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diff --git a/35457.txt b/35457.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2462ac5 --- /dev/null +++ b/35457.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8297 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of More Tales by Polish Authors, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: More Tales by Polish Authors + +Author: Various + +Translator: Else C. M. Benecke + Marie Busch + +Release Date: March 2, 2011 [EBook #35457] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORE TALES BY POLISH AUTHORS *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, JoAnn Greenwood and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + MORE TALES BY POLISH + AUTHORS + + + + + TALES BY POLISH AUTHORS. + Translated by ELSE BENECKE. + Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. net. + + "This is a book to be bought and read; it + cannot fail to be remembered.... The whole + book is full of passionate genius.... It is + delightfully translated."--_The Contemporary + Review._ + + OXFORD + B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD ST. + + + + + MORE TALES BY + POLISH AUTHORS + + + TRANSLATED BY + ELSE C. M. BENECKE + AND + MARIE BUSCH + + + OXFORD + B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET + 1916 + + + + + +NOTE + + +The translators' thanks are due to MM. Szymanski and Zeromski for +allowing their stories to appear in English; and to Mr. Nevill Forbes, +Reader in Russian in the University of Oxford, Mr. Retinger, and Mr. +Stefan Wolff, for granting permission on behalf of the three other +authors (or their representatives) whose works are included in this +volume; also to Miss Repszowa for much valuable help. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + MACIEJ THE MAZUR. By Adam Szymanski 1 + TWO PRAYERS. By Adam Szymanski 52 + THE TRIAL. By W. St. Reymont 86 + THE STRONGER SEX. By Stefan Zeromski 112 + THE CHUKCHEE. By W. Sieroszewski 146 + THE RETURNING WAVE. By Boleslaw Prus 186 + + + + +POLISH PRONUNCIATION + + + cz = English _ch_. + sz = English _sh_. + l = English _w_. + o = English _o_ in "who." + a = French "on." + e = French _in_ as in "vin." + rz and z = French _j_ in "jour." + (rz and z after _k_, _p_, _t_, _ch_ = English _sh_.) + ch = Scotch _ch_ in "loch." + c = _ts_. + + + Pan = Mr. + Pani = Mrs. + Panna = Miss. + + + + +MACIEJ THE MAZUR + +BY ADAM SZYMANSKI + + +After leaving Yakutsk I settled in X----, a miserable little town +farther up the Lena. The river is neither so cold nor so broad here, +but wilder and gloomier. Although the district is some thousands of +versts nearer the civilized world, it contains few colonies. The +country is rocky and mountainous, and the taiga[1] spreads over it in +all directions for hundreds and thousands of versts. It would +certainly be difficult to find a wilder or gloomier landscape in any +part of the world than the vast tract watered by the Lena in its upper +course, almost as far as Yakutsk itself. Taiga, gloomy, wild, and +inaccessible, taiga as dense as a wall, covers everything +here--mountains, ravines, plains, and caverns. Only here and there a +grey, rocky cliff, resembling the ruin of a huge monument, rises +against this dark background; now and then a vulture circles +majestically over the limitless wilderness, or its sole inhabitant, an +angry bear, is heard growling. + +The few settlements to be found nestle along the rocky banks of the +Lena, which is the only highway in this as in all parts of the Yakutsk +district. Continual intercourse with Nature in her wildest moods has +made the people who live in these settlements so primitive that they +are known to the ploughmen in the broad valleys along the Upper Lena, +and to the Yakutsk shepherds, as "the Wolves." + +The climate is very severe here, and, although the frosts are not as +sharp and continuous as in Yakutsk, this country, on account of being +the nearest to the Arctic regions, is exposed to the cruel Yakutsk +north wind. This is so violent that it even sweeps across to the +distant Ural Mountains. + +At the influx of the great tributary of the Lena there is a large +basin; it was formed by the common agency of the two rivers, and +subsequently filled up with mud. This basin is surrounded on every +side by fairly high mountains, at times undulating, at times steep. +Its north-eastern outlet is enclosed by a very high and rocky range, +through which both rivers have made deep ravines. X----, the capital +of the district inhabited by the "Wolf-people," lies in this +north-eastern corner of the basin, partly on a small low rock now +separated from the main chain by the bed of the Lena, partly at the +foot of the rock between the two rivers. The high range of mountains +forming the opposite bank of the Lena rises into an enormous rocky +promontory almost facing the town. Flat at the top and overgrown by a +wood, the side towards the town stands up at a distance of several +hundred feet as a perpendicular wall planed smooth with ice, thus +narrowing the horizon still more. As though to increase the wildness +of the scenery presented by the mountains and rocks surrounding the +dark taiga, a fiendish kind of music is daily provided by the furious +gales--chiefly north--which prevail here continually, and bring the +early night frosts in summer, and ceaseless Yakutsk frosts and +snowstorms in winter. The gale, caught by the hills and resounding +from the rocks, repeats its varied echoes within the taiga, and fills +the whole place with such howling and moaning that it would be easy +for you to think you had come by mistake into the hunting-ground of +wolves or bears. + + * * * * * + +It was somewhere about the middle of November, a month to Christmas. +The gale was howling in a variety of voices, as usual, driving forward +clouds of dry snow and whirling them round in its mad dance. No one +would have turned a dog into the street. The "Wolf-people" hid +themselves in their houses, drinking large quantities of hot tea in +which they soaked barley or rye bread, while the real wolves provided +the accompaniment to the truly wolfish howling of the gale. I waited +for an hour to see if it would abate; however, as this was not the +case, I set out from the house, though unwillingly. + +I had promised Stanislaw Swiatelki some days beforehand that I would +go to him one day in the course of the week to write his home letters +for him--"very important letters," as he said. It was now Saturday, so +I could postpone it no longer. Stanislaw was lame, and, on account of +both his lameness and his calling, he rarely left the house. He came +from the district of Cracow--from Wislica, as far as I recollect--and +prided himself on belonging to one of the oldest burgher families of +the Old Town, a family which, as far as fathers' and grandfathers' +memories could reach, had applied itself to the noble art of +shoemaking. Stanislaw, therefore, was also a shoemaker, the last in +his family; for although the family did not become extinct in him, +nevertheless, as he himself expressed it, "Divine Providence had +ordained" that he should not hand down his trade to his son. + +"God has brought him up, sir, and it seems to have been His will that +the shoemaker Swiatelkis should come to an end in me," Stanislaw used +to say. He had a habit of talking quickly, as if he were rattling peas +on to a wall. Only at very rare moments, when something gave him +courage and no strangers were present, he would add: "Though His +judgments are past finding out.... What does it matter? Why, my +grandson will be a shoemaker!" He would then grow pale from having +expressed his secret thought, turn round quickly, as though looking for +something, shift uneasily, and--as I noticed sometimes--unconsciously +spit and whisper to himself: "Not in an evil hour be it spoken, Lord!" +thereby driving away the spell from his dearest wish. + +He was of middle height, fair, but nearly grey, and had lost all his +teeth. He wore a beard, and had a broad, shapeless nose and large, +hollow eyes; it was difficult to say what kind of person he was as +long as he sat silent. But only let him move--which, notwithstanding +the inseparable stick, he always did hastily, not to say +feverishly--only let him pour out his quick words with a tongue moving +like a spinning-wheel, and no one who had ever seen a burgher of pure +Polish blood could fail to recognize him as a chip of the old block. +Stanislaw had not long carried on his trade in X----. Having scraped +together some money as foreman, he had started a small shop; but he +was chiefly famous in the little town as the one maker of good Polish +sausages. He had a house next door to the shop, consisting of one room +and a tiny kitchen. He did not keep a servant; a big peasant, known as +Maciej, prepared his meals and gave him companionship and efficient +protection. Hitherto, however, I had known very little of this man. + +I did not often visit Swiatelki, and as a rule only when I wanted to +buy something. So we had chatted in the shop, and I had only seen +Maciej in passing. But I had noticed him as something unusually large. +He was, indeed, huge; not only tall, but, as rarely happens, broad in +proportion. It was this which gave his whole figure its special +characteristics, and made it seem imposing rather than tall. + +A house calculated for ordinary people he found narrow. Furniture +standing far enough apart to suit the average man hampered Maciej. He +could not take two steps in the house without knocking against +something. He trod cautiously and very slowly, continually looking +round; and he always had the ashamed air of a man who feels himself +out of place and is persuaded that his strongest efforts will not save +him from doing absurd things. I had seen Maciej a few times when, in +Swiatelki's absence, he had taken his place in the shop, where the +accommodation was fairly limited. An expression almost of suffering +was depicted on his broad face, and especially noticeable when, on +approaching the passage between the shelves and the counter, he stood +still a moment and measured the extent of the danger with an anxious +look. That it existed was undoubted, for the shelves were full of +glasses and jugs of all kinds, so that one push could do no little +harm. It was a real Scylla and Charybdis for him. He looked +indescribably comical, and was so much worried that after a few +minutes the drops of perspiration ran off his forehead. Once I found +him there in utter misery, waiting for someone to come. For he had +fancied, when going through this passage after settling with a +customer, that he had knocked against something behind him, and, not +being able to ascertain what it was, he stood and waited, afraid to +move until someone came. + +"God be praised that you've come!" he exclaimed with delight. "I am +fixed here as sure as a Jew comes to a wedding. _He's_ gone away and +doesn't mean to come back! Good Lord! how little room there is here! +I've knocked against some teapot or other, and can't move either way. +The devil take all these shelves!" He continued his lamentations when +I had set him free. "It's always like this; it's a real misfortune, +this want of room. But what does it matter to him? He fits in here; +though he has to help himself with a stick, he can spin round like a +top." + +"He" was, of course, the shoemaker, for Maciej's stupidity caused +frequent bickerings, which, however, never became serious between +them. Maciej's unwieldiness and awkwardness irritated the nervous, +agile shoemaker; while, on the other hand, Maciej could not understand +the shoemaker's quickness. But this was not their only cause of +contention. The shoemaker, a burgher, was to a certain extent a man +of position, with a deep sense of his higher rank; he wore a coat, and +had needs which Maciej regarded as entirely superfluous--in fact, +those of a gentleman. In addition, the shoemaker was the owner of the +house, and Maciej's employer. + +Apart from all this, however, the antagonism revealed in their mutual +relations was not deep-seated, but in reality superficial. The +shoemaker grumbled at Maciej, and sometimes made fun of him; but he +always did it as if he were on equal terms with him, observing the +respect due to a peasant of some standing--that is, he always used the +form "you," and not "thou," in addressing him. Maciej usually received +the shoemaker's grumbling in silence, but sometimes answered his +taunts pretty sharply. Besides their common fate and present equality +in the eyes of the law, other weighty reasons had an influence in +making bearable the relations between people of different classes in +one small room. + +In comparison with Maciej, the shoemaker possessed intelligence of +which the latter could never even have dreamt. The shoemaker could +read, and--what gave him a special charm, and no little authority in +Maciej's eyes--he could scrawl the eighteen letters of his Christian +and surname, although slowly, and always with considerable difficulty. +To Maciej's credit, on the other hand, besides his physical +strength--that brute force which impresses even those who are not +lame--stood the fact that he took service more from motives of +comradeship than of necessity. For he possessed capital of his own, +having made several hundred roubles, which were deposited at present +at the shoemaker's house. Moreover--the most important thing of +all--he was a conscientious and honest man. When, before knowing this, +I asked the shoemaker in conversation if he could trust Maciej +completely, since he lived alone with him and often left him in the +shop, he repeated my question with so much astonishment that I at once +realized its thorough inappropriateness. He repeated it, and, not +speaking quickly, as usual, but slowly and emphatically, he gave me +this answer: "Maciej, sir, is a man--of gold." + + * * * * * + +Immediately on my arrival the shop was closed and we went into the +house. A small table with a chair on either side stood under the only +window of the little room. Close behind the chairs there was a bed +along one wall, and a small wooden sofa along the other. A narrow +opening opposite the table led to the kitchen where Maciej lived. We +sat down to consult what to write. Not only the shoemaker, but even +Maciej, was in an extremely serious mood; both evidently attached no +little importance to the writing of letters. The shoemaker fetched +from a trunk a large parcel tied up in a sheet of paper, and, having +taken out the last letters from his wife and son, handed them +carefully to me. Maciej squeezed himself into the kitchen, and did not +return to us. A moment later, however, his head with the large red +face--but his head only--showed like the moon against the dark +background of the opening. + +"Why do you go so far away, Maciej?" I asked. + +"Eh, you see, sir, it's not comfortable sitting in there. I've knocked +a bench together here that's a bit stronger." + +The shoemaker mumbled something about breaking the chairs, but Maciej +busied himself with his pipe and did not hear, or pretended not to +hear. + +We began to read the letters. The letter from his wife contained the +usual account of daily worries, interspersed with wishes for his +return and the hope of yet seeing him. The letter from his son, who +had finished his apprenticeship as journeyman joiner half a year ago, +was sufficiently frivolous. After telling his father that he was now +free, he wrote that, as he could not always get work, he was unable to +make the necessary amount of money to buy himself a watch, and he +begged his father to send him thirteen roubles or more for this +purpose. I finished reading this, and looked at the shoemaker, who was +carefully watching the impression the letter was making on me. I +tried to look quite indifferent; whether I succeeded to any extent I +do not know, for I did not look straight at him. But I was convinced +after a moment that my efforts had been vain, for I heard the anxious +question: "Well, and what else, sir?" It was clear that his son's +letter was very painful to him, even more so than I had supposed. + +"Here am I, trying and working all I can, so that in case I return +there may be something to live upon and I mayn't have to beg in my old +age, and that fool----" + +We both began to remonstrate with him that it was unnecessary to take +this to heart, and that his son was probably--in fact, certainly--a +very good lad, only perhaps a little spoilt, especially if he was the +only child. + +"Of course he is the only one, for I have never even seen him." + +"How--never?" + +"Yes, really never; because--I remember it as if it were to-day--it +was five o'clock in the evening. I was doing something in the +backyard, when my neighbour, Kwiatkowski, called out to me from behind +the wooden fence: 'God help you, Stanislaw, for they are coming after +you!' I only had time to run up to the window and call out: 'Good-bye, +Basia; remember St. Stanislaw will be his patron!' That's all I said. +Basia was confined shortly after, but I didn't see her again. So it +was a good thing I said it, for now there'll always be something to +remember me by." + +"God be praised that it's so! but if it hadn't been a son----" + +Maciej did not finish his sentence, however, for the offended +shoemaker began to reprimand him sternly. + +"You are talking nonsense, Maciej, and it is not for the first time! +Does not the Church also give the name of St. Stanislawa? Besides, +though I am a sinner as every man is, couldn't I guess that a word +spoken at a moment like that would carry weight with the Almighty? +Isn't everything in God's hand?" + +Maciej looked down, and a deep sigh was the only testimony to the +shoemaker's eloquence. + +Stanislaw's explanation of the circumstances lightened our task very +much, and when he had remembered that the mother never complained of +her son--on the contrary, was always satisfied with him--we succeeded +in calming his excessive anxiety concerning the fate of his only +child. In order to settle the matter thoroughly, it was decided to ask +some responsible and enlightened person to examine the lad as he +should think fit and to keep an eye on him in future, reporting the +result of the examination to the father. This was arranged because the +mother, being a simple and uneducated woman, was thought to be +possibly much too fond of her only son, and an over-indulgent and +blind judge. The only question was the choice of the individual--a +sufficiently difficult matter; this one had died, that one had grown +rich, the other had lately taken to drink. We meditated long, and +would have meditated still longer, if finally the shoemaker had not +said firmly, with the air of a man persuaded that he is speaking to +the point: + +"We will write to the priest!" And when Maciej, glad that the +troublesome deliberation was over--possibly, also, in order to regain +his position after having just said a stupid thing--hastily supported +this with, "Yes, the priest will be best," I conceded to the majority. + +Certain difficulties arose from the fact that the priest was not +personally known to Swiatelki, and that, as Maciej put it, "the priest +couldn't be approached just anyhow." These difficulties were overcome +by the business-like shoemaker, who began by ordering a solemn Requiem +Mass for the souls of his parents, for which he sent the priest ten +roubles, and in this way commended his son to the kind consideration +of his benefactor. + +I began to write the letters, of which there were to be three: to his +wife, to his son, and to the priest. In the course of my stay in +Siberia I had written so many similar letters that I had gained no +little facility in this kind of composition. I therefore wrote +quickly, only asking for a few particulars. The shoemaker crept from +the bed, on which he had hitherto been sitting, to the chair standing +by the table, and bending over this followed the movement of my pen +attentively, ready to answer any questions. Maciej cleaned out his +pipe in silence. I finished the letters, and proceeded to read them. + +Stanislaw sent his wife fifty roubles. As he retained a most +affectionate remembrance of his faithful Basia, loved her possibly +more now than twenty years ago, and could never speak of her without +deep emotion, the letter to her corresponded to the feelings of his +youth. He was paler than usual as he listened to it, and he tried to +say something, but his lips trembled and the words caught in his +throat. When the reading was finished, however, Stanislaw wriggled in +the way peculiar to him, and, after blowing his nose several times, +finally articulated: "Now I will sign." Having discovered his +spectacles in the table drawer and duly fixed them on his nose, the +shoemaker pointed to the place where the signature was to be put, and +began: + +"Es, tee." He had already opened his mouth to pronounce the third +letter, when the incautious Maciej, who had behaved most properly +while I was writing, unexpectedly interrupted with: + +"If you would also----" + +He burst in with this, but of course did not finish. The shoemaker +laid down the pen, lifted his head high, so as to look through his +spectacles at Maciej--who without doubt was already regretting his +ill-timed remark--and said drily: + +"Maciej, you are hindering me." + +Maciej grew very red, and, naturally, did not utter another word. The +shoemaker finished writing his name without further interruption, and +took out the money. In order to avoid mistakes, he at once enclosed it +with the letter in an addressed envelope. + +However much Stanislaw had wished during our consultation to "pull the +silly fellow's ears," the letter to his son was indulgent rather than +stern. It was easy to guess what that yet unseen son, the one hope of +the old burgher family, was to Swiatelki. He had worked perseveringly +and honestly for so many years, and had overcome all kinds of +difficulties; lonely and neglected, he had passed victoriously through +the temptations to enrich himself easily with which Siberia beguiles +the unsuspecting novice. Doubtless he owed all this in a certain +degree to the honest principles he had brought from his home and +country, as well as to his character, but, without any doubt, equally +to that son in whose very birth he saw the Hand of God. It was clear +that the poor fellow dreamt of standing before his beloved child as an +ascetic dreams of appearing at the Judgment-Seat. The thought that he +would be able to tell him--openly and fearlessly--"I have nothing to +bring you, my son, but a name unstained by a past full of the gravest +temptations," was the lodestar of his life. Taking this into +consideration, therefore, I did not scold the "silly fool," but +explained to him in an affectionate way what the money was the father +was sending to the family--money he had earned by working extremely +hard, and frequently by pinching himself. I told the lad what he ought +to be and might become, being strong and healthy, and that on this +account his wish for money to spend on trifles gave his father pain. I +wrote large and distinctly, adapting myself to the young joiner's +powers of comprehension, and at the end fervently blessed him in his +new walk in life. + +The reading of this letter was carried on with constant interruptions, +as I stopped to ascertain if I had interpreted the father's feelings +and wishes rightly. From the beginning I was sure that this was the +case, and became all the more certain of it as I read on. Each time I +looked at him inquiringly, Stanislaw answered me hastily: "Yes, yes, +yes, that's just as I wanted it!" But the farther I read the shorter +and quicker became the "Yes, yes." In the middle of the letter, it is +true, he opened his lips once more, but I only saw that they were +moving, for they did not utter a sound. I looked up again: his chin +was resting on the table, and the tears were flowing down his pale +cheeks. He did not make the restless movements peculiar to him when +his feelings overflowed. He did not scrape his throat or blow his +nose. He merely rested his chin on the table, and, sitting near me by +the candle, with its light falling upon him, he quietly cried before +us. He did not quiver or sob, but the tears, which had certainly not +flowed from those hollow eyes for a long time, streamed from them now. +When he was calm he looked at me with his large, intelligent eyes, and +thanked me without raising his head. "May the Lord repay you--may the +Lord repay you!" But Maciej, having already expressed his satisfaction +by ejaculations and indistinct mumbling, now took courage at a longer +pause to make quite a speech. + +"H'm--that's fine! I've listened to lots of letters, because in the +gold-mines different people wrote letters for me and others. And even +here, though Z---- no doubt writes very well, he writes so learnedly, +like a printed book, that you don't understand a word when you listen +to it. For he puts in so many words folks don't use, you can see in a +moment that he comes from a Jewish or a big family, and that he has +never had much to do with the people. Now, your letter goes straight +to one's heart, for it's human. Oh, poor fellow! He'll cry like an old +woman at a sermon when he reads it. If you would also--but I daren't +ask"--and his voice sounded really very shy--"if you would write a +short letter like that to my people too, oh how my old woman would +cry,--she would cry!" + +While I read the letter to the priest, Maciej kept quiet, listening +and possibly also beginning to consider what I was to write to his +wife, if I answered to the hopes he had placed in me. But when I came +to the passage in which I asked the priest about the Mass for the +shoemaker's dead parents, there was a violent crash in the entrance to +the kitchen, and Maciej stood before us in all his impressiveness. His +appearance was so unexpected, and made with so much noise, that we +looked at him in astonishment. Maciej was strangely altered, and even +seemed to me to be trembling all over. He came out in silence, and +standing just in front of us, with his feet wide apart as usual, he +began to search for his pocket; but whether it was difficult to find +in the folds of his baggy trousers, or whether for some other reason, +he was a long time about it. Having found it, he drew out a small +purse, and, after a long process of untying, for which he also used +his teeth, he took out a crumpled three-rouble note. He stood a while +holding this. At last he laid it on the table with a shaking hand, and +began in an imploring, broken voice: + +"If that's so--when he says the Mass, let him pray for us unhappy +folks too: write that, sir. Let him pray to Almighty God and to the +Holy Virgin--if it's only to bring our bones back there--and +perhaps--perhaps They'll have mercy." + +"Perhaps They'll have mercy," the shoemaker repeated like an echo, as +he stood