The Daughter of the Commandant | Page 8

them in. But now" (he winked a second time) "put your axe behind
your back,[23] the gamekeeper is abroad. To the health of your
excellency."
So saying he took the glass, made the sign of the cross, and swallowed
his brandy at one gulp, then, bowing to me, returned to his lair above
the stove.
I could not then understand a single word of the thieves' slang they
employed. It was only later on that I understood that they were talking
about the army of the Yaïk, which had only just been reduced to
submission after the revolt of 1772.[24]
Savéliitch listened to them talking with a very discontented manner,
and cast suspicious glances, sometimes on the host and sometimes on
the guide.
The kind of inn where we had sought shelter stood in the very middle
of the steppe, far from the road and from any dwelling, and certainly
was by no means unlikely to be a robber resort. But what could we do?
We could not dream of resuming our journey. Savéliitch's uneasiness
amused me very much. I stretched myself on a bench. My old retainer
at last decided to get up on the top of the stove,[25] while the host lay
down on the floor. They all soon began to snore, and I myself soon fell
dead asleep.
When I awoke, somewhat late, on the morrow I saw that the storm was
over. The sun shone brightly; the snow stretched afar like a dazzling
sheet. The horses were already harnessed. I paid the host, who named
such a mere trifle as my reckoning that Savéliitch did not bargain as he

usually did. His suspicions of the evening before were quite gone. I
called the guide to thank him for what he had done for us, and I told
Savéliitch to give him half a rouble as a reward.
Savéliitch frowned.
"Half a rouble!" cried he. "Why? Because you were good enough to
bring him yourself to the inn? I will obey you, excellency, but we have
no half roubles to spare. If we take to giving gratuities to everybody we
shall end by dying of hunger."
I could not dispute the point with Savéliitch; my money, according to
my solemn promise, was entirely at his disposal. Nevertheless, I was
annoyed that I was not able to reward a man who, if he had not brought
me out of fatal danger, had, at least, extricated me from an awkward
dilemma.
"Well," I said, coolly, to Savéliitch, "if you do not wish to give him half
a rouble give him one of my old coats; he is too thinly clad. Give him
my hareskin touloup."
"Have mercy on me, my father, Petr' Andréjïtch!" exclaimed Savéliitch.
"What need has he of your touloup? He will pawn it for drink, the dog,
in the first tavern he comes across."
"That, my dear old fellow, is no longer your affair," said the vagabond,
"whether I drink it or whether I do not. His excellency honours me with
a coat off his own back.[26] It is his excellency's will, and it is your
duty as a serf not to kick against it, but to obey."
"You don't fear heaven, robber that you are," said Savéliitch, angrily.
"You see the child is still young and foolish, and you are quite ready to
plunder him, thanks to his kind heart. What do you want with a
gentleman's touloup? You could not even put it across your cursed
broad shoulders."
"I beg you will not play the wit," I said to my follower. "Get the cloak
quickly."

"Oh! good heavens!" exclaimed Savéliitch, bemoaning himself. "A
touloup of hareskin, and still quite new! And to whom is it given?--to a
drunkard in rags."
However, the touloup was brought. The vagabond began trying it on
directly. The touloup, which had already become somewhat too small
for me, was really too tight for him. Still, with some trouble, he
succeeded in getting it on, though he cracked all the seams. Savéliitch
gave, as it were, a subdued howl when he heard the threads snapping.
As to the vagabond, he was very pleased with my present. He ushered
me to my kibitka, and saying, with a low bow, "Thanks, your
excellency; may Heaven reward you for your goodness; I shall never
forget, as long as I live, your kindnesses," went his way, and I went
mine, without paying any attention to Savéliitch's sulkiness.
I soon forgot the snowstorm, the guide, and my hareskin touloup.
Upon arrival at Orenburg I immediately waited on the General. I found
a tall man, already bent by age. His long hair was quite white; his old
uniform reminded one of a soldier of Tzarina Anne's[27] time, and he
spoke with a strongly-marked German accent. I gave him