Is it not thou, Judas, who hast robbed me, by taking advantage of my youth? Dost not thou skin the peasants? Is it not thou who hast deprived this decrepit old man of his daily bread? Is it not thou?... O Lord! Everywhere there is injustice, and oppression, and villainy.... So down with everything,--and with me also! I don't wish to live--I don't wish to live any longer in Russia!"--And the spade made swifter progress than ever in M��sha's hands.
"The devil knows the meaning of this!" thought the speculator: "he actually is burying himself."--"Mikha��l Andr��itch,"--he began afresh, "listen; I really am guilty toward you; people did not represent you properly to me."
M��sha went on digging.
"But why this recklessness?"
M��sha went on digging--and flung the dirt on the speculator, as much as to say: "Take that, earth-devourer!"
"Really, you have no cause for this. Will not you come to my house to eat and rest?"
M��sha raised his head a little. "Now you're talking! And will there be anything to drink?"
The speculator was delighted.--"Good gracious!... I should think so!"
"And dost thou invite Timof��i also?"
"But why ... well, I invite him also."
M��sha reflected.--"Only look out ... for thou didst turn me out of doors.... Don't think thou art going to get off with one bottle!"
"Do not worry ... there will be as much as you wish of everything."
M��sha flung aside his spade.... "Well, Tim��sha," he said, addressing his old man-nurse, "let us honour the host.... Come along!"
"I obey," replied the old man.
And all three wended their way toward the house.
The speculator knew with whom he had to deal. M��sha made him promise as a preliminary, it is true, that he would "allow all privileges" to the peasants;--but an hour later that same M��sha, together with Timof��i, both drunk, danced a gallopade through those rooms where the pious shade of Andr��i Nikol��itch seemed still to be hovering; and an hour later still, M��sha, so sound asleep that he could not be waked (liquor was his great weakness), was placed in a peasant-cart, together with his kaz��k cap and his dagger, and sent off to the town, five-and-twenty versts distant,--and there was found under a fence.... Well, and Timof��i, who still kept his feet and merely hiccoughed, was "pitched out neck and crop," as a matter of course. The master had made a failure of his attempt. So they might as well let the servant pay the penalty!

VI
Again considerable time elapsed and I heard nothing of M��sha.... God knows where he had vanished.--One day, as I was sitting before the samov��r at a posting-station on the T---- highway, waiting for horses, I suddenly heard, under the open window of the station-room, a hoarse voice uttering in French:--"_Monsieur ... monsieur ... prenez piti�� d'un pauvre gentilhomme ruin��!_".... I raised my head and looked.... The kaz��k cap with the fur peeled off, the broken cartridge-pouches on the tattered Circassian coat, the dagger in a cracked sheath, the bloated but still rosy face, the dishevelled but still thick hair.... My God! It was M��sha! He had already come to begging alms on the highways!--I involuntarily uttered an exclamation. He recognised me, shuddered, turned away, and was about to withdraw from the window. I stopped him ... but what was there that I could say to him? Certainly I could not read him a lecture!... In silence I offered him a five-ruble bank-note. With equal silence he grasped it in his still white and plump, though trembling and dirty hand, and disappeared round the corner of the house.
They did not furnish me with horses very promptly, and I had time to indulge in cheerless meditations on the subject of my unexpected encounter with M��sha. I felt conscience-stricken that I had let him go in so unsympathetic a manner.--At last I proceeded on my journey, and after driving half a verst from the posting-station I observed, ahead of me on the road, a crowd of people moving along with a strange and as it were measured tread. I overtook this crowd,--and what did I see?--Twelve beggars, with wallets on their shoulders, were walking by twos, singing and skipping as they went,---and at their head danced M��sha, stamping time with his feet and saying: "Natchiki-tchikaldi, tchuk-tchuk-tchuk! Natchiki-tchikaldi, tchuk-tchuk-tchuk!"
As soon as my calash came on a level with him, and he caught sight of me, he immediately began to shout, "Hurrah! Halt, draw up in line! Eyes front, my guard of the road!"
The beggars took up his cry and halted,--while he, with his habitual laugh, sprang upon the