beside Maciej. + +They stood before me--these two old men grown grey in adversity--as +small children stand before a stern father, feeling their +helplessness; the lame shoemaker with the hollow eyes, leaning on his +stick, and that huge peasant with his hands hanging down and head +bowed humbly, imploring this in a quiet whisper. + + * * * * * + +We should certainly have sat there a long while in painful musing if +it had not been for the shoemaker. Stanislaw was the first to rouse +himself from the lethargy into which we had fallen. + +"What the devil are we doing! Maciej, bestir yourself! The sausages +are burning in there, and the brandy is getting stale! Eh, Maciej, +look sharp!" + +Maciej crept to the kitchen, and returned to us--not, to say the +truth, very quickly--preceded by the smell of well-fried sausages. We +shook off our lethargy so slowly, however, that even the brisk +shoemaker had to make an effort to put a good face on it. His first +toast was, "The success of the letters." To this Maciej responded with +"Amen," and a sigh which might have come from a pair of blacksmith's +bellows. The vodka did its work, however. Our recent emotion +strengthened its effect, and after two glasses even an observant +person would never have guessed what we had thought and felt here a +few moments earlier, but for the letters lying in Stanislaw's trunk. +The last vestiges of sadness were charmed away by the little song +which Stanislaw began to sing: + + "The splinters fall in showers + Where woodmen trees are felling; + Oh, good and pretty children + Are dear beyond all telling!" + +But in his present cheerful frame of mind Maciej protested +energetically against even this slight echo of sadness. + +"Eh! just you shut up about your children! I've five of them, and I +don't care as much for them all together as you do for the one." + +The shoemaker evidently acknowledged the justice of this bold remark, +for he passed it over in silence, and only proposed to Maciej with a +gesture to put on the samovar. Maciej did his work in the kitchen +noisily and cheerily. He had completely forgotten about his favourite +place, "the little bench a bit stronger," and he returned to us +without delay. His voice, always absolutely unsuited to the acoustic +properties of the room, now sounded as perhaps it once did in those +years on the fields of Mazowsze. When he spoke, it was simply a shout, +for he did not modify the intonation by any expression whatever. He +talked about his work, gesticulated, and waved his arms; when obliged +to stand up, he moved suddenly, and the same when he sat down; he +became indignant, and retracted his words; he squeezed his fingers +together and spread them out; but he did all this slowly and +accurately, just in the way he spoke. He said not a single word nor +related a single fact without supporting and illustrating it by +expressive mimicry, by a movement or a pose, which he always tried to +make as near the original as possible. So when I returned to his +protests against the shoemaker's sadness, and asked him: "Have you +five sons, Maciej?" he answered: "Five, like the five fingers on my +hand"; and, holding up his fist, he carefully spread out his fingers +one by one. He laughed long and heartily at this, in the way that only +children laugh, his whole body shaking. + +But it was not only his laugh that was childlike; Maciej's big broad +face, portraying his inward calm, reminded me of the face of a little +child whose thoughts have as yet not influenced its features. In +proportion to his height and breadth Maciej's head seemed to me +smaller than it really was. His wide neck diminished it still more. +But when he sat down, resting his hands on his knees in his usual +manner, somehow his head disappeared entirely, and then from behind he +was very like a pointed hayrick, while from the side he reminded me +of those clumsy but impressive figures which people of past ages cut +out in rocks and stone. + +The longer I looked at him, the stronger became my wish to know this +huge fellow rather better, and to ascertain something more about him. +I therefore decided to profit by the occasion, which possibly might +not soon occur again, and to spend the whole evening with the +shoemaker. + +Maciej chattered tremendously; he talked bidden and unbidden, and was +even more loquacious than I could have hoped. Although he talked +disconnectedly, with continual long digressions from the subject, I +listened to him with growing interest. His anecdotes were chiefly +about his life in the gold-mines. However familiar that life was to me +from a number of different stories, I listened to him patiently, for I +was interested in the very ticklish question of how he could have +saved together several hundred roubles in surroundings where riches +can always be accumulated, but rarely in a legitimate manner. + + * * * * * + +"I worked--slaved--in the gold-mines," Maciej continued on his return +from the kitchen. "At first they put me to work underground, but the +inspector saw me, and called out, 'Who's that huge fellow?' as if he'd +never seen a big man before, the low scoundrel! He was told: 'That's +Maciej, one of the Poles.' 'He's a good-looking Pole. Bring him +here.' They sent for me, and I came and took off my cap"--Maciej +touched his head. "But I didn't bow. Oh no! why should I? 'What a +blockhead! Where do you come from?' he asked. 'Ha-ha! and where am I +likely to come from if not from Poland!' Afterwards he asked again: +'Can you bake bread?' 'Is he making a fool of me, or what does he +mean?' I thought to myself, but I didn't let on, and said: 'That's a +woman's work, not a man's'--so I explained to him; devil knows if he +understood or not! But he ordered them to take me on as baker's +assistant. + +"There just was drunkenness and thieving and carrying on in the +bakery! Good God! But I didn't interfere; I just did what they said, +and they didn't tell me to superintend or look after things. When my +mates saw that I obeyed them, and worked enough for two, and didn't +meddle with anything, they began to carry on worse than ever. It was +like a tavern for the drinking that went on. The inspector came one, +two, three times: everyone in the bakery was drunk; I was the only one +at work and kneading the loaves of bread. He looked and went away. He +came again the next day, and there was quite a battle going on in the +house; they were having a drunken fight. He ordered them to be put +into prison, and he asked me again: 'Now you know how to make bread; +you've learnt it, haven't you?' So I understood he wasn't joking, and +laughed: 'Oh yes, I've learnt it,' I said. + +"He put me to be head baker. They dealt out all the flour used in the +bakery for the whole week--and there was a lot used, for we baked for +more than two hundred people. So I did my work, and weighed the flour +to make it last out. Scarcely was the week over, when the inspector +came again: 'Well, Maciej,' he said, 'have you had enough flour?' I +just said nothing, but took him to the bakery and showed him what was +left--nearly three sacks. When he saw that he opened his eyes ever so +wide. 'Good! good!' he said; and he called the storekeeper and told +him to make a note of how much was left, and to save half of it and +give me half as reward. + +"Now, in these gold-mines it just happens one way or the other: +sometimes such a lot of people come you don't know where to put them, +and sometimes, when they start running away, there aren't enough left +even to go underground. And that's how it was there: a lot of work, +and too few people to do it. First they took one man away from me, and +afterwards a second, and after a week still more, so that I was left +with one, and then quite alone for a few days. I was standing at the +kneading trough and oven from sunrise to sunrise. When the inspector +saw that I was without help, and the sweat was running off my +forehead, he called out: 'Vodka! Let Maciej have as much as he wants! +Drink as much as you like,' he said. I didn't stint myself; but a +single glass makes one bad enough, so half a bottle was saved every +day. This was my own, and in this way I got nearly a rouble a day.[2] + +"But whether by slaving like this, or what not, I don't know how it +was: anyway I got ill. My feet and arms seemed paralyzed all at once; +dark spots came on my body, and my teeth got all shaky, like keys in +an organ. 'Take him off to the hospital,' they said. The doctor said +it was scurvy. Whether or no, it was a fact I got worse and worse. At +last one of the miners lying in the hospital, an old Brodiaga[3], said +to me: 'Don't you pay any attention to them or to the doctor, for +they'll cure you for the next world. Listen to good advice. Send +someone to the taiga for toadstools, fill a bottle with them, and +after it has been standing a certain time and has got strong, drink a +wineglass of it with vodka every day.' I did just as he told me, and +after a week I was quite fit again. + +"Afterwards I saw the Brodiaga coming along. I thought: 'He'll expect +to be treated.' So I stood treat for him. He said: 'Well, what did you +think of it?' + +"'I think it was a good trick, but I don't want to do it a second +time.' + +"'You're right,' he said. 'Have you ever seen the cook draw the veins +out of the meat when he's getting the inspector's cutlets ready?' + +"'Oh yes! Rather!' I said. + +"'Now, you see, if you stop here, they'll draw all the veins and all +the strength out of you. You've saved a little money; go away from +here, and don't look back.' + +"I left the hospital, and went to get my 'time.' But it was a +difficult business. 'Stop here,' they said to me, 'stop here, and +we'll raise your wages.' And so on. But I didn't agree. 'Your money is +good, but dear,' I answered. The inspector got very angry, and +shouted, 'Ass!' And they counted it out to me: I had got a round sum +of a thousand roubles, all but a hundred and fifty." + + * * * * * + +"Did you really drink that stuff, Maciej?" + +"A-ah! It was the first medicine I ever took," he answered. + +But the shoemaker, understanding my incredulity, set it aside by an +excellent explanation: + +"No fear! Even two bottles of toadstools wouldn't hurt a machine like +that!" + +Maciej disapproved of the expression. + +"Am I a machine now? Why, you only see half of what I was!" + +"Then, you were stouter formerly?" + +"Oh yes! I tell you, I wasn't like this. What do I look like now? A +greyhound grown thin! Is this an arm?" And he untwisted his shirt +sleeve and showed us an arm of which a leg might have been jealous. +"Is this a leg?" Drawing his wide trousers tight, he looked piteously +at his leg measuring over a yard round. "I usedn't to be like this," +he ended with a sigh. + +Nothing could have given me more satisfaction than these sighs. But a +good beginning had been made, for Maciej, who certainly very rarely +experienced the relief of unburdening himself, was so excited that he +required no stronger incentive than that I should listen to him with +unfeigned interest. It was enough to repeat, "What then? Just so! +Really!" oftener and more pressingly. Thus spurred on, each time +Maciej's "Ha, ha!" became louder and his face redder, and when the +samovar had boiled he declined to obey the shoemaker and would not +pour out the tea. + +"Can I never have a talk? When do I ever get a chance of speaking to +anyone? You're in the shop; you know what to do and how to talk to +people, but I don't. It's not only with those who come here; I can't +do it even with our own people, I'm such a plain man. It's dull to be +alone, and I'm losing flesh; but there's no one I can go to, for +people get bored with me. The master here understands every word I +say, and isn't surprised and doesn't laugh at anything. I can talk to +him like one of my own family, and feel lighter at heart at once. Do +pour out for yourself. I don't want that stupid tea." + +Although shocked at this distinct subversion of the order of society, +the shoemaker allowed himself to be mollified, and began to pour out +tea. Maciej, freed from one of his most trying duties, became all the +livelier. + +We both settled ourselves on the sofa. Maciej was to tell me his past +history from the beginning. He was as red as a peony, but, strange to +say, he sat silent, and although I prompted him several times with, +"Well, and what next, Maciej?" he did not speak. Yet his deep +breathing showed that this silence did not mean speechlessness. On the +contrary, it was thought slowly working and stirring him to +expression. + +Maciej sat upright, with his knees wide apart and both hands resting +on them. He sat thus for some minutes, with eyes which seemed fixed on +the far distance; he sat motionless as though he were already away in +that distant scene which, possibly, was opening before him. Yet, when +observed closely, his face was burning. I was on the point of putting +a more urgent question to him, when Maciej, looking neither at me nor +at the shoemaker, began as follows: + +"You must have heard of a large river--it's swift and black--they call +it Narew? Not far from that river there are three big villages, called +Mocarze. + +"I've seen many, many different villages, and I've looked at many +different people. I've seen the big Tartar villages, and the Russian +settlements, as large as towns, and the villages on the River Angara +and behind Lake Baikal, and where the Poles are so well off;[4] but +nowhere, nowhere have I seen villages like our Mocarze. + +"There isn't a thing you can't find there. Everything's there. My +God!" And Maciej stretched out his arms. + +"And those meadows and fields and the hay timee! Oh! those young +oak-woods, and the corn, too, like gold! + +"Here everything is big, but somehow it's dreary. What can you see in +the taiga? What's there to enjoy in the fields? It's like a grave all +round you: a vulture crying above, a bear growling in the taiga, and +that's all the pleasure you get! At home it's different. + +"There, if you go out in the morning through the fields with the dew +on them, and shout, it sounds like a bell ringing in the open air. You +watch the cheerfulness of the animals, and listen to the birds +chirping on the ground and above, and you feel cheerful too. And if +you breathe the air coming from those fields and meadows, as if it +came from a censer in church, you feel its strength going into you. +I've never felt so strong anywhere as at sunrise at Mocarze, when I +used to say 'Good-morning!' to the sun. Here the morning's no +morning--there's no pleasure in it; none of the birds or animals or +people know anything about it. At home it's different. + +"I've seen so many countries; I've been through all this big Siberia, +and a good bit of the Lake Baikal country, but I've never seen a +country like ours anywhere. But I've learnt that since being here. +Yes, here! Am I the only one? We've clever people at home--priests and +gentlemen and peasants with heads on their shoulders--but none of them +know what they have!" + + * * * * * + +"Each of these villages called Mocarze has its own name. They call the +one that's the oldest, Korzeniste; the second, Suche; and the third, +which is the newest, Mokry. I am from Mocarze-Suche. + +"It's a big village. Pan Olszeski was our master, and we were his +serfs. Everyone knows it's not very pleasant to be that. When I was +about twenty, Olszeski took me into his service at the house. + +"He was a very quick-tempered man, yellow, dry, and small--the very +devil, I can tell you! He wasn't really bad, only when he was angry; +but he got angry about everything, and then he'd just be beside +himself with rage--oh my goodness! Yet not for long. He'd shout and +run up and down and get yellower still; but when he'd finished you +could say anything to him, and, though he'd tremble, he'd listen and +say nothing. He was just. It can't be said that the young men liked +him, but the older ones--the farmers--always told us: 'Don't take any +notice of his shouting; his bark is worse than his bite.' And they +were right. He never harmed and never worried people; but this I only +knew later. At the time I only knew that Olszeski was bad-tempered, +and I feared him like fire, and--well, every bad thing. But I don't +know how it came about; the farther I went from him, the more he came +after me. He was always at me, scolding, cursing, and shouting. But I +remembered what my father had said: 'Don't take any notice of his +being angry, but remember that he's just'; so I stood it--stood it and +never said a word. And I should have stood it longer if Olszeski +hadn't gone too far. But he said everything he could think of against +me, and at last, on purpose to wound my feelings, he began to call me +a 'stupid great booby' and 'greenhorn.' Even now I don't like to think +about it. He happened to come into the yard. Though I was at work, and +he didn't see me, and I ran away from him like a hare from a dog, he +at once began to shout: 'Eh, there! you stupid great booby, you +greenhorn!' His voice was like himself, thin and shrill, and so +penetrating it sounded like a whistle. When he called me all those +names I boiled over with rage. It was only he who thought me stupid, +not my own people. There wasn't a fellow in the village equal to me, +either with the fiddle at the inn or at the hardest field work. For I +never shirked work any more than play. And I was so strong--I'm +speaking seriously--not as I am now; if there was ever anything anyone +couldn't do, Maciej did it. + +"And then to be insulted like that, and go on standing it--why should +I? So I thought, 'There's been enough of this, and I've had enough of +it, too! With God's help I'll show him I'm not so stupid, and not such +a booby.' I don't know if I could do it now, but at that time there +wasn't a team I couldn't have held. When I was holding them from +behind, you could have beaten the horses to death, they wouldn't have +stirred. I hadn't tried with the carriage horses; the coachman +wouldn't allow it. 'You'll get the landau smashed, and I'm +responsible,' he said. But I thought: 'Let come what may, I'll try.' + +"It was a Sunday when he ordered the horses to be put to, but not to +go to church, for he was driving alone, only to go to the town. He got +in, sat down, shut the door, and waited. He liked the horses to start +off at once at a sharp trot. But I was behind. I put my feet wide +apart to stand firm. I took hold of the side of the landau with one +hand, and of the back with the other. My heart was going like a mill, +for I was thinking: 'Perhaps I shan't be able to hold horses in such +good condition.' But you're all right after the start. I gathered all +my strength together, and strained forward till my joints cracked. The +horses started--they started once, twice, and--didn't move a step. + +"'Go on!' a shrill voice called out from the landau, while the +mistress and the young ladies stood at the window waving their +handkerchiefs. + +"'Go on, blockhead!' and his shrill voice went into a squeak. + +"But the old coachman must have guessed what was happening, for, when +he saw the horses didn't move, he didn't whip them, so that there +shouldn't be an accident. He didn't slash at them, but turned to the +master and said: 'How can I start while Maciej is holding on?' +Olszeski jumped as if he'd been scalded, and trembled so much he +couldn't get his breath. The carriage was half open, so he turned +towards me, quite green with anger, and looked me straight in the +face. But I held on, and when once I'd looked at him I didn't take my +eyes off him; my veins swelled from holding on to the carriage, and +the blood went to my head. What I was like I don't know, but my master +looked and looked. I thought: 'God knows what he'll do to me.' But he +must have understood, for he only laughed, and said: 'How strong you +are! How strong you are! But now let go, Maciej.' I let go, and the +horses started off; I thought they would bolt." + +Maciej sat down tired, for he had been reproducing the whole scene of +holding back the carriage as accurately as possible before us. He had +stood leaning sideways, had held the carriage with his hand, been +tugged at by the powerful horses, and had looked his master +threateningly in the face; even his eyes had become bloodshot, and his +tightly clenched hands had swelled. + +If, wearing his clumsy "juntas,"[5] grey-headed, bent, and but half +his weight, he looked splendid and threatening, if his eyes flashed +now, what must he have been like when he faced his master in defence +of his human dignity? + + * * * * * + +"From that time," Maciej continued, after a short pause, "my master +was different. Not all at once, it's true; for at first he avoided +me, and, though he left off scolding, he never said a word for a long +time. I thought to myself: 'I'm in for something worse; he's surely +thinking out something for me I shan't forget.' But no. He began to +talk to me, but always good-naturedly and kindly, and a year hadn't +passed before I was high in his favour. If anyone had to be sent out +with money, or go with the mistress or young ladies, no one might do +it but Maciej; and later, when he knew me, he didn't tell me: 'Don't +get drunk, don't be too long, and don't kill the horses'; he only said +I was to go, and everything he had ordered was as right as if it had +been written in a book. So he got fond of me. I never heard a bad word +from him all the last years I was in his house. And I was very happy. +But though I was happy there, I had my future to think of, too. Though +my father often talked of it, I myself certainly shouldn't have +troubled to get married in a hurry, and didn't think much about it. +For why think of anything better when you're happy? And no one runs +away from happiness. There was work, but there was plenty of fun. + +"What a happy time the harvest at home used to be! And when our +Mocarze fiddler played at the inn on Sundays, even the old people +couldn't keep their feet still. + +"And our girls! Hah! There aren't such girls anywhere. For example, +do you ever see one like them here? When they were all together, and +you came up, they were like flowers--like the lilies themselves. And +when you heard them tittering, 'Hi! hi! hi!' and saw their bright eyes +behind their aprons, you didn't know yourself that you were calling +out: 'Heh there! Go ahead, you fellows! Now then, fiddler, strike up +something lively! Come along, my dear!'" + +Maciej was about to start off dancing, for he burst out with the 'Heh +there!' so energetically that it set our ears tingling. But a scornful +remark of the shoemaker checked him. + +"They hid behind their aprons? What vulgar foolishness!" + +Maciej, who had already started up, sat down, but would not allow the +shoemaker's words to pass. + +"Vulgar? Everyone knows it's not like in a town. But don't be +disagreeable. Now, among these girls the best-looking seemed to +me----" + +"Kaska?" interposed the shoemaker. + +"No, not Kaska, but Marya. She was the best girl in Mocarze, and +though she had no mother, and was alone at home, she was tidy and +hard-working, and everything round her was clean. + +"In the field she always went at the head of the mowers. She could +always be seen when she was standing in the corn, it never hid her. +My Marya was a fine girl, well grown, and red like a poppy or +cherries in the sun. And her body was so healthy--it was as hard as a +nut. When I wanted to pinch her----" + +"Did you pinch her cheek?" the shoemaker interrupted impertinently. + +"Don't talk bosh! Am I a gentleman, or do I come from a town, that I +should pinch a girl's cheek, to say nothing of the girl being my +Marya? I pinched where we are all used to pinching the girls----" + +The shoemaker was triumphant and smiled ironically. Obviously this +peasant did not know the most elementary rules of genteel behaviour. + +"A girl like a turnip, I tell you," Maciej continued. "Strong as my +fingers are--but no--nothing to be done--you couldn't pinch her, +anyhow. + +"I courted her, and it seemed to me that she wasn't against it; for +she was always looking at me, and danced best with me. So I thought to +myself: 'I'll just see how I stand in this.' So one Sunday evening I +watched her going off to the dance, and she had to climb over the +fence near the Wojciecks' cottage. I stood and waited there. I heard +her coming; I heard, because one can always hear one's girl coming a +long way off. She came to the fence, lifted her foot, jumped on to the +other side, and was just going to hop down, when I, who was watching +all this, couldn't stand it any longer; I ran up to the fence and put +my arm round her waist. You know, sir, there's a song which ends: + + "'Maiden, turn not from me....' + +"Well, I sang the song as I held her, and wanted to kiss her. But I +hadn't finished the last words before she gave me such a slap between +the eyes that it quite blinded me, and before I could take it +in--thwack! she went on my jaw, first one side and then another. 'So +there's a kiss for you, that's your kiss, you fine fellow! You just +keep away from me!' she shouted, and thwacked and thwacked like a +tadpole in the water. My word! how she did go for me! I was so taken +aback I couldn't come to myself; I could only feel my cheeks swelling +from the blows, for she was such a strong girl. At last she stopped +and sat down on the fence, and began to cry and say: + +"'I never expected a disgrace like this from you, Maciej. Am I just +anyone, and not a respectable farmer's daughter, that you should put +yourself in my way when I was coming across the fence?' + +"When she said this, I understood; still, I wasn't able to come to my +senses all at once, and out it slipped: 'But why?' I said. It was just +as if I'd covered her with hot coals! + +"'Why? Why?' she cried. 