The Horse-Stealers and Other Stories | Page 5

and pulled me out of
the other hole."
Lyubka shuddered and shrugged.
"At first I was in a fever from the cold," Merik went on, "but when they
pulled me out I was helpless, and lay in the snow, and the Molokans
stood round and hit me with sticks on my knees and my elbows. It hurt
fearfully. They beat me and they went away . . . and everything on me
was frozen, my clothes were covered with ice. I got up, but I couldn't
move. Thank God, a woman drove by and gave me a lift."
Meanwhile Yergunov had drunk five or six glasses of vodka; his heart
felt lighter, and he longed to tell some extraordinary, wonderful story
too, and to show that he, too, was a bold fellow and not afraid of
anything.
"I'll tell you what happened to us in Penza Province . . ." he began.
Either because he had drunk a great deal and was a little tipsy, or
perhaps because he had twice been detected in a lie, the peasants took
not the slightest notice of him, and even left off answering his
questions. What was worse, they permitted themselves a frankness in
his presence that made him feel uncomfortable and cold all over, and
that meant that they took no notice of him.
Kalashnikov had the dignified manners of a sedate and sensible man;
he spoke weightily, and made the sign of the cross over his mouth
every time he yawned, and no one could have supposed that this was a
thief, a heartless thief who had stripped poor creatures, who had already
been twice in prison, and who had been sentenced by the commune to
exile in Siberia, and had been bought off by his father and uncle, who
were as great thieves and rogues as he was. Merik gave himself the airs
of a bravo. He saw that Lyubka and Kalashnikov were admiring him,
and looked upon himself as a very fine fellow, and put his arms akimbo,

squared his chest, or stretched so that the bench creaked under him. . . .
After supper Kalashnikov prayed to the holy image without getting up
from his seat, and shook hands with Merik; the latter prayed too, and
shook Kalashnikov's hand. Lyubka cleared away the supper, shook out
on the table some peppermint biscuits, dried nuts, and pumpkin seeds,
and placed two bottles of sweet wine.
"The kingdom of heaven and peace everlasting to Andrey Grigoritch,"
said Kalashnikov, clinking glasses with Merik. "When he was alive we
used to gather together here or at his brother Martin's, and-- my word!
my word! what men, what talks! Remarkable conversations! Martin
used to be here, and Filya, and Fyodor Stukotey. . . . It was all done in
style, it was all in keeping. . . . And what fun we had! We did have fun,
we did have fun!"
Lyubka went out and soon afterwards came back wearing a green
kerchief and beads.
"Look, Merik, what Kalashnikov brought me to-day," she said.
She looked at herself in the looking-glass, and tossed her head several
times to make the beads jingle. And then she opened a chest and began
taking out, first, a cotton dress with red and blue flowers on it, and then
a red one with flounces which rustled and crackled like paper, then a
new kerchief, dark blue, shot with many colours --and all these things
she showed and flung up her hands, laughing as though astonished that
she had such treasures.
Kalashnikov tuned the balalaika and began playing it, but Yergunov
could not make out what sort of song he was singing, and whether it
was gay or melancholy, because at one moment it was so mournful he
wanted to cry, and at the next it would be merry. Merik suddenly
jumped up and began tapping with his heels on the same spot, then,
brandishing his arms, he moved on his heels from the table to the stove,
from the stove to the chest, then he bounded up as though he had been
stung, clicked the heels of his boots together in the air, and began going
round and round in a crouching position. Lyubka waved both her arms,
uttered a desperate shriek, and followed him. At first she moved
sideways, like a snake, as though she wanted to steal up to someone
and strike him from behind. She tapped rapidly with her bare heels as
Merik had done with the heels of his boots, then she turned round and
round like a top and crouched down, and her red dress was blown out

like a bell. Merik, looking angrily at her, and showing his teeth in a
grin, flew towards her in the same crouching posture as though he