'Are you a little boy? Aren't you a farm +labourer? You're a clever fellow, to begin courting and not to know +how to make up to a respectable girl! Well, if you're such a fool, +I'll tell you: the way to do it is through one's parents!' + +"Now, that went to my heart so much I was ready to cry like a calf. I +asked: 'Will you have me?' + +"'Are you cracked? Doesn't my father know you?' she said. + +"'And you, Marya?' I said. + +"'Well, why not--of course, if father tells me.' + +"'Ah!' I thought to myself, 'a girl like that's a good one; I'm lucky +if I get her!' And, if I hadn't been careful not to vex her again, I'd +have taken her into my arms once more. But someone came along, and +down she jumped and ran to the dance; and back home I came, for my +cheeks were as swollen as the white loaves father sometimes brought +back from the fair at Lomza. I didn't have any supper, I went straight +to bed; but the next day I went to my parents and told them all about +it, and asked them to arrange the match at once. They were surprised I +was in such a hurry; but I was obstinate, and begged for it. The worst +was to know how it would be about the master. But it was no use, I +couldn't do it without him; so I went and asked him, and he was very +kind to me. He set me free from his service, and gave me a field ready +sown as a start, and a farm of twenty acres. + +"We put in our banns, and had a wedding such as the oldest people in +Mocarze didn't remember. For though my parents and her parents weren't +so very rich, they were well-to-do farmers; and as to the drink, the +master gave that. We did dance and all enjoy ourselves!" + +Maciej stopped abruptly. + +"Those seven years I lived with my wife were the only ones in which I +have really lived," Maciej began again slowly and emphatically, as +though weighing each word. "Marya was a wonderful girl, but she was a +still better wife. + +"A child was born almost every year about Christmas time. But she +never had any trouble with it, for she could have nursed three at +once. They were all boys, and they are all as like me as peas in a +pod." + +The sadness we could hear in Maciej's voice, and the way in which he +paused, showed that the bright part of the story was now nearly ended. + +"The home was clean and tidy, both the food and clothes," Maciej added +in a measured tone. "And as to the farm, there's no need to speak of +that, either. I was successful all round; I only wanted the moon!" + +Maciej became silent, and somehow we felt that with his last words the +golden thread of his life had snapped. We felt that as the story went +on it would be different, and we longed for it to continue as it had +been. Therefore, although knowing it to be vain, we deceived +ourselves by the hope that we should still hear a merry laugh, and +watch the continuance of that tranquil life, though, maybe, only for a +moment longer. But, rocked by memories, Maciej let his head fall on +his broad chest, and remained mournfully silent. Possibly he was +chasing the last gleams of those brighter days which had disappeared +without return, or possibly, as he looked, the days of fear and pain +emerged from the twilight of the distant past. + + * * * * * + +The snowstorm was raging outside, and the wild howling of the wind +could be heard distinctly now in the quiet of the little room. +Suddenly it gave a louder moan, and shook the shutter as though trying +to blow it off its hinges. Maciej must have heard this, for he raised +his head, and, as if to put an end to his own thoughts, spoke at last. + +"Perhaps everything might have been the same to-day, if it hadn't been +for that misfortune.... If it hadn't been for that misfortune," he +repeated slowly, as we both instinctively moved closer to him to +comfort him. + +"But directly the storm[6] broke out life became different in our +village. All the strong young fellows went off, and I shouldn't have +kept at home either, if the master hadn't said: 'No; what has to be +done there can be done without you, and you can be useful here.' +Well, he knew better than I did; so I stayed. Yet at first Marya and I +both thought: 'Why is he keeping me here?' for I was sitting doing +nothing for weeks. But suddenly one night, just before it got light, +there was great excitement in the village. Some horsemen came riding +up, people began to tear about, and there wasn't time to say two +Paternosters before it was all round the village: 'They're coming! +They're coming!' How the news spread so quickly, just like a cry, Lord +only knows! But as it spread, every single living thing was on its +feet at once, and rushing out into the road. Only a few had time to +dress, and most people ran out as they were, in their shirts. + +"Then the master sent for me. I was always at work from that time, and +it was rare for me to spend a night at home. I knew all the country +for ten miles round, so, if anything was wanted, it was I who had to +go everywhere. With or without a letter, on horseback or on foot, I +was on the trot for whole days and nights, taking and bringing +messages, or acting as guide to someone. I could scarcely come home +and sit down to supper before the master knocked at the window; I put +a bit of bread and cheese in my coat pocket, and off I set. Marya +cried to herself, and she very rarely missed going to Mass. But God +took care of me. I didn't like riding, because horses easily came to +grief under my weight; it was better for me to walk. + +"So half a year passed. I remember coming back from my last journey. I +had been crossing a bog in the wood that only anyone knowing the way +could get through. But I came through it, and stayed at home a day--in +fact, two--and they didn't send for me from the house. I waited a +third, and nobody came. + +"'What's the matter? Is he ill, or what's up?' I asked the household +servants. + +"'No,' they said, 'he's out walking and driving; but he isn't like +himself, for he's even stopped shouting.' I asked again: 'Didn't he +send for me?' 'No,' they said, 'he didn't send for you.' What had +happened? I couldn't get clear about it. Marya was glad--like a silly +woman. 'Ah!' she said, 'you've become such a gadabout, you don't like +being at home now!' But when I said to her, 'Shut your mouth, Marya, +or I'll shut it for you!' she saw there was no joking, and stopped +talking. On the fourth day I couldn't stand it; I dressed and went to +the master's house. In spite of having been allowed to go to the +master's room at any time of day or night all that half-year, I went +into the kitchen, and let him know that I had come. + +"He called me in, and I went in and bowed, but he was a bit strange. +He seemed cross, and was walking about, searching for something among +his papers, and didn't look at me when he spoke to me. So far he had +always looked straight at me when he said anything, and then I had +understood. This time he didn't. + +"'Well, well, Maciej,' he said, 'what have you to tell me?' + +"I was very much surprised, for what should I have to tell him? But +since he asked, I said: 'I've come to see if there are any messages to +be taken, sir.' + +"'Yes,' he answered the same way as before. 'I was just thinking of +sending for you. There's a letter to be taken to Korzeniste.' + +"He sat down, wrote it, and gave it to me. + +"I wasn't pleased, for I knew there was nothing going on at +Korzeniste; but, on the other hand, I thought it was stupid of me, for +how should I know everything? So, though this didn't seem to me to be +right, I felt cheered up. I took the message quickly, and came back +and asked when he wanted me to come again. + +"'Oh,' he said, 'there's sure to be nothing urgent now; and if there +is, I'll send for you.' + +"Again he didn't look at me as he said this, and seemed strange. That +hurt me, for I knew that he was sending people on errands whom he +never used to send. But I daren't speak; I went and waited. + +"And I waited again for several days; no news of the master. I didn't +leave my farm during that time, for truth's truth, and through my +always being away there was a lot to do at home. I tidied up my +clothes and went to see people. + +"On Saturday evening I went to the inn. When I passed the Wojciecks' +cottage where the fence is, some people were standing at the corner of +the house. They didn't see me coming. I came near, and heard them +talking quite loud. When I got nearer and they saw me, they looked at +each other, and not another word was spoken. I said, 'Christ be +blessed!' but only Jedrek mumbled, 'In Eternity!'[7] I thought they +were perhaps talking about something among themselves, so I passed on. + +"It was the same at the inn. There was a noise going on there, because +it was the day before a festival, and, as is usual then, there were a +lot of peasants sitting drinking vodka or beer. When I went in, they +looked at me and there was silence in a moment, just as if the word +had been given for it. I paid no attention, I came in, sat down, and +ordered my glass; but I saw that people didn't talk to me as if I +belonged to them. 'What's up? Good Lord! is it because I've worked for +the master, or what?' + +"But they've always known that; and they also know that, though I've +served under the master, I was really working for another reason; +they've known that a long time, and it's never been like this before. +So it must be something else. + +"I went home quite upset. When Marya looked at me, she saw in a moment +that there was something wrong, and began at once, like a woman does: +'What's the matter, my dear? tell me what it is.' I saw she was +thinking--Lord knows what; so I told her: 'People won't speak to me as +they used to; why, I don't know.' And I told her about it. Then Marya +clasped her hands, and said: 'I know whose fault it is: no one's but +that scoundrel Mateus.' Now, Mateus was my elder brother, and though +there's a proverb, 'The apple falls near the tree,' this time it +wasn't true; for neither my parents nor grandparents were that sort, +and he was nothing more nor less than a scoundrel. I asked: 'How is it +his fault?' 'It's his fault,' Marya said. 'People speak badly of him; +not to my face or to our family, but I and my father have heard them +say: "They are always off in different directions." And others say: +"Honour among thieves"; what Maciej hears at the house[8] Mateus sells +to the German colonists or to the Jewish bailiff; and so on.' I didn't +listen to any more; my hair stood on end. + +"I asked: 'Why didn't you tell me this before?' and lifted up my hand +to strike her. But Marya pulled me up. + +"'Are you mad?' she said, 'shouting as if you were possessed! I wanted +to speak to you before, but you always told me to shut my mouth. Have +you forgotten?' + +"I felt quite weak, and my feet trembled as if they were coming off. I +couldn't stand. + +"'But, good Lord!' I said, 'that can't be true! Even if it were, is +one brother to answer for another, or a father for his son?' I +couldn't sleep all night; all sorts of thoughts kept coming into my +head. I made up my mind I would go to church next day. I prayed, but I +could understand nothing. I didn't dare to go up to the house, but +hoped God would help me. + +"When I went to church I didn't stop or look at people. I prayed all +through the Mass, and got calmer, and made up my mind to go to my +brother and ask him what he was really doing. However, I noticed +people looking at me when church was over, as they'd watch a wolf. As +I went across the cemetery near a crowd of boys, I heard such bad +things being said that again my feet trembled. 'Oh, my God, save me!' +I thought, and daren't look up. I came home. My father was there. I +told him all this: Mateus was disgracing us; should I go and speak to +him? + +"'You ought to have done it long ago,' my father said. 'But be +careful, for devil knows what he'll do to you!' + +"'He can't do worse than he's done,' I said, and went. I crossed +myself with holy water. I really had to shout at Marya, for she clung +to me like a tipsy man to a fence. 'Don't go, don't go! may the dogs +eat him!' she said. 'If people don't know it already, they'll soon see +that you've no dealings with him.' I went, and after saying, 'Christ +be blessed!' I said at once: + +"'I've business with you, Mateus; I want to talk to you.' + +"'All right,' he said. + +"'It's business I want to have a good talk to you about privately, and +at once.' + +"He looked confused, and plainly guessed what it was, for he said: + +"'Let's go into the backyard.' + +"'Certainly not into the backyard,' I said; 'there are people about +there, looking. Let's go into the field.' + +"When I said this to him he looked askance at me, and I'm sure he +thought something bad was up, for he said: + +"'All right, but sit down and wait a moment. I'm going into my +neighbour's, and shall be back before long.' + +"He really came back at once, and we went behind the stackyard into +the field. There was a wood at the edge of the field. As we went +through the stackyard, we found Walek standing behind the barn--he was +a great friend of my brother's--a disagreeable fellow. When my +brother saw him, he smiled to himself in a nasty way. A shudder went +through me: 'It's plain that what people say is true,' I thought, and +went along depressed, and didn't speak because Walek was with us. + +"'Well, Maciej, say what you have to say,' Mateus said, and looked at +me as if he were making fun of me and were quite sure of himself. + +"That made me feel worse, and I went along with them sadder still. We +came like that to the wood, and there my brother began to talk very +fast. I remember every word. + +"'Ah!' he said, 'you wanted to talk to me; but I see it's I who'll +talk to you. Perhaps,' he said, 'it's as well you've come to me; just +listen to good advice. It's plain you're not doing yourself much good +with all this running about, for I hear you run round the master's +house like a dog. Now, I can fix you up in a business which will bring +you in more than two years' wages. The German colonist----' + +"I didn't hear any more, and it's plain he didn't look at me when he +said this; for if he'd looked, the idiot! he'd have run away. The +blood rushed to my head, left it, and rushed back again. I roared like +a wild beast, and sprang on them. I couldn't speak, but I had terrific +strength. I twisted his hands together on to his back with my left +hand, as if they were string, took him by the middle, and lifted him +up. Walek's hand I squeezed so hard that the bones cracked, and he +stood there as lifeless as a stone. + +"I let him go, and took my knife, which I always carried in the leg of +my boot, and handed it to Walek. 'Hit here!' I shouted, and held +Mateus' left side towards him. He had to strike. The knife was sharp, +and went in up to the handle. The blood poured out in a stream. + +"They took me up the very next day. + +"'Was it you?' they asked. + +"'Yes.' + +"'Why did you do it?' they asked. I told them. They didn't ask any +more; I was condemned for life." + +I looked at Maciej. He was as pale as a corpse, whiter than the white +wall against which he was sitting. He did not move his hands, but his +fingers twitched convulsively. + +I felt sorry that I had induced him to live through that terrible +scene once more, and looked into his eyes, reproaching myself. But as +I looked I turned pale myself; his eyes were pure and bright as a +spring of water, calm and innocent as the eyes of a child. + + * * * * * + +The northerly gale raged outside, whirling the snow round impetuously. +I had a feeling of horror as I returned through the solitary miserable +streets to my empty house on the bank of the Lena, The wild gusts of +wind echoed from the taiga and the mountains surrounding it with +dreadful groans, and I ran through the snowdrifts pursued by those +groans. + +But also indoors it was a terrible night for me. The gale howled round +the walls with increasing fury, the taiga groaned more and more sadly. +And when I sprang from my bed and wearily pressed my burning forehead +to the frozen window-pane, listening to that wild voice unconsciously, +I heard those groans issue from the taiga as if pursued by the +fiercest gusts of the storm, and mingle in one imploring groan: "Oh, +Most High, Most Holy, forgive!" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Primeval forest. + +[2] Vodka could only be procured at the stores belonging to the +mine-owners, and was dealt out in limited quantities. On this account +there was a flourishing contraband trade. A gallon of even inferior +quality was sold for a hundred roubles. A strong, sober miner, able to +forgo his vodka and sell it, could make a good sum in this +way.--_Author's note._ + +[3] Brodiaga--a criminal deported to Siberia, who has escaped from +prison, or who, not having been sentenced to imprisonment, cannot find +work, and has become a vagrant or bandit. + +[4] The Poles deported to Siberia from Poland in the eighteenth +century. + +[5] "Juntas"--boots without heels, with soft soles and wide legs. + +[6] The Polish Revolution of 1863. + +[7] The greeting commonly used by the peasants. + +[8] _I.e._, about the Revolutionists' plans. Maciej is accused of +being a spy. + + + + +TWO PRAYERS + +BY ADAM SZYMANSKI + + +I. + +Long ago, very long ago--or so it seems to me, for I see those days +now as through a mist--for the first time in my life I heard a fine +men's choir singing in unison in one of the largest churches of +Podlasia. The church was filled to overflowing with a compact mass of +human beings, who joined in the chants which streamed from the choir +like burning lava. Loud at first, their voices passed into sobbing +until they died into a low and yet lower groan, imploring and scarcely +audible. + +My small body shivered as with fever. I pressed my burning forehead to +the cold floor and folded my hands, stretching them out to God and +begging Him to quiet the sorrowful sounds which were tearing my +childish heart; I prayed that those people in the choir might sing +less sadly, and that they might feel brighter and happier. "Have +mercy, have mercy, Lord," I repeated with so much faith and confidence +that I held my breath and waited after each appeal for the sound of a +voice like thunder, which would smother the prayers and painful +groans, so that the joyful Christmas hymn or the triumphant Easter +"Allelujah" might flow from the choir with healing balm upon the crowd +of praying people. The last sobs were hushed; the last sighs of a +thousand breasts fell with a deadened echo from the high vaulting on +to the bowed heads praying below, and oppressed the suppliants with a +sense of universal pain. Bent to the ground, they humiliated +themselves almost to extinction. I was not conscious of those many +bent heads, but only of their eyes, which, fixed on the figure of +Christ, were addressing a last prayer to Him. + +The faintest echo of prayers and sighs was lost in the deep vaulting; +dead silence--an awful silence--reigned throughout the church; it +seemed as if all the prayers of a thousand faithful worshippers had +been brought before a void, were dissolving into nothingness, and +perishing--unheard. + +The awe of such a moment is terrifying, and the soothing strains of +music alone make it endurable. Those tightened lips were silent, and +the bruised hearts raised no sigh; but soft tones, resembling human +voices, were floating above amid the vaulting, and descended faintly +through the heavy atmosphere. + +The lifeless organ had become animate under the touch of human +fingers, and the crowd of worshippers, hearing their own supplications +as if rising from a stronger heart than theirs, were soothed by the +musician's skill. Imploring and praying with fresh confidence, they +were strengthened by renewed faith, until at length tears came, and in +those tears they found relief. + +It seemed as if the choir had been waiting for this moment, for +scarcely were the tears seen on the people's faces before it sent +forth another moving entreaty, and all hearts burnt with fresh ardour. + +Once again the people groaned and prostrated themselves, weighed down +by the load of sighs drawn from their aching hearts. + +I groaned with them. I prayed still more fervently, stretching out my +hands more beseechingly to the stern God. I held my breath still +longer, always expecting a visible miracle. But God was silent, and my +childish hopes were shattered. + +The choir led the people in a new and still more ardent prayer. + +"O God, my God, when will this dreadful praying end?" + +I felt my strength was failing me, and that to pray thus any longer +would be impossible. I clung to my dear father, who was praying beside +me, hoping he would soothe me, as was his way. But my father did not +see me, although he bent down to me, for his eyes were full of tears, +and I only heard his heated whisper: + +"Pray, my child; pray, dear boy, and never forget this wonderful +prayer!" + +So I prayed once more, concentrating all my thoughts and feelings in +this one prayer. The perspiration stood in large drops on my forehead; +I held my breath still longer, and waited--waited in vain! God was +silent. But the choir raised a fresh entreaty. + +"O God, my God, why art Thou so long in hearing us?" + +It was so hot and close; a terrible sensation came over me now. My +head seemed on fire; the singing of the choir, the sound of the organ, +the human groans and sighs, all mingled in a chaotic whirr in my ears. +This whirr passed gradually into a measured peal, commencing slowly, +becoming quicker later, at first near, then farther off, resembling +the flapping of a large bird's wings. The grey smoke of the incense +reddened before my eyes. It flashed into my weary mind that our +prayers could not reach God. I looked up and flung myself into my +father's arms. There, above--it seemed to me--like birds assembling +for their autumn flight, but confined by the high vaulting of the +church, the human prayers were circling and clamouring. Streaks of +sunlight were penetrating the narrow church windows, and all the +bitter human groans and pain and tears were beating their wings +against them--pressing towards the sun. + +"Father! father! let us go outside to pray--there, in the sunshine! +God Almighty will hear us there, and nothing will hinder our prayers." + + +II. + +The winter of 18-- began unusually early in X----, as in all parts of +the Yakutsk district. Already by the end of August the night frosts +had shrivelled and blackened foliage of every kind, depriving it of +its natural beauty. The broad stretch of valley in which the town lay +now looked barer than usual; only miserable yurta were to be seen, no +large buildings, nothing even distantly approaching the populous +villages in Poland, which are so cheerful in autumn. During that early +although short autumn I was attacked for the first time by +home-sickness in all its dread severity. + +Halfway through November the famous "sorokowiki"[9] began, which +frequently last without interruption for two months. But the malady to +which I had fallen a victim had developed rapidly and completely worn +me out a long while before the "sorokowiki" came. Being a novice in +such matters, I did a number of things which in themselves are not +unwise, and are practised by experienced men, but only to a very +limited extent. All who have suffered from nostalgia carefully avoid +everything which may bring about a return of the malady; they talk +unwillingly of their past, are obstinately silent when their native +country is mentioned, and in public show a strange, incomprehensible +indifference to all that should be dear to them. Of course, this +indifference is assumed. At first I did not understand this strange +fact. But later on, when I had been there longer, I realized that +people who were seemingly hardened and indifferent were sheltering +their suffering hearts beneath a breast-plate of despair, and that +they were continuing their existence in the world by a great effort. I +understood that this indifference is a form of heroism--an unassuming +form, it is true, as heroism shown in misery always is, but heroism +nevertheless. + +People of all ranks and positions cover themselves here with this +shield of indifference and assumed forgetfulness, some with more +consciousness of what they are actually doing, and with more +perseverance, others with less. But, among the seemingly indifferent, +without question those most remarkable for strength of will are the +peasants. It needs a long, long time before a spark can be kindled +from the deep grief of a peasant; but when the fire has broken out it +burns so fiercely that a man either hides from the glare or stares in +dismay. + +I had struggled with this severe illness for some months already and +by the time Christmas Eve came I was straining after everything that +recalled home, with the unhappy perversity with which a drunkard's +thoughts run on spirits, or the thoughts of a lunatic on his mania. A +letter received some days beforehand enclosing the symbol of +Christmas, the wafer broken into small pieces,[10] had poured oil on +the fire. I had read that letter through countless times, and as I now +ran to and fro in my room, like a squirrel shut up in its round cage, +I was no longer thinking of the letter alone. I had drunk all the +poison of memories which the past sleepless nights had called forth in +feverish haste without a moment's respite, and my harassed and +exhausted imagination could go no farther. The day which had awakened +so many remembrances and brought me so much suffering had come. My +only desire was to spend the evening in such a way as to drain the cup +of treacherous sweetness to the dregs, and surround myself with an +atmosphere which would revive the irrevocable past--if but for a +moment and but remotely--and would suggest new and actual pictures to +nourish my exhausted imagination; although these might be of the +coarsest, they would give it food for new visions, fresh +hallucinations. + +There were some hospitable Polish houses in X---- at the time, and +Christmas was being celebrated in one or two of them. Yet I could not +bring myself to go to any of them. It can easily be conjectured that +on this day I wished to break away from the oppressive bonds of +conventionality, and to spend Christmas Eve beyond the border-line of +"society." + + * * * * * + +Imagine yourself walking in the evening, when there is a hard frost, +through the empty streets of X----, and coming to the end of Cossack +Street; you would then find yourself at a point whence the smaller +part of the town stretches far away before you. The old mud-choked +riverbed separates it just at that spot from the principal part. If +the frost is very bitter, you will remain there with all the greater +pleasure to enjoy the sight in front of you. A number of little +lights, bright or pale, strong or flickering, are continually visible +here, even through the mist of snow. In an uninhabited and desolate +country the sight of any fair-sized colony is so attractive that I +never once walked this way without feasting my eyes on so visible a +proof of man's strength and vitality. I knew every house there: near +at hand the brightly lighted houses of the richer tradesmen and +officials; farther off the Cossacks' houses, like yurta; still +farther the house of the shoemaker and church clerk, and Jan +Pietrzak's forge; still farther, scarcely visible through the frozen +panes, the feeble little lights from the Yakut yurta; and beyond +them--the end of life, a boundless snowy space. + +Oh, how cold it must be there! And how forsaken, how powerless a man +feels amid those plains banked up with snow, glistening with ice, +darkened by gloomy taiga, and exhaling cold, cold, and only cold! + +Well do I remember how I trembled and my heart beat more quickly when +I stopped on the hill, as usual, some weeks before Christmas, and +noticed for the first time a very small fire shining through the foggy +light from the desolate space which commenced beyond the Yakut yurta. +It disappeared, and showed again. Good God! was it a phantom? I could +not believe my own eyes, and rubbed them once or twice. But there, +remote from human dwellings, this lonely fire flickered in the +distance more and more distinctly. I stood for a long while before I +guessed that this solitary firelight was shining from the horrible, +execrated house, the house the inhabitants of the place avoided in +fear. People had died from smallpox in it some years before, and +to-day any of the local townsmen would sooner die than enter it. I +could not guess in the least, therefore, who had dared to light a fire +there at night. A Yakut was just passing me, so I stopped him, and, +explaining what I wanted as well as I could, I asked if he knew how +there came to be a fire in the old hospital. The Yakut listened +attentively as long as he did not understand what I was asking. But as +soon as he began to take it in he started back several steps, and when +at last he thoroughly grasped it he tore off his cap, screamed out in +an inhuman voice, "Kabys abasa!"[11] and fled terrified. + +The next day I learned that the plague-stricken house was permanently +inhabited by some Poles, people without a roof to shelter them and +with nothing to look forward to. From time to time people whose +misfortunes deprived them of other shelter also took refuge there for +a short time. + +In this way a small colony had formed in the desert solitude beyond +the town, whose members were of two sorts, permanent and temporary. +During the last few weeks I had been a frequent guest in this lonely +little colony, and now, after some deliberation, I decided to spend +Christmas Eve there. + + * * * * * + +I set out about five o'clock, relying on the kindness--or +unkindness--of the frost, which, if it had sent out its murderous +"chijus," could have completely upset my plans by driving me to the +nearest acquaintance's house. But, fortunately for me, although the +frost was fiendish, it was as silent as the grave. The terrible +"chijus" had not yet left its Polar hiding-place, and the air was +absolutely still. Thanks to this circumstance, I reached the place +unharmed. + +The echo of my footsteps, with the creaking snow under my boots, +played sharply and shrilly round the two unheated rooms through which +I was obliged to pass in order to reach the inhabited part of the +house. It seemed to be even colder here than out of doors. The windows +were boarded up. But although in the impenetrable darkness I hit +against fragments of pots and other useless lumber at every turn, and +they tumbled about or broke with a crash, though the door grated on +its rusty hinges, none of the people living there even looked out or +paid any attention to it. At last I came into the inhabited part of +the house. + +It was not much lighter in the large room than in those through which +I had just passed. A thin tallow candle on a shoemaker's low bench +barely lighted one corner of the room. Two people were working at the +bench. + +The one sitting nearer me, a tall thin man, unmistakably a born +shoemaker, was knocking wooden pegs into a sole with an expert and +sure hand. He had not been long in the town, but he already had +plenty of work, and would be certain not to remain long in this +solitude. + +The second, sitting farther off, a handsome man, was considerably +shorter than Pan Jozef. He was planing and polishing a heel, but +slowly, without that deftness with which Pan Jozef worked. One glance +at the short shoemaker's face would have been enough to convince the +most ardent opponent of all theories on heredity that this man had not +always sat at a cobbler's bench. + +As a matter of fact, Pan Jan Horodelski had once been a medical +student; later ... but what he was later could not be told in two +evenings. He had now been a shoemaker for five years, and, to speak +the candid truth, a drunken shoemaker. His bad habit did not allow him +even to think of carrying on business for himself; he therefore +wandered round to all the local workshops, using other people's tools, +and finding life very hard. Each master took a large percentage for +the tools, and it is probable that Pan Jozef charged him no less than +other masters did. + +His spirit had once been proud and audacious, but life had bruised it +and trodden it into the dust. Some souls emerge thence not only +beautiful and noble, but even strong. Horodelski had not that strength +which braves all storms, and was now a permanent inhabitant of this +solitude. His days were numbered; the intellect and knowledge he once +possessed made him now fully conscious of his condition and filled up +his cup of bitterness, the depth of which was known only to himself. + +It was either the seal of death on his forehead, or possibly other and +deeper reasons, which gave his face its particular expression. I said +before that it was the face of a very handsome man, and I ought to add +that it also expressed that gentleness and tenderness which belongs +essentially to feminine beauty, and that it was stamped with +indescribable sadness. He varied a good deal in his behaviour; his way +of expressing himself and his manners frequently betrayed the +influence of the surroundings in which he had been living for long +past. Frequently--though not always--he could control himself, +however, and then there appeared on his face a new sign of the manhood +not yet completely crushed--namely, a blush of shame at his present +position. + +The shoemakers, as became busy men, did not even move on their stools +when I entered. I therefore took off my things and brushed away the +hoar-frost in silence, and it was only when I went up nearer to them +that they both raised their bent heads, welcoming me with a friendly +smile. As he was holding his pegs in his teeth, Pan Jozef was able to +offer me his hand, dropping it again immediately with a mechanical +movement, and murmuring something indistinctly. Horodelski, after +giving his greeting, looked at the heel, still unfinished, and, +setting the boot on the ground, exclaimed with a sigh: "Well, that's +finished!" + +This was his favourite expression. + +"What's finished?" I asked, however. + +"Everything," came the equally stereotyped answer. + +"Except the heel," Pan Jozef muttered, taking the last peg from his +teeth. + +"It's possible the heel may get done too--that is, of course, if I +don't leave this cursed ruin and go back to the church clerk," +Horodelski answered quickly. + +"Are you uncomfortable here, or what's up?" chaffed Pan Jozef. "The +Lord be praised, it's a good workshop, there are enough tools--and +rooms, too; if you like, you can dance a quadrille." + +But Horodelski did not listen, and continued: + +"Yes, it may very possibly be that I shall give up shoemaking, if only +for as long as I stay with the clerk. I shall leave it just because +this shoemaker has made it as clear as day to me that I am no good at +my trade, and can only be assistant to a bungling clerk." + +Pan Jozef tittered, highly pleased, and was just preparing to answer +suitably, when a grave bass voice interrupted him. + +"You may go to the clerk or not, but you'll never be a shoemaker." + +The bass voice came from a dark corner of the same room. I therefore +looked more attentively in that direction. + +On a low plank bed, with his head bent forward, and emptying his pipe, +sat a stalwart peasant, known as Bartek the Shepherd. + +"Why not?" I asked, greeting the speaker. + +"Why not?" Bartek answered. "Because no one can escape his destiny. A +dog can't become a bitch, nor a woman a man." + +"That is quite a different matter." + +"So you'd think; but it's really all the same. Take me, for example. +No one could say of me that I'm work-shy, yet nothing I have to do +with ever comes off. And why?--Why? Because I'm not at my own work. So +though I work and don't drink, I'm wasting like sheep in rough +weather. I'm already more like a dog at a fair than a man,--only +there's no fair. I saw that from the moment I came here. For isn't it +a queer thing that a land like this, with rivers like the sea, +mountains as big as the Lysia Gora at home, meadows with grass up to +your middle, should have no sheep! Our shepherds are wise men; they +can bewitch you and free you from spells, and have remedies for this +and that; yet if you told them that in all this big country there are +no sheep, they wouldn't believe you." + +Bartek was a temporary inhabitant of this desert solitude. He was a +very respectable man, but a kind of fatality hung over him; he was +industrious and honest, yet he had never been able to find an +occupation in which he could display his qualities and draw attention +to himself. He had come here not long beforehand, attracted by the +promises of some emigration agents. The promises had not been +fulfilled, and Bartek, taking advantage in the meantime of this +shelter, was only waiting for the frosts to abate a little before +setting out on his return journey. He was a grave man--in fact, almost +too serious. He did not care for idle talk, and rarely started a +conversation; but when he did speak, it was always laconically and +with decision, brooking no contradiction. As the representative of a +class which for long ages had been fairly privileged, he was an ardent +Conservative, and did not admit the desirability of social reform. "A +dog is a dog, and a sheep is a sheep," was his maxim. He raised the +authority of his moral leaders almost to a religious cult, and it was +not always safe to express an opinion before him, which even remotely +reflected on the authority he acknowledged. + +"Who says so?" Bartek would ask threateningly on such occasions. And +when he was not too much irritated, and able to control himself, he +would shake his thick fist in the speaker's face, and solemnly +announce: + +"Only fools talk like that!" + +In the other equally large room two more permanent inhabitants of this +solitude were to be found: the locksmith, Porankiewicz, and the +ex-landowner, once Pan Feliks Babinski. + +If Horodelski was a man standing on the edge of a precipice, +Porankiewicz had rolled to the very bottom long ago. When I went into +the room, he was scraping together something near the little table +which he called his bench. He was pale, thin, and very small, and +appeared still smaller owing to his stoop; few quite old men would +walk more bent. + +"Do hold yourself straight just for once," I often used to say to him. + +"Hah, hah, hah!" Porankiewicz would laugh good-naturedly; "only the +ground, the ground, my dear sir, will straighten me. I have sat +working from morning till night since I was ten years old, and even +steel gets bent at last." + +This man's life was a real Odyssey--only he, poor wretch! was no +Odysseus. Ill-fortune had driven him through all parts of Siberia, and +it was his lot to breathe his last in the worst of them. + +Babinski was asleep when I went in, but our conversation woke him, and +he got up. Tall and broad-shouldered, he had a strong physique, and +his dark face with large projecting eyebrows and surrounded by a beard +as black as coal, always had a stern expression. I never saw him moved +to tears; when something touched him very deeply, he would only blink +hard and stretch out his hand for the vodka. He was indefatigable and +competent and knew how to work and had worked like an ox until two +years previously, when he had begun to drink desperately. "He has +either been 'overlooked' or he has a screw loose," Bartek used to say +of him. So now he seemed to be lost irretrievably, although under +favourable circumstances he might perhaps yet draw himself out of the +abyss into which he had rolled; for he was a man of exceptionally +strong character. + +There are black cart-horses in Russia, called "bitiugs," which are +bad-tempered, tall, and uncommonly strong. These animals walk with an +even, measured step, and without the least effort. When you inquire +what weight they are drawing, you will find that it is at least sixty +poods, and they frequently draw a hundred. + +Babinski was like a "bitiug"; he even walked with a "bitiug's" step. +When he slouched along with his big strides, it was never possible to +keep pace with him. He always did the shopping in the town--bread, +meat, and vodka--for no one walked as quickly as he, and no one could +stand frost, however severe, as he could. + +He was a very hard man, and however much there might be weighing upon +him, no one would have guessed it;--he was a real "bitiug." He also +possessed a certain shrewdness, which often saved him from sinking +altogether. It was he who had occupied this solitary house, and was +the host _de jure_; but what was still more remarkable was that he had +succeeded in finding a Yakut woman, as hideous as hell, who had +consented to be cook in the colony, and was as honest as only savage +people can be. Eudoxia was thus the sixth soul in this lonely place. + +Not all the inhabitants agreed to the festive celebration of +Christmas. Bartek, and, stranger still, Horodelski, were most strongly +opposed to it. "No, never!" Horodelski persisted. "I will drink as +much vodka as you like, and eat what you give me--but Christmas? No!" +And he only gave way after Bartek's refractoriness also had been +softened by unusual eloquence on Porankiewicz's part. + +The usual order of these social gatherings was that first of all +Babinski rushed off without delay for provisions, and quickly returned +with flour, butter, "pepki,"[12] and a large bottle of wine. Having +stilled our hunger a little, and refreshed ourselves by a good glass +of wine, we went out into the front room in order not to hinder the +preparations which Eudoxia was making under Porankiewicz's direction. +He was immensely proud of the honour shown him, and threw his head +back, as he always did when trying to hold himself straighter, +assuming an air of extreme gravity. He was so deeply moved he was +almost unable to speak, and instead of words gave indistinct grunts +which, especially at first, nearly choked him. Ultimately the grunts +ceased, and the sounds proceeding from the kitchen, of hissing butter, +logs being split, and dough kneaded, told us that, having overcome his +emotion, Porankiewicz was directing culinary affairs in his own way. + +Things were now becoming noisier in the front room. Bartek and +Horodelski, relaxing their restraint, were already growing boisterous. +They began to recall and count up how many years it was since they had +last kept Christmas Eve; and when Bartek remarked that it would be +worth while "getting a little clean to sit down to such a great +festivity," a public washing and changing began, as though everyone +were preparing for a ball. + +Pan Jozef produced a very fetching collar, reaching halfway up his +cheek, and ornamented his throat with a fascinating tie, made out of a +checked handkerchief. Bartek pulled a small bag out of the cupboard, +and, after rummaging in it for a long time, took out a threadbare +piece of cheap ribbon, which he tried unsuccessfully to tie round his +neck. His clumsy, unaccustomed hands quite refused to obey him, and +the ribbon slipped through his fingers. But attracted by the sight of +the shoemaker's tie, Bartek turned to him with the request: "Help me +with this, will you?" The shoemaker set himself to the task, yet he +either undertook it carelessly or murmured something about the +shabbiness of the ribbon; for only when Bartek had said in a low +voice, "But it comes from home," the shoemaker answered "A-ah!" in a +different tone, and, leading Bartek to the light, arranged a tie for +him with which "one might dare to go courting." Bartek walked about +with this as if he had swallowed a poker. Then, when Babinski also +pinned on a freshly starched collar, and Horodelski sported an +antiquated jacket, on which he had been working for the last half-hour +to get out the stains, the external appearance of our whole party +harmonized with its inner sense of festivity. + +Of the whole party, I repeat; for, when the door of the next room +opened wide, Porankiewicz appeared dressed equally smartly in a long, +threadbare coat, and although his collar was smaller, his tie was by +no means inferior to the shoemaker's. + + * * * * * + +Porankiewicz cleared his throat once or twice--indeed, he cleared it a +third time. Holding the door with one hand, and waving the other +towards us, he said with a solemn bow: + +"Dinner is ready!" + +The sight which met us on entering was so unexpected that we stood +thunderstruck. + +By the inner wall of the room stood a fair-sized table, covered, as it +should be, with a white cloth. The hay spread on the table[13] +underneath the cloth was peeping through the holes. The table was +lighted with two candles in very battered candlesticks. At one end +stood a large dish heaped with temptingly smoking and savoury +"oladis,"[14] at the other end a dish of pepki, prepared with vinegar +and pepper. Round the dish lay bread, and a bottle of wine stood near +it, surrounded by small drinking vessels of various kinds. But in the +very centre of the table, on the only plate--once white, now yellow +and chipped--lay the fragments of the wafer which had been sent to me +from home. + +No one had expected either the tablecloth, the hay, or the wafer; the +impression produced by so many unexpected accessories was therefore +very great. + +Highly pleased with the effect, Porankiewicz now went to the table and +carefully took up the plate with the wafer. Straightening himself +until his back almost cracked, he cleared his throat, opened his +mouth, and when everyone was on tiptoe of expectation, awaiting a +speech, he said in a trembling voice: + +"H'm-h'm! Gentlemen, the wafer comes straight from Warsaw!" + +Chrysostom himself could not have spoken more powerfully. + +We had been impatient to sit down to table beforehand, for the +inviting smell of the oladis had begun to gain ascendancy over the +solemnity of the moment. But these few words threw a dead silence +round the room, and somehow we all involuntarily drew ourselves up +into a row, and our five heads turned to the plate alone. + +Porankiewicz straightened himself once more. + +"H'm-h'm! Gentlemen, this is such a sacred----" + +"Has it been blessed by the priest?" Bartek interrupted anxiously, +full of joyful admiration. + +"I should hope so! They would not otherwise have sent it," +Porankiewicz answered, with deep conviction. "But," he continued, +"h'm--I should like to say, as it is such a sacred thing, shall we not +break it?" + +"Let us break it! Of course we must break it!" came from five mouths +as though from one. + +Porankiewicz made a fresh effort to hold himself straighter. + +"But since--that is--I should like to say--without offence to our dear +Pan Babinski"--and he bowed to him respectfully--"we are all hosts of +this palace, I therefore hope--that is, I think--it will be best if +this gentleman, who is our guest, takes it round...." + +As crimson and perspiring as after the hardest piece of work, he +handed me the plate with a bow. + +And now, when it was my own turn to speak, I understood the difficulty +my predecessor had had in making his short speech. My hands trembled, +and I could not utter a word. Babinski became as white as a sheet, and +when I went up to him his stern face was as still as if it had been +cut out of marble. Had it not been that his eyelids quivered, I might +have thought that it was a corpse and not a living man before me. He +was a long time in gathering the crumbs; they fell from his hands, and +I doubt if he ate even one. + +It was the same with all the rest. + +Porankiewicz, being the softest-hearted, was the first to begin +sobbing like a child; and although Bartek, who was standing beside +him, kept nudging and touchingly entreating him to "be quiet, or he +himself would bleat like a sheep," it was of no avail. By the time I +came to Bartek, his strength was failing; he bent his grey head low, +and, stretching out his hand for the wafer, he slowly began aloud: "In +the Name of the Father ... and of the Son ... and of the Holy +Ghost.... And of the Holy Ghost," he repeated lower, and burst out +crying in a loud voice. + + * * * * * + +Tears brought relief to us all--to all but Babinski, who, instead of +weeping with us, stood as though petrified, merely blinking his eyes. +We could see that he was touched to the quick. For, standing near the +table, he stretched out both hands among the cups and glasses standing +round the wine-bottle, and clinked a glass loudly. His eyelids +quivered and his hands trembled as in fever, refusing to obey him; and +when Porankiewicz, who was calm again, ran up to him, he only +whispered in a weak voice: + +"Pour it out, brother." + +Porankiewicz began to pour, and every hand was stretched out towards +the table. + +It was, of course, impossible for all to pour at once. But as we all +found we needed something to drink, we reproached one another for not +having thought of filling the glasses earlier. This, however, Bartek +cut short by sagely observing that "nobody here was the Holy Ghost, +and could know that so much sorrow would fall upon all of us." When at +last all the cups and glasses had been filled, we emptied them in +silence, fearing a fresh outburst of emotion, and proceeded in turn to +the peppered and salted pepki course. This is food of the kind which +cannot be eaten without being suitably moistened. So when +Porankiewicz repeatedly took up the bottle, all hands were again +stretched towards him. And then we noticed that Babinski's hand was +not among the rest. + +Babinski stood in the same attitude as before, with his empty glass, +silent, immovable, and pale. Bartek, who had experience of sick +people, was the first to perceive his danger, and, going up to him at +once, examined him anxiously. + +"It's clear it has got hold of him all at once," was his final +verdict. "If it has no outlet, it may strangle him, just as a savage +wolf kills a lamb. There's only one way to prevent it: if sorrow +doesn't come out with tears through the eyes, you must let it flow +down gently inside, and as it slowly runs off, the pressure leaves the +heart. He ought to have drunk out three glasses at once. But it's not +so bad yet; he's a strong man; he'll come to himself after a bit." + +And, choosing the grandest cup, Bartek ordered: "Fill it, +Porankiewicz!" + +Porankiewicz filled it, and Babinski drained it mechanically; again he +filled it, and again Babinski drained it. But the pain having +evidently not abated, Bartek began to examine him afresh. + +"Haven't you got some spirits somewhere, by chance?" + +Babinski nodded in assent; and when the vodka had been brought, +Bartek chose an ordinary glass from among the other drinking vessels, +filled it well to the half, and offered it to Babinski. + +The remedy worked wonders. Babinski sipped it, but when he had drained +the glass the pallor left his face, and he sat down to the table and +asked for something to eat. He was offered some pepki, and when we had +all had visible proof that it was disappearing with due rapidity, a +heavy weight fell from our minds. Bartek was now no less proud of his +remedy than Porankiewicz of his Christmas Eve dinner, and each began +to call the other to testify to his excellence. So when Babinski had +consumed two pounds of pepki, and stopped eating, the first critical +episode of the evening was safely over. + + * * * * * + +There was now a buzzing in the solitude, as of a swarm of bees; +everyone talked, and, although it appeared to each that he spoke in +his natural voice, there was enough noise for twelve. + +We were all filled with the happiness for which we had yearned, and +our hearts were so softened that recent troubles, long-forgotten pain, +and wounds which each had concealed from the world more closely than +even a miser conceals his chest filled with ducats were opened to +receive the balm of comfort. Phantoms of manifold suffering passed +before us in a long unending chain, showing us all forms of human +misery, as though through a kaleidoscope. + +Having now experienced the relief we longed for, and seeing the faces +round us wet with tears of sympathy, we each spontaneously +acknowledged our failings and sins, making our confession in public, +as it were, and expressing sincere penitence for our misdeeds. + +Bartek beat his breast, accusing himself of very great weakness; +Porankiewicz sobbed, piteously begging to be pardoned for his bad +habit on account of the difficulties he had gone through, which had +been beyond his strength; the others also accused themselves. + +Only after each had shown penitence and regret, and full pardon for +the failings by which every one had been overcome on his thorny road +had restored our lost dignity, the yellow, wrinkled faces brightened +with sincere and childlike joy, and we dared to look up. Now we were +all on an equality. The second episode, no less critical than the +first, had passed safely. + + * * * * * + +It gave way to the third episode. + +The harmony reigning amongst us, the happy feeling of mutual love, +brotherhood, and sympathy, began to thrill us with delight, and +foretold the longed-for moment. + +Like birds flying to the fire on a dark night, the people +inexperienced in the life here fling themselves upon that deadly +hashish. But the experienced flee from the cup of sweetness which had +so often ensnared and deluded us by its bewitching draught. They fly +from it as from the phantom of death. That cup now stood unveiled +before us. One after the other the coverings hiding the tempting +poison had fallen away; there was nothing left but to approach and +drink--to drink till strength was utterly exhausted. + +The first to recall the delightful recollections of home was old +Bartek, who unrolled on a golden background pictures of his native +Sandomierz fields, pictures full of strength, simplicity, and charm. +With dishevelled hair, with face aflame, and the inspired look of an +old Biblical prophet, he showed us the most beautiful plains, meadows, +and forests, of his native soil. He led us to hamlets with rustic +thatched roofs; he grieved over the misery sheltering beneath them; he +led us to the churches where the Name of God is hallowed. + +And the longed-for miracle took place; the goal of hidden desires, +dreamt of when watching through sleepless nights, was realized. Our +distant country, our native air, the golden sun, were with us here in +this dark room in the solitude. We saw that country, felt and touched +it; we were here, yet living there; far away from it, we decked it +with verdure, we adorned it with flowers, we decorated it with the +most beautiful of decorations, with our hearts beating alone for our +country--our bride to whom we would be faithful while strength +lasted. + +Is this no exertion? Indeed, may God preserve everyone from such an +exertion! Strong men have tried to lift that stone of Sisyphus, and +to-day their bones whiten the cemeteries. A few drunkards, tramping +from tavern to tavern, a throng of madmen, breathing their last in +hospitals, are testimonies to the fact that this stone shall not be +lifted; for the higher a man is fool enough to lift it, with the +greater force will it crush his frenzied head. + +A frenzy had seized us all, and with bloodshot eyes, distended +nostrils, and hearts ready to burst from our anguished breasts, we +undertook this superhuman task. + +Then woe to the bold man who would have dared to handle our illusions +rudely! Woe to the unhappy one whose strength gave out too soon! Ere +he could recollect himself, a knife, brandished by an otherwise +friendly hand, would have flashed before his eyes. The unhappy man +would have perished as the weaker wild animals perish without mercy +among an enraged herd. + + * * * * * + +A choir composed of six voices resounded with a deep echo round the +large rooms of the solitary house. Sad and joyful songs alternated +naturally in the same unchangeable order in which everything is +carried out in this world. A native of the Cracow district, Bartek +with his Cracowiaks[15] was a host in himself. "We're not such bad +fellows"[16] alone would have satisfied the most ardent vocal +enthusiast, we sang it so many times. For it was not five or ten, but +rather twenty years or even more, since many of us had heard that +little song. So, although Bartek was already hoarse, to everyone's +delight he sang it again for the fifth time, repeating the second +verse, which is the more beautiful, six or seven times. Each word of +that song, so charmingly and poetically naive, called forth +indescribable enthusiasm. + +"Ay, ay, what a song! That is a song!" the brief applause burst out; +and although Bartek sang on without interruption, glancing round +triumphantly, he found time to answer each exclamation briefly but +distinctly: + +"That's a Cracowian song!" + +Babinski followed the melody of each ballad or song, and rattled it +out like a barrel organ, merely repeating two very discordant +syllables innumerable times: "Dyna, dyna, dyna, dyna." He sang with +the greatest enthusiasm, however; strong as he always was and burning +with inward fire, he was terrible now with his wordless songs, into +which he put all the sufferings and sorrows he had never expressed in +words. + +At last we had exhausted all the songs we knew, and sung them to the +end; no one could recall any more. But since the frenzy which had +seized us had now reached its height, it was necessary to find some +new song giving ample outlet by its words and motifs to the emotions +already aroused, and answering to our present state of feeling. + + * * * * * + +Among the songs of our nation which give an outlet to its longings, +the greatest are the religious songs; for whether sad or joyous, +mournful or festive, they are always noble in their deep and calm +feeling. The people who can hear and find nothing in these songs are +poor indeed. The Lenten, Easter, and Christmas songs are the greatest +artistic inheritance handed down to us from the past. It is the one +sphere of artistic creativeness not produced by separate epochs and +classes, but to which the whole nation has contributed throughout the +centuries of its existence, giving to it all its earthly joys and +griefs--all its soul. + +And therefore we possess a treasury of melodies which are as deep as +the soul of the nation--indifferent to superficial or cheap +sentiment--and as great as existence itself, obscured by the veil of +ages. + +Cast into this depth any amount of the blackest sorrow or the most +exuberant joy, its surface will never even be ruffled. It replies to +the greatest cataclysms with a ripple, and its smooth current scarcely +even suggests any troubling of its waters. + +From this treasury, as yet insufficiently prized, the great artists of +the future will draw inspiration, as those in real suffering do +to-day. + + * * * * * + +Who does not know the favourite carol, "Star of the Sea"? Yet it is +probably sung in few churches as we sang it there. Both words and +melody corresponded to our feelings. The simple words of the song +might have been written for us; its solemn, grand melody soothed our +hearts, which were suffering so terribly from self-inflicted wounds. +Bartek was the first to fall on his knees. The rest of us followed his +example, and earnest, ardent prayers flowed from our lips. But when we +came to the words, "Turn from us hunger and grievous plague, protect +us from bloodshed and war," we prayed with so much fervour that +hearing we did not hear, and seeing we did not see Bartek rise +weeping. "Oh, the merciful Father won't hear such a great prayer from +this den of infection! We must pray to the God of the heavens in the +open!" he cried, and went out of the room dressed as he was. + +But our strength was now nearly exhausted. Even Babinski stopped +singing now and then, showing only by his open mouth and hand beating +time that he was still singing on in his heart. Suddenly, electrifying +us afresh, a strong voice sounded outside the door: "God is born, +power trembles"; and Bartek, led in by Eudoxia from the "open," in +which he would infallibly have been frozen, started the carol in his +bass voice. + +Another spring, not struck as yet, gushed out before us. Was it +possible we could have forgotten this? So, although our lips could +scarcely move, we drank eagerly from this fresh source, and our choir +sang a fresh song in unison with strength refreshed. The joyful song +of the Birth of our Lord bore us far away again from the Yakut +country, and kindled our hearts with new fire, the fire of truth, +confidence, and hope. + +We prayed long and fervently. Even Eudoxia, attracted by our praying, +came in carrying a holy eikon, and bowing before it, repeated +imploringly: + +"Tangara! Aj, Tangara! Aj, Tangara, uruj!"[17] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] "Sorokowiki"--58 degrees below zero. + +[10] Alluding to the universal custom in Poland at the Christmas Eve +dinner. The host hands round a wafer--which has been blessed by the +priest--and breaks it with the guests, and they with another, good +wishes being exchanged meanwhile. It is also sent with good wishes to +friends at a distance. + +[11] "Get thee behind me, Satan!" In Yakut the accent falls on the +last syllable.--_Author's note._ + +[12] "Pepki"--from Russian "pupki," the salted roes of a large fish +caught in the Lena. + +[13] The Polish custom is to spread hay under the tablecloth at the +Christmas Eve dinner--an allusion to the hay in the manger. + +[14] "Oladi"--a favourite Yakut dish. It is a kind of pancake, made +with reindeer fat, and eaten with reindeer milk which is frozen into +lumps. + +[15] Country dances interspersed with songs. + +[16] A well-known Cracowiak. + +[17] "God, great God, have mercy!" + + + + +THE TRIAL + +BY WLADYSLAW REYMONT + + +The door opened suddenly with a bang, letting the wind into the room, +and a silent, sinister crowd of peasants began to pour in from the +dark hall. They did not even say, "The Lord be praised!"[18] + +The miller dropped his spoon on the table, and looked round in +astonishment from one to the other. Then he turned down the lamp which +was flaring from the draught. + +"There are rather a lot of you," he muttered. + +"There are more waiting outside," Jedrzej, one of the peasants, said, +coming forward quickly. + +"Have you any business to settle with me?" + +"We didn't come here just for a talk," someone said, shutting the +door. + +"Then sit down; I shall have finished supper in a minute." + +"To your good health! We will wait a while...." + +The miller began to sip up his porridge hastily. The peasants +meanwhile settled themselves on the benches round the stove, warming +their backs and carefully watching Jedrzej, who had sat down by the +table and was leaning his elbows on it in deep reflection. + +"Beastly weather this!" the miller accosted them. + +"Real March weather." + +"It's always like this before the spring." + +Here the conversation broke off again, and the only thing to be heard +in the silence of the room was the miller's spoon scraping along the +earthenware bowl. But outside someone was stamping the mud off his +boots, while at times the howling gusts of wind struck the walls till +they creaked, and the rain beat against the steamed window-panes. + +"Jadwis!" called the miller, wiping his short moustache with his hand. + +A strong and very good-looking girl, not wearing a peasant's dress, +appeared from a side room. She threw a keen glance at the peasants, +and, taking the bowl in her arm, went out again with a rolling gait. + +"What is this business?" began the miller, taking snuff. + +Not a hand was stretched out towards the snuff; the peasants' faces +had suddenly clouded. Someone cleared his throat, others scratched +their heads in indecision, and they all looked at Jedrzej, who, +straightening himself and fixing his light, searching eyes on the +miller, said slowly: + +"We have come to make you tell us who the thieves were." + +The miller started back, stared, spread out his arms, and stuttered: +"In the Name of the Father and the Son! How should I know that?..." + +"We think you are the man to know," Jedrzej said in a lower voice, +standing up. The other peasants also got up, and planted themselves +round the miller in a circle, like a thick wall, fixing him with eyes +as keen as a hawk's, so that the blood mounted to his face. "We have +come to you for the truth," Jedrzej whispered impressively. + +"And you must tell us--you've got to!" the rest echoed in low, stern +voices. + +"What truth? Are you mad? How am I to know? Am I a party to thieves? +Or what?..." He spoke quickly, turning the light up and down with +trembling hands. + +"We know very well that you're honest; but you know who the thieves +are. So come, how was it? They stole your horses in the autumn, but +you did nothing; and not long ago they stole money from you--you even +caught them in your bedroom--and again you did nothing and didn't have +them taken up, and never even told the policeman about them." + +"Why should I? Do you want me to lose more money? What good would the +Court or the police do? They'd catch the wind in the field and bring +it bound to me! May God repay those scoundrels at the Judgment Day for +the wrong they have done me!" + +"It's plain, from all you say, that you're afraid to let out who they +are." + +"If I knew, do you think I'd be the worse off through them, and not +tell? Was it for nothing...." + +"You keep going round in a circle," Jedrzej interrupted him roughly. +"We didn't come here to quarrel with you, but to get at the truth; and +we're in a hurry, for the whole village is waiting, some outside your +house and some in the cottages. So we ask you as a friend to tell us +who stole your money." + +"If I had known it myself, the Court and all the village would have +known by now," the miller excused himself anxiously, looking in alarm +at the set, suspicious faces round him. But Jedrzej threw himself +forward impatiently, and his eyes shone with anger. Without thinking +what he was doing, he took the miller by the shoulder, and said +abruptly in a firm voice: + +"What you are saying isn't true! But if you will swear to it in +church, we will trust you and leave you in peace." + +The miller sat down and began to talk with feigned amusement: + +"Ha, ha! You're in a larky mood, I see, as if it were Carnival. Of +course, if you all go in a crowd to a fellow and threaten him with +sticks, he'll be ready to swear to anything you like. I tell you the +truth: I know nothing about this, and I know nothing about the +thieves. You can believe me if you like; if not, then don't. But you +won't force me to swear to it, for you have no right to try me...." + +He stood up, rolling his eyes defiantly. + +"Indeed, that's what we came for--and to carry out the sentence +justly," Jedrzej said so firmly that the miller started back in +terror, and was unable to get out a word. + +The peasants surrounded him in gloomy silence, fixing their burning +eyes on him, and shuffling their feet impatiently. So menacing and +full of stern resolution did they look that he was at a loss to know +what to do, and merely stood wiping the perspiration from his bald +head and casting frightened glances round the circle of stubborn, set +faces. He realized that this was not only idle talk, but the beginning +of something terrible. He sat down again on a bench, and took pinch +after pinch of snuff to help himself to arrive at some decision. Then +Jedrzej went up to him, and said solemnly: + +"You neither want to tell the truth nor to swear to it. So it's plain +you are a party to those thieves!" + +The miller sprang up as hastily as if something close beside him had +been struck by lightning, upsetting the bench as he did so. + +"Jesus! Mary! have I to do with thieves? You say this to me?" + +"I say it and repeat it!" + +"And we repeat it too!" they all shouted together, shaking their fists +at him. Their heads were bent forward; their glances were like +vultures' beaks, ready to tear. + +Attracted by the noise, Jadwis burst into the room and stood +petrified. + +"What's up here?" she asked anxiously. + +The peasants dropped their clenched hands, and began to clear their +throats. + +"We don't want women here, listening and blabbing it all out +afterwards," someone said angrily. + +"She'd better go back where she came from." + +"Look after the geese, and don't come poking your nose into men's +business!" they shouted still louder. Jadwis ran out of the room in a +furious temper, slamming the door after her. + +Again Jedrzej stretched his hand forward, and said: + +"I tell you, miller, the time for trial and punishment has come!" + +"And for bringing order into the world!..." + +"And for weeding out wrong and planting justice!..." The words rang +out menacingly, and again the peasants shook their clenched fists in +the miller's frightened face. + +"Good God! what do you fellows want? What am I guilty of?" he gasped, +terrified, looking round from side to side. But, without heeding him, +Jedrzej began to speak quickly and in a low, hard voice which +penetrated the miller like frost. + +"As he won't confess, he is guilty. Take him, and we will try him at +the church.... Everyone who wrongs the people will be brought to a +just trial, and be heavily sentenced. Take him, you fellows!" + +"Jesus! Mary! Men!..." the miller stammered in deadly fear, looking +round distractedly, for the peasants all advanced towards him +together. "Men!... How can I tell you?... I have sworn to it. They'll +burn the house down or kill me if I say who they are.... Merciful +Jesu! Let me be! I'll tell you everything! I'll tell you!" His voice +quavered, for several hands had already seized him and were dragging +him towards the door. + +It was some time before he was able to speak. He fell panting on the +table. They stood round him, and someone gave him a little water to +drink, while others said in a friendly way: + +"Don't be afraid; no one who is on the side of the people will have a +hair on his head touched." + +"Only confess the whole truth." + +"We know you're an honest man, and will tell us the scoundrels' +names." + +The miller writhed inwardly, like an eel when it is trodden upon; he +went hot and cold, and became alternately pale and red. Suddenly he +drew himself up, ready for anything. But before he began to speak he +glanced into the next room. + +There was a glimpse of Jadwis, as though she were just jumping away +from behind the door. He looked out of the window, and then, standing +up before the group of peasants, he crossed himself and said: + +"I am telling you the truth as though I were at Confession; it was the +two Gajdas and the Starszy."[19] + +There was silence. The men stood petrified and stared at one another, +panting and drawing long, hoarse breaths. Jedrzej was the first to +speak: + +"That's what we were thinking, but we couldn't be sure. Now we know +what we want to know. We know them, the filthy scoundrels!" He banged +his fist on the table. "They are weeds that must be torn up by the +roots so that they mayn't spread. Both the Gajdas--father and son? And +the Starszy is the third? Then, in God's Name, we'll go to them, and +you'll go with us, miller, so that you may tell them the truth to +their face." + +"I'll go and tell them--that I will! It's as if a weight had fallen +from my shoulders. I'll stand up and tell them they're robbers and +thieves. Good God! I knew what they were up to, but I daren't breathe +a word about it. May they be broken upon the wheel for my sin in being +such a coward! I was ashamed to look people in the face when everyone +was calling out about those robberies.... The rascals! they took away +my horses; I sent them the ransom through the Starszy, but they didn't +give them back.... And afterwards I caught them in my bedroom: they +fleeced me of every penny, and they threatened me with their +knives.... As if that weren't enough, I had to swear I'd not let out +who'd done it!" + +"The whole neighbourhood has suffered through them." + +"They have stolen a great many horses and cows from people, and a lot +of money." + +"It was easy for them to do all that, for the Starszy gave them the +go-by, and went shares with them...." + +"They had a gay time at our expense; let them pay for it now...." + +"If everyone talks, I'll have my say, too," someone exclaimed. "I know +that the Gajdas betrayed the priest for having married the young +couple from Podlasia."[20] + +"What!... They even betrayed the priest?" + +"And the postmaster's daughters who taught the children[21]--it must +have been they who betrayed them?" + +"So it was! So it was! We know that!" the miller asserted rancorously. + +"Then it's they who robbed and killed the Jews in the forest!" + +"Sure enough, it's the Gajdas! It's they!... The carrion!... The mean +wretches! The scoundrels!" The peasants began to curse, thumping their +sticks on the ground and stamping. Their eyes shot fire, and they +raised their clenched fists. + +"Let's have done with them! Punish those swine! Try them! Try them!" + +"Then let's go quickly before they escape us!" Jedrzej cried. + +"Skin them!... Batter them to death like mad dogs!" they shouted, +pressing through the doorway. The miller blew out the light and went +with them. + +They were no sooner outside the house than Jadwis ran out. She glided +stealthily along the wall, looking anxiously after them and wondering +wherever they could be going on a night like that, and what their +reason for going could be. + +For it was a real March night, cold, wet, and windy. The whole world +was wrapped in thick darkness. The sleet lashed the men's faces and +took away their breath, and the damp cold penetrated them to the +marrow; the wind swept through the orchards from all sides; the snowy +ridges of the fields alone showed white in the blackness. But, without +noticing the wretched weather, the peasants walked along briskly, +spurting the mud from under their feet. They went stealthily one after +the other past the low cottages which sat along the highroad like +tired old market women taking a rest, or nestled in their orchards so +that only the snowy roofs, resembling white hoods, could be seen +through the swaying trees. + +Jedrzej walked in front. Every now and then he gave orders in a low +voice, and someone left the line, ran up to a window, and, hammering +at it with his fist, cried: + +"Come out! It's time!" + +The light in the cottage would be extinguished at once, and the door +would creak. Black shadows, feeling their way with sticks, would creep +out and join the crowd in silence. + +They now walked still closer together and with even greater caution, +looking carefully in all directions. + +Suddenly Jedrzej looked back nervously; he had distinctly heard the +mud splash as if someone were running after them, and there was a +shadow creeping along stealthily under the hedge. But directly the +peasants stopped all was quiet and there was nothing to be seen; the +only sounds were the roar of the wind, and now and again the dogs +barking furiously in their kennels. + +They moved on more slowly, but several now began to cross themselves +in terror; some sighed, while others felt a cold shudder go through +them. Yet no one said a word or hesitated; they went forward with a +steady movement like an oncoming, threatening cloud drawing together +slowly and silently before it suddenly flashes with lightning and +scatters hail on the ground. + +They passed the public-house, which was brilliantly lighted; some of +them sniffed in the familiar smell, and would have liked to have gone +inside to have a drink. This, however, Jedrzej would not allow. He +made them draw up into the middle of the road, for they had now nearly +reached the policeman's house; its white walls shone in the distance. +The lively strains of a concertina came through the brightly lighted +windows. + +The peasants stopped opposite the house, and scarcely dared to +breathe. + +"Now keep a good look-out," Jedrzej said, "and the minute the bell +rings, go into the room all together and get him by the head, and a +rope round him. But be careful he doesn't give you the slip, or else +he'll do a lot of harm.... Don't make a noise and scare him away." + +Several peasants silently left the crowd and crept up to the house in +the darkness. In the meantime the others marched on quickly towards +the large square at the end of the village, where only a few little +lights were shining. The space between these last houses and the snowy +fields was filled by the church and a thicket of trees which looked +like a black mountain rocking slightly in the breeze. + +The Gajdas' house stood near the church, a little way from the road, +and was partly hidden by a large orchard, so that the lights from the +windows showed through the close branches like wolves' eyes. The men +turned towards it at once, but in places the mud was knee-deep, for +the puddles had become like pools, and frozen snow-drifts blocked the +road. They went carefully step by step to avoid the obstructions, and +made a circle as though intentionally prolonging the way. Near the +fence they halted for an instant; Jedrzej bade them keep silence, +stole to the side of the window, and peeped in. + +The room was large; the whitewashed walls were hung with pictures, and +lighted by a lamp suspended from the ceiling. Several people were +sitting at the table under the lamp, having supper, and talking +together in low voices. The bright fire crackling on the hearth threw +red gleams over one side of the room. A girl was walking up and down, +nursing a screaming baby. + +"They're at home--they're in there!" Jedrzej whispered, turning to the +crowd. He was trembling all over, and almost unable to breathe or to +speak and tell half the men to go and watch the house from the +backyard and fields. + +But, quickly composing himself, he led the rest boldly through the +gate up to the house. They had already reached it, when the dogs began +to howl so dismally somewhere in the backyard that they hesitated for +a moment. + +"That's our lot has come upon the dogs. Come on! If they put up a +fight in there, knock them down with your sticks, the swine!--No +pity!" Jedrzej whispered. Dragging the miller after him and crossing +himself, he walked sharply into the hall, the other peasants close +behind him, shoulder to shoulder. They entered the room in a body, +looking black and determined. + +There was some commotion. The Gajdas jumped up from the table, their +mouths open with amazement. But the elder one recovered his presence +of mind in a trice, and, dropping on to a stool, he pulled his son by +the sleeve to make him sit down too. + +"Glad to see you!" he cried with ironical friendliness. "Ha, ha! What +grand guests! Even the miller and Jedrzej! Quite a party!" + +"Sit down, neighbours!" the young Gajda put in, throwing frightened +glances round the peasants, and mechanically dipping his spoon into +the dish. + +But no one sat down, and not a hand was stretched out in greeting. +They all stood as still as posts, and Jedrzej alone came forward, +saying sternly: + +"Stop eating; we have more important business in hand." + +"Business? Supper is more important to us!" the old man snapped +insolently. + +"I tell you: stop! So stop!" Jedrzej thundered. + +"Hah! You are very domineering in a strange cottage!" + +"I command, and you must obey, you dirty dogs!" + +The Gajdas jumped to their feet, pale and shaking with fear. But they +clenched their teeth and looked as fierce as wolves, ready for +anything. + +"What do you want?" the younger man asked, choking with fury. + +"To try you and punish you--you robbers!" Jedrzej cried in a terrible +voice. It was as if the ceiling were falling on them, for they cowered +under these words. + +Death seemed to sweep through the silence which followed, for even +breathing ceased for a moment; only the baby began to cry louder than +before. Suddenly the Gajdas sprang towards the door, the younger +brandishing his knife, the older man snatching up his axe; but before +they could strike, the peasants had thrown themselves upon them, and +in the scuffle which followed blows from sticks rained down upon +them, a score of hands grasped them by the head, neck, and legs, and +they were lifted bodily from the ground, like fragile plants. + +The storm went round the room; there were cries and confusion; tables, +benches, and chairs flew in all directions; the women sobbed; with +curses and shouts, a convulsed mass of men rolled on to the floor, hit +against the wall several times, and finally fell asunder. + +At length the Gajdas lay on the ground, bound with ropes, like sheep, +and shouting at the top of their voices. They cursed horribly as they +struggled to free themselves. + +"Take them to the church door; they shall be tried there!" Jedrzej +ordered. + +They dragged them out of the house and almost along the ground across +the square, driving them on with sticks, for they resisted, yelling +with all their might. The women ran by their side, sobbing and whining +for pity; the men kicked them away as if they were so many bitches. +"Peal the church bell! Let all the village come together!" the miller +cried. + +The landscape was lighted by the snow which had begun to fall heavily. + +The bell rang out with a deep sound, like a fire-alarm, and then went +on pealing without ceasing, mournfully and ominously, so that the +crows flew up cawing from the belfry and circled over the church. +From the village came a crowd of women and children, running and +shouting. + +"Men! Have pity! Help! For Heaven's sake!" the Gajdas shouted, trying +desperately to free themselves. But no one answered; the whole crowd +went on in deep silence. Thus they entered the churchyard, took their +prisoners up to the church door, and threw them down there. + +"What are we guilty of? What do you mean? Help!" the Gajdas shouted +once more, making an effort to get up. But someone gave them a kick, +and they fell down again like logs, cursing and vowing dreadful +vengeance on the whole village. + +Standing with his back against the church door, Jedrzej took off his +cap and cried in a loud, solemn voice: + +"Brothers! Poles!" + +The women's screaming was hushed, and the crowd drew into a close +circle, straining to listen, for the wet snow, which was falling +thickly, made hearing difficult. + +"I tell you this, brothers: just as the peasant goes out with his +harrow in the spring to rake his field which he ploughed in the +autumn, that it may be free from weeds before he puts in good seed, so +now the time has come to weed out the wrong in the world.... They have +already done this in other districts and parishes; they have turned +out the District Clerk at Olsza, they have killed the thieves at +Wola, and driven away others from Grabica. And the people have taken +this upon themselves--upon themselves; for things in this world are so +badly managed that we peasants have to work and sweat, pay rates, and +send up recruits. But if any of us has a grievance, there is only God +and useless grumbling left him." + +"Ay, that's it--that's it!" + +"This I tell you: the time has come for us peasant people not to look +for help to anyone else, but to rely on ourselves. We must manage for +ourselves; we must defend ourselves from being ill-treated, and take +the law into our own hands! We have waited for long years, and had to +put up with all kinds of wrongs done to us, and no one has come to the +rescue or helped us in any way. For the Courts are not for those who +want justice; the laws are not for peasants; and there's no protection +for those who have been wronged. Everyone with any sense knows that. +So there seems to be no other way but do as other villages are doing." + +"Kill the carrion! Finish them off! Tear them with wild horses!" they +began to shout frantically at once, attacking the Gajdas with their +sticks. + +"Silence! Stop there, you fools!" Jedrzej roared, putting himself in +front of the Gajdas to protect them. "Wait! We all know they are +robbers, thieves, and traitors who deserve punishment; but first let +everyone who has anything to charge them with come forward and say it +to their face. For we have come here to sentence and not to murder +them. We don't want to play off our revenge on them, but to punish +them justly." + +The people crowded together more closely, for everyone felt awkward at +being the first to come forward. There was a loud hubbub of voices as +they recalled their grievances and pressed with threats towards the +prisoners. At last the miller stepped forward, and, raising his hand, +said solemnly: + +"I swear before God and men that they stole my horses and four hundred +roubles. I caught them in the act.... At the point of the knife they +forced me to swear that I would not give them away. They threatened me +with revenge if I did. They are robbers of the worst sort." + +"And I swear that the Gajdas stole my cow," said another man. + +"And they took my sow." + +"And my mare and foal," others deposed. + +The assembled people listened in grim silence. + +The snow suddenly ceased to fall and the wind increased, beating round +the church and tearing at the swaying, moaning trees; large grey +clouds flew across the sky; but the steady voices continued their +accusations uninterruptedly. At intervals there was an ominous murmur +and the thumping of sticks, or else the Gajdas cried: + +"That's not true! They're giving wrong evidence! The thieves from Wola +did all that! Don't believe it!" + +But fresh people came forward, accusing them of still heavier crimes. + +And finally they reproached them with the murder of the Jews and with +betraying the postmaster's daughters and the priest, with committing +arson, joining in drinking bouts with the police, and not going to +church: any known misdemeanour was hastily raked up and thrown +furiously at their miserable heads. There was a great clamour, for +each man tried to shout down the other, everyone cursed and swore to +avenge himself, and was so eager to beat the Gajdas that Jedrzej, +unable to restrain them all, shouted angrily: + +"Hold your noise, and let me have a say!" + +The hubbub subsided slightly, and only the women continued their +quarrelsome chattering. + +"Do you plead guilty?" he asked, bending over them. + +"No! We're wrongly charged! They are lying--that's all their spite! We +swear to it!" they cried in despair. + +"If you plead guilty, you will get a lighter sentence," he urged them, +relenting a little. + +The miller, Jedrzej, and those few who were less excited, still tried +to protect them from the enraged crowd, which moved on towards them +like a storm, shouting and flourishing sticks. But the women managed +to jump at them and scratch them spitefully. + +The scene at the church door became more terrible every instant. + +"We must have the priest here before we finish with them!... The +priest!" the miller cried suddenly. + +The people stopped. Someone ran to fetch the Vicar. + +"Or shall we put off carrying out the sentence till to-morrow?" the +miller proposed. + +Thumping their sticks together, the crowd shouted: + +"Let's have done with them!... No need for such scoundrels to have a +priest!... Let them die like dogs! No delay, or else they'll run and +fetch the Cossacks! Kill them off!" + +But the Gajdas, feeling that this brought a possibility of rescue, +began to implore despairingly: + +"Men, have pity! Send the priest; we want to make our confession! The +priest!..." + +Unfortunately for them, the priest was not at home. He had gone away +somewhere the previous evening. + +"Then let them make their confession before all the people," someone +said. + +"Very good! Yes, let them confess--and tell the truth!" the rest +assented. + +Someone cut the ropes binding their hands, and set them on their knees +before the church door. + +"Open the church! They are going to make their confession! Open it!" +shouted many voices. + +But Jedrzej exclaimed: "No need of that! It's a sin to bring such +scoundrels into the house of God; it's enough that we allow them to +come on to consecrated ground. Quiet there!" he called to the +dissatisfied women who kept on talking; and, bending over the Gajdas, +he said: + +"Now confess; but only say the plain truth. The people have power to +forgive you your trespasses." He knelt down beside them, and all the +rest followed his example, sighing and crossing themselves. + +The Gajdas mumbled something, looking round meanwhile in all +directions. + +"Speak up! Louder! They even want to cheat God!" the crowd shouted +indignantly. + +The elder Gajda, who seemed to have lost heart completely, began to +shiver, and burst out crying, confessing his sins through heavy sobs. + +A dead silence spread through the crowd; no one dared to breathe, or +even cough; that pitiful voice, spreading through the darkness like a +pool of blood, was the only sound besides the bell pealing overhead +and the soughing trees. + +The people were awestruck, and their flesh began to creep. They beat +their breasts in terror; here and there a moan broke from them; an +icy fear penetrated them, for Gajda, while all the time throwing the +blame on his son and the policeman, not only pleaded guilty to what he +was accused of, but to many other even worse crimes.... + +When he had finished he prostrated himself with outstretched arms, +striking his head on the threshold of the church door. His entreaties +for mercy were so piteous that many people in the crowd began to cry +also. + +"Now let Kacper confess!" the men howled. "Kacper! Get on, you +blackguard! Be quick!" They began to beat and kick him, till he raised +himself, exclaiming furiously: + +"You're blackguards yourselves! You want to murder innocent people! +You're thieves and traitors yourselves!" + +He cursed and threatened them dreadfully, till the old man begged him +to stop. + +"You'd better knuckle under, son. Confess; then perhaps they'll pardon +you. Knuckle under!..." + +"I won't! I won't beg for mercy from blackguards! Dogs! Damned +scoundrels! Carrion! I've no need to confess myself. Let them kill +me--the swine! Only let them dare to do it! The Cossacks will give it +them back for me to-morrow. Only let them touch me!" + +He roared this like a wild beast, and, suddenly springing to his feet +and belabouring the nearest bystanders with his fists, he began to +beat his way madly through the crowd. The old man slipped after him +like a wolf. There was a fearful outcry, but the Gajdas were instantly +overpowered and thrown down, like a bundle of rags, where they had +lain before. + +"They are trying to run away!" Jedrzej shouted angrily. "They are +threatening vengeance! Punish them, you fellows! Beat them to death +like mad dogs! Let everyone have a go at them--everyone--whoever +believes in God!" + +The crowd swayed like a forest, and flung itself upon the men; a +hundred sticks rose and fell with a hollow crash, and the air was rent +with a terrific roar as though the whole world were breaking to +pieces. It was like a whirlwind raging and then suddenly subsiding. +Only curses and women's shrieks and the thud of sticks were heard in +the darkness now, while at moments wild, piercing cries rang out from +the men who were being murdered. + +And a few minutes later there was nothing at the church door but a +black shapeless mass pounded into the slush; it gave out a sickly +smell of blood. + +The bell ceased. But the men had not yet had time to get their breath +before the news spread from the village that the policeman had +escaped. The peasants came running one after the other, talking and +shouting: + +"The policeman has made off! We went into his room when the bell +began to ring, and he had gone." + +"He escaped through the larder. The miller's daughter had warned him." + +"Of course; we saw her go in! She gave him the tip. It was she!" + +"That's a lie!" the miller bawled, springing towards them and +threatening them with his fists. + +"We all know that she got herself into trouble with the policeman--all +of us!" the women cried; and everyone suddenly knew something about +the matter, and put in his word. + +Then Jedrzej began to speak again: "You people, listen! Brothers! We +have punished only these; but the biggest thief has run away. We must +catch him.... For that is how we will punish everyone who does wrong +to the people, steals, and is a traitor. Jump on your horses and hunt +him down! Quick! Get on your horses, you fellows! He has made off to +the town; catch him! Alive or dead, we must get him! Hurry up there, +or else he may play us a dirty trick! Look sharp!" + +They poured out of the churchyard and ran hurriedly towards the +village. In no time a number of peasants were tearing towards the town +at full speed, their horses scattering the mud from under their feet. + +The village became almost deserted, except for a few women in the +churchyard, who were crying bitterly. + +Keeping to the middle of the road, and heedless of the sleet beating +into his face, the miller dragged himself homewards. He breathed with +difficulty, and often paused, sighing heavily. At times he staggered, +at times he stopped short, as though petrified; and now and then a +low, pained whisper broke from the depth of his tortured heart. + +"You--my daughter! So that's what you are!--With the policeman!" he +repeated involuntarily. + +And he clenched his fist in his bitterness; but he was trembling as in +a fever, and heavy tears rolled fast down his face. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] The greeting usual among peasants. + +[19] The colloquial name for policeman. + +[20] The Uniats are forbidden by the Russian Government to be +baptized, married, etc., by their own or Roman Catholic priests. + +[21] Children are only allowed to attend specially licensed +schools--one of the measures taken by the Russian Government to +prevent Polish subjects from being taught. + + + + +THE STRONGER SEX + +By STEFAN ZEROMSKI + + +DR. PAWEL OBARECKI returned home in rather a bad temper from a +whist-party, where he had been paying his respects to the priest, in +company with the chemist, the postmaster and the magistrate, for +sixteen successive hours, beginning the previous evening. He carefully +locked the door of his study so that no one, not even his housekeeper, +aged twenty-four, should disturb him. He sat down at the table, glared +angrily at the window without knowing why, and drummed on the table +with his fingers. He realized that he was in for another fit of his +"metaphysics." + +It is a well-established fact that a man of culture who has been cast +out by the irresistible force of poverty from the centres of +intellectual life into a small provincial town succumbs in time to the +deadening effects of wet autumn, lack of means of communication, and +the absolute impossibility of sensible conversation for days together. +He develops into a carnivorous and vegetable-eating animal, drinks an +excessive quantity of bottled beer, and becomes subject to fits of +weariness resembling the weakness that precedes physical sickness. He +swallows the boredom of a small town unconsciously, as a dog swallows +dirt with his food. The actual process of decay begins at the moment +when the thought "Nothing matters" takes hold of the organism. This +was the case with Dr. Obarecki of Obrzydlowek. At the period of his +life when this story begins, he had already come to the end of the +resources of Obrzydlowek as regards his brain, his heart, and his +energy. + +He had an unconquerable horror of intellectual effort, could walk up +and down his study for hours together, or lie on the couch with an +unlighted cigar in his mouth, straining his ear to catch a sound which +would foretell an interruption of the oppressive silence, anxiously +longing for something to happen: if only someone would come and say +something, or even turn somersaults! The autumn usually oppressed him +specially; there was something painful in the silence brooding over +Obrzydlowek from end to end on a late autumn afternoon--something +despairing that roused one to an inward cry for help. As though a fine +cobweb were being spun across it, his brain elaborated ideas which +were sometimes coarse and occasionally positively absurd. + +His only diversion was whistling and his conversations with his +housekeeper. They turned on the remarkable superiority of roast pork +stuffed with buckwheat to pork with any other kind of stuffing; but at +times they became very improper. + +The sky was frequently half covered by a cloud resembling enormous +bays and promontories; unable to disperse, it would lie motionless, +threatening to burst suddenly over Obrzydlowek and the distant lonely +fields. The fine snow from this cloud would fasten in crystals on the +window-panes, while the wind made weird penetrating sounds like an +exhausted baby crying out its last sobs close by at a corner of the +house. Stripped of their leaves and lashed by the driving snow, wild +pear trees swayed their branches over the distant field paths.... +There was something of a catarrhal melancholy in this landscape, which +unconsciously induced sadness and restless fear. The same chronic +melancholy lasted in a diminishing degree through the spring and +summer. Without any tangible cause, a malignant sadness had settled in +the doctor's heart. He had fallen into a fatal state of idleness, so +that it had even become too much effort to read Alexis' novels. + +Dr. Pawel's "metaphysics," with which he was seized from time to time, +consisted in a few hours' severe self-examination. This was followed +by a violent inflowing of memories, a hasty amassing of shreds of +knowledge, and a furious struggle of all his nobler instincts against +the stifling inactivity; he indulged in reflections, outbursts of +bitterness, firm resolutions, and projects. Naturally all this led to +nothing, and passed in time like any other more or less acute illness. +A good sleep would cure him of "metaphysics" as of a headache, and +enable him to wake up fresh the next morning, with more energy to meet +the tedium of daily life, and with a greater mental capacity for the +invention of the most savoury dishes. This endemia of "metaphysics" +made the doctor realize, however, when his mind was filled with the +philosophy of strong common sense, that beneath his existence as a +well-fed animal there was a hidden wound, incurable and unspeakably +painful, like that of a diseased bone. + +Dr. Obarecki had come to Obrzydlowek six years before, directly after +completing his medical training, with a few exceptionally useful ideas +in his mind and a few roubles in his pocket. There had been a great +deal of talk at that time of the necessity of finding enlightened +people who would settle in God-forsaken backwood places like +Obrzydlowek. He had listened to the apostles of these schemes. Young, +high-minded and reckless, he had within a month of settling in the +town declared war against the local chemist and barbers, who +encroached upon the medical profession. It was twenty-five miles to +the nearest larger town, so the local chemist had exploited the +situation. Those who wished to profit by his medicaments had to pay a +high price for them. He and the barbers, who got a percentage on the +business, played into each others' hands. Consequently they were able +to build themselves fine houses and wear "kacalyas" trimmed with +bearskin. They went about with an air of dignity like "supporters"[22] +at the Corpus Christi procession. When gentle hints and heated +arguments had broken against the chemist's resistance, who declared +the doctor's point of view to be a youthful Utopia, he scraped +together a small sum and bought a travelling medicine-chest, which he +carried with him on his rounds. He made up the medicines on the spot, +sold them at a nominal price or gave them away, taught hygiene, made +experiments, and worked perseveringly and with the utmost enthusiasm, +giving himself no time for proper rest and sleep. It was a foregone +conclusion that when the news of his portable chemist's shop, his +giving his services to the people free of charge, and other things +illustrating his point of view, became known, his windows were +smashed. As Baruch Pokoik, the only glazier in Obrzydlowek, was busy +at the time celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, the doctor was +obliged to paste up the window-panes with paper, and keep watch at +night, revolver in hand. The windows were, in fact, broken +periodically, until wooden shutters were procured for them. Rumours +were spread among the common people that the doctor had intercourse +with evil spirits, while the better educated were told that he was +ignorant of his profession. Patients who wished to consult him were +kept away by threats and noisy demonstrations outside the house. + +The young doctor paid no attention to all this, and relied on the +ultimate triumph of truth. But truth did not triumph--it is difficult +to say why not. By the end of the year his energy was slowly ebbing +away. Close contact with the ignorant masses had disillusioned him +more than words can say. His lectures on hygiene, entreaties and +arguments had fallen like the seed on rocky ground. He had done all +that was in his power--and it had been in vain. + +To speak candidly, people can hardly be expected to restore their +neglected health by simple laws of hygiene when they have to go +without boots in winter, dig up rotten potatoes from other people's +fields in March to get themselves a meal, and grind alderbark to +powder so as to mix it with a very slender supply of pilfered rye +flour. + +Imperceptibly things began not to matter to the doctor. "If they will +eat rotten potatoes, let them eat them! I can't help it, even if they +eat them raw...." + +The Jewish inhabitants of the little town were the only ones who +continued to consult the idealist; they were not frightened by evil +spirits, and the cheapness of the medicines greatly attracted them. + +One fine morning the doctor awoke to the fact that the flame of +inspiration burning brightly in him when he came to the little town, +and to which he had trusted to illuminate his path, was extinguished. +It had burnt out of its own accord. From that moment the travelling +dispensary was locked up, and the doctor was the only one to profit by +its contents. It was bitterly galling to him to own himself beaten by +the chemist and barbers, and to end the war by locking his +medicine-chest away in his cupboard. They had the right to boast that +they had conquered, and to divide the spoil. Yet he knew it was not +they; he had been conquered by his own weaker nature. He had allowed +his high aims and noble actions to be suppressed, maybe because he had +begun to attach too much importance to good dinners. Anyway they had +been suppressed. He still carried on his practice, but no one seemed +to reap any real benefit from his work. + +By a strange coincidence all the neighbouring country-houses were in +the possession of noble families of feudal character, who treated the +doctor in an antiquated manner instead of conforming to the views of +the present day. Dr. Pawel had once paid a call at one of these +houses, which turned out rather a failure. The nobleman received him +in the study, remained in his shirt-sleeves during the interview, and +went on quietly eating ham, which he cut with a penknife. The doctor +felt his democratic spirit rising within him, made a few unpleasant +remarks to the Count, and paid no more visits in the neighbourhood. + +He had therefore no other choice than the priest and the magistrate. +It is dull, however, to get too much of the priest's company, and the +stories told by the magistrate were not worth following. So the doctor +was left very much to his own company. To counteract the evil +consequences of living alone, he made up his mind to get nearer to +Nature, to recover his calm and inner harmony, and regain strength and +courage by the discovery of the links which unite man with her. He did +not, however, discover these links, though he wandered to the edge of +the forest, and on one occasion sank into a bog in the fields. + +The flat landscape was surrounded on all sides by a blue-grey belt of +forest. A few firs grew here and there on grey sandhills, and waste +strips of ground, belonging to God knows whom, were scattered in all +directions. The only relief was given by the meadows covered with +goat's-beard and yellowish grass, but even this withered +prematurely--it was as if the light did not possess enough intensity +to develop colour. The sun seemed to shine on that desolate spot only +in order to show how arid and depressing it was. + +Daily the doctor trudged, umbrella in hand, along the edge of the +sandy road, which was full of holes and marked by a tumbled-down +fence. This road did not seem to lead anywhere, for it divided into +several paths in the middle of the meadows, and disappeared among +molehills. Later on it reappeared on the top of a sandhill in the +shape of a furrow, and ran into a wood of dwarf pines. + +Impatient anger seized the doctor when he looked at that landscape, +and a vague feeling of fear made him restless.... + +The years passed. + +The priest's mediation had brought about a reconciliation between the +doctor and the chemist, now that it was clear that the doctor's zeal +for innovations had cooled. Henceforward the rivals hobnobbed at +whist, although the doctor always felt a sense of aversion towards the +chemist. By degrees even this slightly lessened. He began to visit the +chemist, and to make himself agreeable to his wife. On one occasion he +was startled by the result of analyzing his heart, which showed that +he was even capable of falling platonically in love with Pani Aniela, +whose intellect was as blunt as a sugar-chopper. She was under the +entirely mistaken impression that she was slim and irresistible, and +talked unceasingly and with unexceptionable zeal of her servant's +wickedness. Dr. Pawel listened to Pani Aniela's eloquence for hours +together with the stereotyped smile that appears on the lips of a +youth who is making himself agreeable to beautiful women while +suffering tortures from toothache. + +He was no longer capable of starting democratic ideas in Obrzydlowek, +though for no better purpose than that of passing the time. He had +intended at first to exchange visits with the butcher, but now he +would not have done it at any price. If he talked, he preferred that +it should be to people with at least a pretence to education. Not only +had his energy given out, but also all respect for broader ideas. The +wide horizon which once the idealist's eyes could hardly perceive had +dwindled down to a small circle, measurable with the toe of a boot. +When he had read socialistic articles during the first stages of his +moral decay, it had been with bitterness and envy, alternating with +the caution of a man who has a certain amount of experience in these +matters. Gradually he came to reading them with distrust, then with +contempt, and at last he could not conceive why he had ever troubled +himself about these ideas which had become absolutely indifferent to +him. The longing to make himself into a centre for intellectual life +was far from him. He doctored according to routine methods, and +succeeded in working up a fairly good practice with the maxim: "Pay me +and take yourself off!" His loneliness and the boredom of Obrzydlowek +had become familiar to him. + +And yet, in spite of everything, at this moment when he sat drumming +with his fingers on the table, "metaphysics" had taken hold of him +again. Already towards the end of the sixteen hours during which he +had been celebrating the priest's name-day by playing whist, he had +begun to feel uncomfortable. This was due to the chemist's beginning +to talk atheism. Dr. Obarecki knew the hidden reason for this sudden +assault on the priest's feelings quite well. + +He foresaw that it was meant to be a prelude to a friendship between +him and the chemist for the purpose of joining hands in a common +utilitarian aim. One would write prescriptions a yard long, and the +other exploit the situation. Possibly the chemist would soon pay him a +visit and make an open proposal for such a partnership, and the doctor +foresaw that he would not have the strength of mind to kick him out. +He did not know what reasons to give for the refusal. The course that +the interview would take would be this: The chemist would touch on the +matter gradually, skilfully, referring to the doctor's need of capital +as the cause of his being in difficulties, then bring the conversation +round to Obrzydlowek affairs, and point out how much they would +benefit the community by joining hands; and the end would be their +paddling in the mire together. + +Supposing the partnership existed? What then...? + +His heart overflowed with bitterness. What had happened? How could he +have gone so far? Why did he not tear himself out of the mire? He was +an idler, a dreamer, corrupting his own mind--a horrible caricature of +himself. + +As he looked out of the window, he began to scrutinize his own +weaknesses of character in an extraordinarily minute and merciless +examination. The snow had begun to fall in large flakes, veiling the +melancholy landscape in mist and dimness. + +This capricious and unprofitable train of thought was suddenly +interrupted by loud expostulations from the housekeeper, who was +trying to persuade someone to go away because the doctor was not at +home. But wishing to break the tormenting chain of ideas, the doctor +went out into the kitchen. A huge peasant was standing there, wearing +an untanned sheepskin over his shoulders. He bowed very low to the +doctor, so that his lamb's-wool cap brushed the floor; then he pushed +the hair back from his forehead, straightened himself, and was +preparing for his speech, when the doctor cut him short. + +"What's the matter?" + +"Please, sir, the Soltys[23] has sent me." + +"Who is ill?" + +"It's the schoolmistress in our village. She's been taken bad with +something. The Soltys came to me, and he said: 'Go to Obrzydlowek for +the doctor, Ignaz,' he said.... 'Perhaps,' he said...." + +"I'll come. Have you got good horses?" + +"Fine fast beasts." + +The doctor welcomed the thought of this drive, with its physical +fatigue and even possible danger. With sudden animation he put on his +stout boots and sheepskin, slipped into a fur coat large enough to +cover a windmill, strapped on his belt, and went out. The peasant's +"beasts" were sturdy and well-fed, though not large. The sledge had +high runners and a light wicker body; it was well supplied with straw +and covered with homespun rugs. The peasant took the front seat, +untied his hempen reins, and gave the horses a cut with the whip. + +"Is it far?" the doctor asked as they started. + +"A matter of about twenty miles." + +"You won't lose your way?" + +"Who?... I?" He looked round with an ironical smile. + +The wind across the fields was piercing. The runners, crooked and +badly carved, ploughed deep furrows in the freshly fallen snow, and +piled it up in ridges on either side. Nothing could be seen of the +road. + +The peasant pushed his cap on one side with a businesslike air, and +urged on his horses. They passed a little wood, and came out on an +empty space bounded by the forest which stood out against the horizon. +The twilight fell, overlaying this severe desert picture with a blue +light, which deepened over the forest. Balls of snow thrown up by the +horses' hoofs flew past the doctor's head. He could not tell why he +longed to stand up in the sledge and shout like a peasant with all his +might--shout into that deaf, voiceless, boundless space which +fascinated by its immensity as a precipice does. A wild and gloomy +night was coming on fast, night such as falls upon deserted fields. + +The wind increased and roared monotonously, changing from time to time +into a solemn largo. The snow was driving from the side. + +"Be careful of the road, my friend, else we shall come to grief," the +doctor shouted, immediately hiding his nose again in his fur collar. + +"Aho, my little ones!" bawled the peasant to the horses, by way of an +answer. His voice was scarcely audible through the storm. The horses +broke into a gallop. + +Suddenly the snowdrifts began to whirl round madly: the wind blew in +gusts; it buffeted the side of the sledge; it howled underneath; it +took the men's breath away. The doctor could hear the horses snorting, +but could distinguish neither them nor the driver. Clouds of snow +torn from the ground sped by like a team of horses, and the thud of +their hoofs seemed to fill the air. A very pandemonium had burst +loose, throwing the power of its sound upward to the clouds, whence it +descended again with a crash. The smooth surface was dispersed into +down which enveloped the travellers. It was as if monsters were +reeling in a mad giant dance, overtaking the sledge from behind, +running now in front, now at the sides, and pelting it with handfuls +of snow. Somewhere far away a large bell seemed to be droning in a +hollow monotone. + +The doctor realized that they were no longer driving on the road; the +runners moved forward with difficulty and struck against the edge of +ruts. + +"Where are we, my good fellow?" he exclaimed in alarm. + +"I am going to the forest by the fields," the man answered; "we shall +get shelter from the wind under the trees. You can go all the way to +the village through the forest." + +As a matter of fact, the wind soon dropped; only its distant roar +could be heard and the snapping of branches. The trees, powdered with +snow, stood out against the dark background of night. It was +impossible to proceed quickly now, for they had to make their way +between snowdrifts and the stems and projecting branches. + +After an hour during which the doctor had felt truly uncomfortable +and alarmed, he at last heard the sound of dogs barking. + +"That's our village, sir." + +Dim lights flickered in the distance like moving spots. There was a +smell of smoke. + +"Look sharp, little ones!" the driver cheerily called out to the +horses, and slapped himself after the manner of drivers. + +A few minutes later they passed at full gallop a row of cottages, +buried in snow up to their roofs. Heads were outlined in shadow +against the window-panes from which circles of light fell on to the +road. + +"People are having their supper," the peasant remarked unnecessarily, +reminding the doctor that it was time for the supper which he had no +hope of eating that day. + +The sledge drew up in front of a cottage. When the driver had +accompanied the doctor through the passage, he disappeared. The doctor +groped for the latch, and entered the miserable little room, which was +lighted by a flickering paraffin lamp. + +A decrepit old hunchback woman, bent like the crook of an umbrella +handle, started from her bed on seeing him, and straightened the +handkerchief round her head. She blinked her red eyes in alarm. + +"Where is the patient?" the doctor asked. "Have you a samovar?" + +The old woman was so perturbed that she did not grasp the meaning of +his words. + +"Have you a samovar? Can you make me some tea?" + +"There is the samovar; but as to sugar----" + +"No sugar? What a nuisance!" + +"None, unless Walkowa has some, because the young lady----" + +"Where is the young lady?" + +"Poor thing! she's lying in the next room." + +"Has she been ill long?" + +"She's been ailing as long as a fortnight. She was taken bad with +something." + +The woman half opened the door of the next room. + +"Wait a moment; I must warm myself," the doctor said angrily, taking +off his fur coat. + +It was not difficult to get warm in that stuffy little den; the stove +threw out a terrific heat, so that the doctor went into the "young +lady's" room as quickly as possible. + +The lamp that was standing on a table beside the invalid's pillow had +been turned low. It was not possible to distinguish the +schoolmistress's features, as a large book had been placed as a +screen, and the shadow from it fell on her face. The doctor carefully +turned up the lamp, removed the book, and looked at her face. She was +a young girl. + +She had sunk into a feverish sleep; her face, neck and hands, were +flushed scarlet and covered with a rash. Her ashen-blonde hair, which +was exceptionally thick, was tossed round her face, and lay in rich +tresses on the pillow. Her hands were plucking deliriously at the +coverlet. + +Dr. Pawel bent right down to the sick girl's face, and suddenly, with +a voice stifled by emotion, repeated: + +"Panna Stanislawa, Panna Stanislawa, Panna St----" + +Slowly and with difficulty the sick girl raised her eyelids, but +closed them again immediately. She stretched herself, drew her head +from one end of the pillow to the other, and gave a painful low moan. +She opened her mouth with an effort and gasped for breath. + +The doctor looked round the bare, whitewashed room. He noticed the +windows which did not sufficiently keep out the draught, the girl's +shoes, shrivelled with having been wet through constantly, the piles +of books lying on the table, the sofa and everywhere. + +"Oh, you mad girl, you foolish girl!" he whispered, wringing his +hands. In distress and alarm he examined her, and took her temperature +with trembling hands. + +"Typhus!" he murmured, turning pale. He pressed his hand to his throat +to stifle the tears which were choking him like little balls of +cotton. + +He knew that he could do nothing for her--that, in fact, nothing +could be done for her. Suddenly he gave a bitter laugh when he +remembered that he would be obliged to send the twenty miles to +Obrzydlowek for the quinine and antipyrin he wanted. + +From time to time Stanislawa opened her glassy, delirious eyes, and +looked without seeing from beneath her long, curling eyelashes. He +called her by the most endearing names, he raised her head, which the +neck seemed hardly able to support, but all in vain. + +He sat down idly on a stool and stared into the flame of the lamp. +Truly misfortune, like a deadly enemy, had dealt him a blow unawares +from a blunt weapon. He felt as if he were being dragged helplessly +into a dark, bottomless pit. + +"What is to be done?" he whispered tremblingly. + +The cold blast penetrated through a crack in the window like a phantom +of evil omen. The doctor felt as if someone had touched him, as if +there were a third person in the room besides himself and the patient. + +He went into the kitchen and told the servant to fetch the Soltys +immediately. + +The old woman instantly drew on a pair of large boots, threw a +handkerchief over her head, and disappeared with a comical hobble. + +Shortly afterwards the Soltys appeared. + +"Listen! Can you find me a man to ride to Obrzydlowek?" + +"Now, doctor?... Impossible!... There's a blizzard; he'd be riding to +his death. One wouldn't turn a dog out to-night." + +"I will pay--I will reward him well." + +The Soltys went out. Dr. Pawel pressed his temples, which were +throbbing as though they would burst. He sat down on a barrel and +reflected on something which happened long ago. + +Footsteps approached. The Soltys brought in a farmer's boy in a +tattered sheepskin which did not reach to his knees, sack trousers, +torn boots, and with a red scarf round his neck. + +"This boy?" the doctor asked. + +"He says he will go--rash youngster! I can give him a horse. But +wherever at this time of----" + +"Listen! If you come back in six hours, you will get twenty-five ... +thirty roubles from me ... you will get what you like.... Do you +hear?" + +The boy looked at the doctor as if he meant to say something, but he +refrained. He wiped his nose with his fingers, shuffled awkwardly, and +waited. + +The doctor went back to the school-teacher's bedroom. His hands were +shaking, and went up to his temples automatically. He thought of a +prescription, wrote it, scratched through what he had written, tore +it up, and wrote a letter to the chemist instead, begging him to +despatch a horseman to the town at once, to ask the doctor to send him +some quinine. He bent over the sick girl and examined her afresh; then +he went into the kitchen and handed the letter to the boy. + +"My dear boy," he said in a strange, unnatural voice, laying his hand +on the lad's shoulder and slightly shaking him, "ride as fast as the +horse will go--never mind him getting winded.... Do you hear, my boy?" + +The lad bowed to the ground and went out with the Soltys. + +"Is it long since the teacher settled here with you in the village?" +Dr. Pawel asked the old woman who was cowering by the stove. + +"It's about three winters." + +"Three winters! Did no one live here with her?" + +"Who should there be but me? She took me into her service, poor wretch +that I am. 'You'll not find a place anywhere else, granny,' she said, +'but there isn't much to do for me, only just a bit here and there.' +And now here we are; I'd promised myself that she would bury me.... +God be merciful to us sinners!..." + +She began unexpectedly to whisper a prayer, detaching one word from +the other, and moving her lips from side to side like a camel. Her +head shook and the tears flowed down the wrinkles into her toothless +mouth. + +"She was good----" + +Granny began snivelling, and gesticulated wildly, as if she meant to +drive the doctor away from her. He returned to the sick-room and began +to walk up and down on tiptoe. Round after round he walked after his +usual habit. Now and then he stopped beside the bed and muttered +between his teeth with a rage that made his lips pale: + +"What a fool you have been! It is not only impossible to live like +that, but it is not even worth while. You can't make the whole of your +life one single performance of duty. Those idiots will take it all +without understanding; they will drag you to it by the rope round your +neck, and if you let your foolish illusions run away with you, death +will make you its victim; for you are too beautiful, too much +beloved----" + +As fire licks up dry wood, so a past and long-forgotten feeling took +possession of him. It revived in him with the strength and the +treacherous sweetness of former years. He persuaded himself that he +had never forgotten her, that he had worshipped and remembered her up +to that very moment. He gazed into the well-known face with an +insatiable curiosity, and a dumb, piercing pain began to devour his +heart as he thought that for three years she had been living here, +near him, and he only heard of it when death was on the point of +taking her away from him. + +All that was befalling him this day seemed to be the consequence of +his animal existence, which had led him nowhere except to burrow in +the ground. Yet he felt as if suddenly a mysterious horizon opened out +before him, an ocean spreading far away into the mist. + +With all the effort of impatient despair he grasped at memories, +seeking refuge in them from an intolerable reality; he plunged into +them as into the rosy halo of a summer dawn. He felt he must be alone, +if only for a moment, to think and think. He slipped into a third room +which was filled with forms and tables. Here he sat down in the dark +to collect his thoughts and contrive some way of saving his patient. + +But he began to recall memories: + +He was then a poor student in his last year. When he went to the +hospital on winter mornings, he stepped carefully so that not everyone +should notice how cleverly the holes in his boots had been mended with +cardboard. His overcoat was as tight as a strait-jacket, and so +threadbare that the old-clothes man would not even give a florin for +it when he tried to sell it in the summer. Poverty made him +pessimistic, and produced that state of sadness which is more than +mere unpleasant depression, but less than actual suffering. To be +roused from it, one need only eat a chop or drink a glass of tea; but +he frequently had no tea to drink, to say nothing of a dinner to eat. +He used to run along the muddy Dlvga Street so as to enter the gate of +the Saski Gardens by a quarter to nine. + +Here he would meet a young girl and walk past her, looking at her +long, heavy, ashen-blonde pigtails. She would not look up, but knitted +her brows, which reminded one of the narrow, straight wings of a bird. +He used to meet her there daily in the same place. She always walked +quickly to the suburb beyond, where she entered a tram going to Praga. + +She was not more than seventeen, but looked like a little old maid in +her handkerchief thrown carelessly over her fur cap, in her clumsy, +old-fashioned cloak, and shoes a size too large for her small feet. +She always carried books, maps, and writing materials under her arm. +On one occasion, finding himself in possession of a few pence, which +were to have paid for his dinner, he was resolved to discover what her +daily destination was. He therefore set out in pursuit, and entered +the same car, but after he had sat down all his courage had failed +him. The unknown measured him with such a look of absolute disdain +that he jumped out of the tram immediately, having lost his bowl of +broth and achieved nothing. + +Yet he felt no grudge towards her; on the contrary, this had only +raised her in his estimation. He thought about her unconsciously and +uninterruptedly; he strove through the course of whole hours to call +to mind her hair, her eyes, her mouth, the colour of her lips. And yet +he strained his memory in vain. For scarcely had she vanished from his +sight than her features vanished from his memory. Instead there was +left a vision like a white cloud without any distinct features; it +seemed to hover over him. His thoughts pursued that cloud in longing +and humble timidity, with a touch of unconscious regret, sadness, and +sympathy, which dominated him altogether. + +He used to go every morning to compare the living girl with his +vision, and the reality seemed to him the more beautiful of the two; +her eyes, thoughtful, and clear like a spring, filled him with a +certain sense of awe. + +At that time one of his fellow-students, nicknamed "Movement in +Space," unexpectedly got married. He was a great "social reformer," +continually writing endless prefaces to works he never finished for +lack of the necessary books of reference. His wife was a feminist and +as poor as a church mouse. Her dowry consisted in an old carpet, two +stewing-pans, a plaster cast of Mickiewicz, and a pile of school +prizes. The young couple lived on the fourth floor and promptly began +to starve. They both gave private lessons so zealously that after +separating in the morning they did not meet again till the evening. +Nevertheless their house began to be the centre towards which each +"social reformer" wended his way in his dirty boots, in order to sit +for a while on the "Movement's" soft sofa, smoke his cigars, argue +till he was hoarse, and in the end contribute a few pence towards the +entertainment. The amiable hostess bought rolls and sausages, which +she arranged artistically on a plate and handed round to her guests. +You were always sure to meet someone interesting here, to become +acquainted with great people as yet unknown to their age, and possibly +you might even have a chance of borrowing sixpence. + +Obarecki had turned pale with joy when one evening, on entering the +room, he had found his beloved among the circle of friends. He had +talked to her and lost his head completely. While walking home with +the others that evening, he had had a longing to be alone--neither to +dream nor to think of her, but just to steep his soul in her presence, +see her and hear the sound of her voice, think as she did, and let the +pictures which rose in his imagination take possession of him. He now +distinctly remembered her wonderful eyes, with their bewildering +depth, severe yet sympathetic, gentle and mysterious. He had +experienced a feeling of joy and repose; as if, after a hot, wearisome +journey, he had lighted upon a cool spring, hidden in the shade of +pines on a high hill. + +They had surrounded her with respect, and seemed to attach special +importance to her words. In introducing Obarecki, the "Movement" had +said, with an air of importance, "Obarecki, a thinker, a dreamer, a +great idler, yet the coming man--Panna Stanislawa, our Darwinist." + +The "great idler" had not been able to ascertain much about the +"Darwinist"; merely that she had left the High School, was giving +lessons, and intended to go to Paris or Zurich to study medicine, but +had not a penny to bless herself with. + +From that time onwards they frequently met in their friends' rooms. +Panna Stanislawa would sometimes bring a pound of sugar under her +cloak, or a cold cutlet wrapped in paper, or a few rolls; Obarecki +never brought anything, for he had nothing to bring; but instead he +devoured the rolls and the "Darwinist" with his eyes. + +One night, when escorting her home, he got as far as proposing to her. +She only broke into a hearty laugh and took leave of him with a +friendly grasp of the hand. Shortly afterwards she had disappeared; he +heard that she had gone as governess into some aristocratic family in +Podolia. + +And now he had found her again in this forsaken corner, in this forest +village inhabited only by peasants, with not a single intelligent +person near her. She had been living here all alone in this +wilderness. And now she was dying.... All his former enthusiasm, and +the unfulfilled dreams and desires of past days, suddenly sprang up +within him and struck him like gusts of wind. A deadly pain seized his +heart, and the poison of passion took hold of his blood. He returned +on tiptoe to the sick-room, rested his elbows on the bed, and feasted +on the sight of the marvellous contours of her bare shoulders and the +lines of her bosom and neck. The girl was asleep; the veins on her +temples were swollen, the corners of her mouth were moist, she exhaled +fever heat, and drew in the air with a loud whistling sound. Dr. Pawel +sat down beside her on the edge of the bed, gently fondled the ends of +her soft, bright hair, and stroked it along his face, sobbing while he +kissed it. + +"Stasia, Stachna! Dearest!" he whispered low. "You are not going to +run away from me again, are you?... Never! ... you will be mine for +ever ... do you hear?--for ever...." + +The exuberance of youth awoke in him from its lethargy. Henceforth +everything would be different; he felt a great strength in him for +doing his work with his heart in it. Pain and hope were mingled as in +a flame which consumed him and gave him no respite. + +The night wore on. Though the hours went by slowly, more than six had +passed since the messenger left. It was four o'clock in the morning. +The doctor listened, starting up at every sound. He fancied each +moment that someone was coming--opening the door--tapping at the +window. He strained and strained with his whole organism to listen. +The wind howled, the door of the stove rattled; then again there was +silence. The minutes passed like ages; his nerves, overstrained by +impatience, threw him into a state of trembling all over. + +When he took her temperature for the sixth time, the sick girl slowly +opened her eyes; they looked almost black under their shade of dark +lashes. Straining to look at him, she said in a hoarse voice: + +"Who's that?" + +But she fell back at once into her former state of unconsciousness. He +cherished this moment as if it were a treasure. Oh, if only he had +some quinine to lessen the pain in her head and restore her to +consciousness! But the messenger had not arrived, and did not arrive. + +Before dawn Dr. Obarecki walked the length of the village through the +deep snowdrifts, deluding himself with a last hope of seeing the boy. +An evil foreboding penetrated his heart like the point of a needle. +The wind still howled in the bare branches of the wayside poplars with +a hollow sound, although the storm had abated. Women were coming out +of the cottages to fetch water, their skirts tucked up above their +knees. The farm lads were busy with the cattle; smoke was rising from +the chimneys. Here and there a cloud of steam issued from a door which +was opened for an instant. + +The doctor found the Soltys' house, and ordered horses to be put in at +once. Two pairs were harnessed, and a lad drove them up to the school. +The doctor took leave of the patient with eyes dilated with fatigue +and despair, got into the sledge, and drove to Obrzydlowek. + + * * * * * + +He returned at two o'clock in the afternoon, bringing drugs, wine, and +a store of provisions. He had stood up in the sledge almost all the +way, longing to jump out and run faster than the horses, which were +going at a gallop. He drove straight up to the school, but what he saw +made him powerless to move from his seat.... A short, stifled cry +burst from his lips, twisted with pain, when he saw that the windows +were thrown wide open. A throng of children were crowded together in +the passage. White as a sheet he walked to the window and looked in, +standing there with his elbows resting on the window-sill. + +On a bench in the schoolroom lay the naked body of the young teacher; +two old women were washing it. Tiny snowflakes flew in through the +window and rested on the shoulders, damp hair, and half-open eyes of +the dead girl. + +Bent double, as though bearing a mountain-load on his shoulders, the +doctor entered the little bedroom. He sat down and repeated dully: "It +is so--it is so!" He felt as if huge rusty wheels were turning with a +terrific rattle in his head. + +Stasia's bed was all in disorder; the window-frames rattled +monotonously; the leaves of her plants were being caught by the frost, +and drooped. + +Through the half-open door the doctor saw some peasants kneeling round +the body, which was now clothed; the children too had come in and were +reading prayers from books; the carpenter was taking measurements for +the coffin. He went in and gave orders in a husky voice for the coffin +to be made of unplaned boards, and a heap of shavings to be placed +under the head. + +"Nothing else ... do you hear?" he said to the carpenter with +suppressed rage. "Four boards ... nothing else...." + +He remembered that someone ought to be informed--her family.... Where +was her family? With an aimless activity he began to arrange her +books, school-registers, notebooks and manuscripts into a pile. Among +the papers he came upon the beginning of a letter. + + "DEAR HELENKA" (it ran)--"I have felt so ill for some days + past that I am probably going into the presence of Minos and + Rhadamanthus, Aeacus, Triptolemus, and many others of the + kind. In case of my removing to another place, please ask + the Mayor of my village to send you all my property, + consisting of books. I have at last finished my little + primer, _Physics for the People_, over which we have so often + racked our brains. Unfortunately I have not made a fair copy. + If you have time--in case of my removal--arrange for the + publication at once. Let Anton copy it out; he will do this + for me. + + "Oh, bother!... I just remember I owe our bookseller eleven + roubles sixty-five kopeks; pay him with my winter coat, for I + have no money.... Take for yourself in remembrance...." + +The last words were illegible. There was no address; it was not +possible to send off the letter. The doctor discovered the manuscript +of the _Physics_ in the table drawer. It consisted of notes on slips +of paper, mixed up with rubbish of all kinds. There was a little +underlinen, a cloak lined with catskin, and an old black skirt, in the +wardrobe. + +While the doctor busied himself in this way, he suddenly noticed the +boy who had been sent for the remedies in the schoolroom. He was +huddled against a corner of the stove, treading from one foot to the +other. Savage hatred sprang up in the doctor's heart. + +"Why did you not come back in time?" he cried, running up to the boy. + +"I lost my way in the fields ... the horse gave out.... I arrived on +foot in the morning ... the young lady was already----" + +"You lie!" + +The boy did not answer. The doctor looked into his eyes, and was +overcome by a strange feeling. Those eyes were weary and terrible; a +peasant's stupid, mute, wild despair lurked in them as in an +underground cavern. + +"Here, sir, I have brought back the books the teacher lent me," he +said, drawing some worn, soiled books from under his coat. + +"Leave me alone! Be off!" the doctor cried, turning away and hurrying +into the next room. + +Here he stood among the rubbish, the books and papers thrown on the +floor, and asked himself with a harsh laugh: "What am I doing here? I +am no good; I have no right to be here!" + +A feeling of profound reverence made him think the dead girl's +thoughts in deep humility. Had he remained an hour longer, he would +have risen to the heights where madness dwells. Without wishing to +confess it to himself, he knew that it was fear on his own account +which was taking possession of him. Throughout all that was +overwhelming him at this moment, he felt that, a great lack of balance +was threatening to deprive him of the essence of human feeling--of +egoism. To stifle egoism would mean his allowing himself to be +enveloped by the same rosy mist which had transported this girl from +the earth. He must escape at once. Having decided on this, he began to +despair in beautiful phrases which immediately brought him +considerable relief. He ordered the sledge to be brought round.... +Bending over Stasia's body, he whispered all the beautiful, empty +things which people say in praise of greatness. He lingered once more +in the doorway and looked back; for a second he wondered whether it +would not be better to die at once. Then he pushed past the peasants +crowding round the door, sprang into the sledge, tripped himself up, +tumbled on his face, and was carried off, stifled by spasmodic sobs. + + * * * * * + +Stanislawa's death exercised so much influence over Dr. Pawel's +disposition that for some time afterwards, in his leisure moments, he +read Dante's _Divine Comedy_; he gave up playing whist, and dismissed +his housekeeper, aged twenty-four. But gradually he grew calm. He is +now doing exceedingly well; he has grown stout, and has made a nice +little sum. He has even revived some of his optimistic tendencies. For +thanks to his energetic agitation, all the world in Obrzydlowek, with +the exception of a few conservatives, is now smoking cigarettes rolled +by themselves, instead of buying ready-made ones which are known to be +injurious. + +At last!... + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[22] It is considered a special privilege to walk on either side of +the priest and support his arms in the procession. + +[23] Answers more or less to the old-fashioned term "beadle." + + + + +THE CHUKCHEE + +BY WACLAW SIEROSZEWSKI + + +The country was shrouded in the bitter Arctic night. Cold mists swept +along the ground below; a dark sky, spangled with stars, stretched +above. + +A man was standing on the steps of a little house with small windows +and a flat roof; his head was bare, his hands were thrust deep into +his pockets. He was gazing fixedly towards the south, where the first +dawn was to break upon the long darkness. At times he fancied that he +could already see it there, for something seemed to quiver in the +infinite darkness; but then the changing mist merely swayed to and +fro, and the stars trembled on the horizon. His weary eyes therefore +turned towards the little town; his house stood on the outskirts of +it. Lights were twinkling in the windows there, and the dogs in the +various backyards were yelping and howling loudly in chorus. "Oh, how +deadly this is!" he thought--"enough to drive anyone mad. And in a +frost like this it's certain no one will come." + +He was just turning to go indoors, when he caught the sound of snow +creaking under quick footsteps. He began to listen; the footsteps +turned into the path leading up to his house. + +"Is that you, Jozef?" + +"Yes; how are you?" a voice, hoarse with the frost, cried from a +distance; and presently a man of middle height, dressed in fur from +head to foot, emerged from the darkness. "What are you doing, you +silly fellow, standing out here in a blouse in cold like this? You are +certain to catch pneumonia." + +"And why not?... A year sooner or later----" + +"All very fine! But I confess to you, Stefan, I shouldn't like to die +here. One can't even decay like a human being; one would have to lie +here for centuries like an ice statue, while the dogs would howl and +howl----" + +"Well, they are howling unbearably now; it's as if they scented +something. They are worse than ever to-day." + +"They are certain to smell something; in the town they say that the +Chukchee are encamping here, and I have just come to tell you of it. +But let us go indoors; it's terribly cold, worse than it has yet been +this year." + +They went in. Stefan lighted the fire and busied himself with getting +tea ready; Jozef threw off his furs and paced up and down the room +with long strides. + +"I say! This news is not quite without importance for us." + +"What?" + +"That they have come." + +"The Chukchee?" + +"Why, yes!" + +Stefan burst out laughing. + +"It's imperative for us to make friends with them; they are said to +trade with America." + +"Then with whom are we to make friends? With the Yankees?" + +"No, with the Chukchee. Do be serious. You must do it, and it will be +easy enough for you with your workshop,--all kinds of people +constantly come to you. I will persuade Buza, the Cossack, to bring +them; you will have a first-rate interpreter." + +"By all means persuade Buza----" + +"Oh, stop that! You always pretend to be indifferent to everything. If +I had your health and strength, and were as clever----" + +"Then you would be as homesick as I am, and pretend to care as +little----" + +"Do you think that I am not homesick?" + +"No, I don't think you are--not in the least. You have a happy +disposition, and can distract yourself with books and plans and +dreaming, even if it is only for a short time. I must live, work, be +active; I need impressions from outside. Otherwise I go utterly to +pieces; I feel that I am slowly dying." + +They sat down to tea and chatted until midnight. In that continuous +darkness the late hours of night differed from the rest in the +position of the stars, a harder frost with louder reports of the +cracking ground, the fact that the fires in the cottages were +extinguished, and the quieter but more dismal howling of the dogs. + +"Then remember that I will bring them. Do something to take their +fancy; you know how to do it." + +"Very good. It just happens that I have the District Administrator's +musical box here to repair; I will play it to them." + +"That will delight them. 'A talking box'--I can imagine what they will +say! And don't forget to buy vodka for them, and to entertain Buza +also. We shall have need of him. I don't yet know what we shall decide +upon--I don't even try to think about it; but I feel that something +will come of this...." + +"What?... Nothing will come of it. There will not even be any vodka +left as a result, for they will drink it all up." + +"You horrible pessimist! You always poison everything for me!" Jozef +cried from the hall, and he banged the door after him. + +Stefan stood in the middle of the room for a long while, listening to +Jozef's brisk footsteps. He was smiling, for he liked to be accused of +being a pessimist. + +A few days later, sitting at the table with his back towards the door, +and busy with his work, he heard a curious noise outside--someone +stamping and pulling at the strap which served as a latch, as if +unused to it. + +Stefan turned his head inquiringly, and at the same moment a flat, +brown face appeared in the doorway. + +"Go in! Go in! You will let the cold into the cottage," someone cried +from the hall. + +Stefan recognized Buza's voice. + +"Come in, by all means!" + +"They have no manners. They are real Chukchee. This one is called +Wopatka; he has been baptized. He is rather a drunkard, and rather a +thief, but a good fellow. And this one--it's better not to touch +him--is Kituwia.... Don't touch him!" + +The natives stood quietly in the middle of the room, and looked round +inquisitively, but without the slightest bewilderment. Their furs, +which they wore with the skin turned to the inside, hung about them +heavily and clumsily. They appeared to Stefan to be very much alike. +But Kituwia had a darker complexion, and there was evidence in his +unmoving face, erect head, and compressed lips of a hard pride, +amounting to contempt for all and everything. + +Wopatka fell into a broad grin as he glanced eagerly with his slanting +eyes round the room, which was so large and well furnished in +comparison with his own tent. + +"Take off your cap," Buza said to him, nudging him with his elbow. + +Wopatka hastily pulled off his cap and showed the usual conical-shaped +Chukchee head. + +Kituwia had no cap. His long, thick, tousled hair was held back by a +narrow strap tied just above his forehead. A similar strap from his +low-cut skin jerkin crossed his bare chest and neck. He gave Stefan a +sharp look, and uttered a few disconnected guttural sounds to his +companion. + +"There! Do you hear?" Buza said with a laugh. "They speak exactly like +reindeer. They believe in reindeer, too; they think they will always +have them in the next world. But Pan Jozef told me to bring them, so I +have brought them." + +"Very good. I will get tea for you at once--or perhaps vodka would be +better?" + +"That would be better, for they don't think much of tea." + +Stefan showed them a magnet, and made the cuckoo-clock strike to amuse +them. He had a certain amount of success with the clock; Wopatka was +delighted, but Kituwia's restrained manner threw a chill over +everything. The fire crackled merrily in the chimney; the guests threw +off their furs and lolled on the benches; Buza burst out laughing from +time to time, and Wopatka chuckled quietly, but Kituwia ran his keen +glance from one object to another. However, at last even his face +lighted up, and, uttering a smothered cry, he pointed to some large +stones tied as a weight to the drying reindeer sinews. The guests +formed a circle round these and tried to lift them with outstretched +arms, but only Kituwia could do this. + +When Stefan did the same, the native's face brightened with a look of +friendliness. He called Stefan "brother," and passed his hand +caressingly over his back and shoulders. + +"He is praising you and asking why he never sees you among the people +round the tavern." + +"Tell him that I haven't time; I am busy." + +While Buza was explaining this, Kituwia's face assumed an expression +of stony contempt. + +"He doesn't believe that you are a smith--and that you are respected +by the District Administrator all the same. He is just an ignorant +native. With them a strong man only drinks and fights, and looks upon +the rest as low." + +The guests conscientiously ate and drank what was offered them. At +parting Wopatka said, "Brother! Brother!" a countless number of +times. The disagreeable smell of badly tanned reindeer skin and rancid +reindeer grease remained behind them when they were gone. + +"Your fame will spread among the Chukchee; you will have no peace +now," Buza said to Stefan in the hall. "We thank you for your +invitation. When will you send for us again?" + +"Ask Pan Jozef!" + + * * * * * + +"Well, did they come?" Jozef asked on the following day. + +"I should rather think so! I was obliged to air the room for several +hours afterwards." + +"Did they not invite you to visit them?" + +"No." + +"We must have patience. They will invite us. Buza told me they are +enchanted." + +"Buza himself seemed to be the most enchanted. He ate and drank enough +for three." + +"And Wopatka?" + +"What is there to say about him? He certainly seems a good hand at +vodka. He is not up to much." + +"No need to despise people like that; they will prepare the way +excellently, and others will follow. One must wait patiently; I beg +you be patient. I will arrange it. Last night I went to see Father +Pantelay, the missionary. He is learning Chukchee. By-and-by we may be +able to do something. We must learn to understand their customs and +be friendly with them, so that they may get to like us. Don't grumble +about them." + +"I am not grumbling, but--they sat here too long." + +"Well, we also have been sitting here too long." + +Several days passed. The Chukchee did not show themselves. Despite his +assumed indifference and incredulity, Stefan was a little anxious, and +looked round hastily every time the door opened. + +It was late. Having just finished his work, and blown out the candle +for the sake of economy, Stefan was musing in the firelight, when his +attention was attracted by unusual sounds from outside--a curious +noise and shuffling. Then the house door opened violently and banged +to; someone rushed panting into the room and held the door against +someone else who tried to open it. Stefan jumped up in astonishment +and hastily lighted the candle. A Chukchee was standing at the door, +covered with snow. He had wound the latch strap round his hand, and, +steadying himself with his foot against the door, was pulling at it +with all his might. It shook in the struggle. The native looked at +Stefan, made an imploring gesture, and showed that he was defenceless. +From the hall came the sound of an impatient, hoarse voice cursing, +accompanied by heavy kicks on the door. Stefan fancied that he +recognized the voice. + +"Who's there? Stop that kicking at once! To the devil with you!" he +exclaimed angrily. + +The tugging ceased. There was a sound of muttering for some time +longer, but when footsteps were heard approaching the unknown person +left the hall. The Chukchee dropped the strap and turned to Stefan. + +"Brother! Gem Kamakatan"--and he pointed to himself--"Gem no knife ... +Gem ... brother!" He made a pretence of falling to indicate that he +would have been killed. His eyes were friendly; his fat, ugly face, +with its wide, extended nostrils, expressed emotion and gratitude. +"Brother! Anoai! Anoai!" + +He went to the fire and began to shake the snow out of his skin +jerkin. His furs, hair, and ears were full of it. He indicated by +violent shuddering that he was wet, and that the water was running +down his body under his clothes. He began to fain shivering and dying. + +Stefan knew perfectly well that in weather as cold as this even a +Chukchee would freeze to death in damp clothes. He guessed what the +native wanted, and nodded. + +"Gem Kamakatan" laughed and began to undress quickly. The next moment +he emerged from his furs naked like a Greek statue, and Stefan watched +with interest what would happen further. The Chukchee calmly hung his +clothes in front of the fire, looked round, and, seeing Stefan's bed +ready for the night, jumped in with great glee and disappeared under +the quilt. + +All this was done so adroitly and unexpectedly that Stefan could not +help bursting out laughing. The Chukchee drew his head from under the +quilt again, and repeated in a friendly way: "Brother! Brother!" + + * * * * * + +"Well, has he been here?" asked Jozef, coming in at his usual hour. + +"He is here even now." + +Stefan told his friend of the whole strange adventure. + +"Excellent! Excellent! Things are moving," the latter repeated, +walking on tiptoe. + +"There's nothing excellent about it. I wish he were sleeping in your +bed. He looks as if he had never washed or combed himself in his life. +If he had at least cut his hair; but he wears it long, as if he wished +to make himself objectionable like Kituwia." + +"That's nothing; these things are comparative trifles. Let me see him. +The longer his hair is, the better; for in that case he is a warrior +and a celebrity. Did he tell you his name?" + +"Yes; it's something queer like Gem Kamaka." + +They took the candle and went cautiously up to the bed where the +native, with his copper face in an aureole of long matted hair, lay +asleep on a white European pillow. Suddenly his eyelids quivered and +his eyes opened wide. For a moment he looked in astonishment at the +men standing beside him; then he jumped up and stretched out his bare +arm with a despairing gesture. + +"Brother! Brother!" he whispered--"Anoai!" + +"Brother!" Stefan quickly repeated, touching him kindly. + +The native's face brightened with a childish laugh. He jumped lightly +out of bed and ran for his clothes. + +"A fine model!" Jozef exclaimed, slapping his back in a friendly way. + +The native turned round with a start. In order to reassure him, +therefore, Jozef went through the whole of his Chukchee vocabulary; +and though "Gem-Kamaka" certainly did not understand much of this +disconnected conversation, he grinned and repeated every word. His +clothes being still wet, he sat down as he was at the table where the +friends were drinking tea, and consented to eat something too, talking +uninterruptedly in his reindeer dialect, and showing his large white +teeth as he laughed heartily. Before he left he again laid his hand +gratefully on Stefan's shoulder and said "Brother!" He also promised +to bring his wife and parents to see him. + +"And bring Buza, Wopatka, and Kituwia." + +The Chukchee's face clouded a moment. "Very well--and Buza and +Wopatka. We will drink vodka," he said in the local Russian-Chukchee +jargon. + +"We will drink vodka." + +After he was gone Jozef embraced Stefan excitedly. + +"This is splendid--first-rate! I already see myself on the ship." + +A considerable time passed; the continuous darkness began to be +pierced by rosy gleams. But nothing was heard of the Chukchee. On the +contrary, it appeared to Stefan as if those who came into the town +avoided him. When Kituwia met him, he did not come near or even nod to +him: sometimes he stared at Stefan with a threatening look in his +eyes. Wopatka turned aside when he saw him in the street. "Gem +Kamatakan" gave no news of himself, and Buza, on being questioned, +declared that he really knew nothing about him. + +"Gem-Kama, did you say? That's not even a name, let alone its having +any meaning. I know every Chukchee word, but I never heard that. +Perhaps he is one of those natives who live without faith or law in +outlandish parts of the country--in a word, a brigand. But never fear; +I have only to find out where 'Gem-Kama' is, and I will get him here. +But what brought him to you two gentlemen?" + +"What brought him? He came of his own accord." + +Buza looked at Jozef suspiciously. + +"The Chukchee say that Pan Stefan and a Chukchee together beat +Kituwia; only the Chukchee was not called Gem-Kam, but Otowaka. The +Chukchee in this district respect Kituwia very much, and are afraid of +him. They say that he is a true Chukchee--a warrior. They are a wild +people, but they have their customs; they are not like the Yakut." + +"But it's not true! Nothing of the kind happened. Ask Kituwia." + +"No, thank you; he would only knock me down! A man must not only be +careful not to ask him about it, but must not even show that he knows. +Wopatka told me of it." + +"Where are we to look for you if we need you?" + +"People will tell you where;--the tavern is the best, for a good deal +of business of different kinds is being done with the Chukchee just +now, and I am interpreter. You can't get them to do anything without +vodka." + +A few more days had passed, when suddenly such a remarkable thing +happened that all the inhabitants of the little town came out to watch +it. A number of festively dressed Chukchee on two sledges, each drawn +by two pairs of fine reindeer, drove up at full gallop to Stefan's +house. Stefan went out on to the steps to meet them. The first to +alight was an old Chukchee, dressed in a costly "docha" made of black +rat, skilfully embroidered, and edged with beaver. He supported +himself as he walked by resting his hand lightly on the shoulders of +his sons, who held his feet by the ankles and respectfully placed them +on the steps. They were followed by a boy of nine, his head bare and +his hair closely cropped, and then came two small, alert, +queer-looking individuals. One wore a docha of black rat, similar to +the old man's but not so good; the second had no outer wrap at all, +but, dressed in tight-fitting fur, looked like a gnome escaped from +the forest. By their plaits, which were bound up with tinkling silver +ornaments, and by the raspberry-coloured silk handkerchiefs across +their foreheads, Stefan knew that these were ladies. They were both +tattooed. The elder one had blue waving lines worked in silk on her +forehead and cheeks; the younger had deep scars along her nose and +chin. Her figure was not without charm; she was slim, and moved +gracefully. She had the Chukchee woman's eyes, and her face, which was +rather large, expressed a certain amount of determination. The general +impression was spoilt, however, by a nervous habit of looking behind +her. + +"Well, here they are!" Jozef cried, hurrying in after the guests. +"Receive them somehow, and I will fetch Buza at once." + +"Anoai! Anoai!" the Chukchee greeted their host. + +There were too many guests for the available seats, so Stefan pulled +out some rugs from a corner and spread them in the middle of the +floor. Sitting down on them in a circle, the natives began to chatter. +One of the old man's sons was the Chukchee who had dried his clothes +at Stefan's fire. He was evidently relating the adventure--certainly +not for the first time. Yet they all listened attentively, assenting +with friendly grunts and looking with interest at the bed; the younger +woman even jumped up and peeped under the quilt, whereupon they all +burst out laughing. When the clock struck, the cuckoo and its +movements and sound made an immense impression, and the little boy +shouted with delight. They all jumped up and stood in front of the +clock, imitating it, and when the door shut with a snap behind the +little bird they sprang away in fright at first, but ended by laughing +loudly. However, the old man could put a stop to their merriment in a +moment if he chose. + +Buza, Wopatka, and Jozef now came in. + +"Well, I told you so! It's Otowaka, not Gemka. There's certainly no +such person as Gemka, and 'gem-kamatakan' means in Chukchee, 'I am +ill.' It's a great honour that old Otowaka has come to you himself. +He's very proud, and the richest man in the country--quite the +richest. You have been most successful." + +He sat down in the circle of Chukchee with Wopatka, who kept a little +behind him. Jozef helped Stefan to prepare the feast and boil the +samovar. They sent out for water. + +"He is a much-respected man. He has innumerable reindeer, three wives +in three different places, and six sons," Buza said, growing +proportionately communicative as the vodka and food disappeared. "You +have been very successful. He is rewarding you and doing you honour. +You have only to go to him, and he will give you valuable furs; he +will even give a daughter to each of you. He has beautiful daughters; +I saw them in the town as they passed through in the caravan. For +these Otowakas come from a long distance, so they travel in caravans. +He evidently wants to ask you to do some work for him, for he wished +to know whether you were a good locksmith and could put together a +foreign rifle which has been taken to pieces. The Americans always +sell them arms without cock or trigger. So I told him you had clever +fingers, and that even the District Inspector thinks highly of you. +The old man listened to this carefully. He is sure to offer you a +present, and you must take it, or he will be very much offended." + +The magnet and other wonders Stefan was able to show them caused the +greatest delight to the natives, but their merriment reached its +height when Jozef started to play the barrel organ. They hung over the +box, laid their ears to it, poked their noses into it, grunted and +stamped in rhythm, and finally began to move in a slow dance. Their +eyes laughed, and their faces shone with grease and perspiration. + +"Hey! Come along! Jump up, Wopatka! Now, that's most graceful!" Buza +exclaimed, pulling the Chukchee, who was half tipsy, by the arm. + +At that moment the door opened wide and Kituwia appeared on the +threshold. Jozef, very much pleased, went towards him, but the +Chukchee neither stirred nor gave the usual greeting, "Anoai!" He +closed the door behind him, and, leaning against it, held out one hand +in an attitude of defence, and laid the other on his neck. His hair +stood out wildly from under the leather band, and his eyes glowed with +a wolfish fierceness. At the sight of him the circle of merry people +in the middle of the room became petrified. The old man looked darkly +at the bold intruder, the young men bent forward as if ready to spring +at him, the women stared with wide-open mouths. + +"What do you want?" cried Stefan, advancing. "Be off!" + +"Go out! Take yourself off when you aren't invited!" Buza said, coming +forward to support his host. "Be careful not to go near him," he added +to Stefan, "or he will run you through. You see how he lays his hand +on his neck: he has a knife there; I can see he has--I can see it by +the strap on his neck. What do you mean by bringing a knife with you +into the town, you damned scoundrel? Don't you know that's forbidden? +I'll tell the Inspector, and to the end of your life you'll never be +allowed to come into the town again. You'll be sent away to the tundra +at once. Give me the knife." + +"I will give it you directly, but I want it first for that dog whom I +have chased like a hare all over the country," Kituwia calmly answered +in Chukchee. + +One of the young Chukchee sprang towards him, but Jozef seized him by +the shoulder. Neither he nor Stefan understood what the natives were +talking about, but they guessed that there was a quarrel. + +"You would do better to drink this and join us," Jozef said in a +conciliatory way, taking Kituwia a glass. The latter pushed it aside. + +"That's bad!... He won't drink vodka," Buza cried in Russian. "They +will go for one another presently!... Hey! be off! You won't take +vodka from the gentleman himself? Who do you think you are? I will +call the Cossacks directly! Do you behave like this in a gentleman's +house? And it's not long since you were entertained here! You tundra +dog! I will have you taken up at once. Ha, ha! don't try it on me! You +know who I am. Let me go by at once; I will go and call the guard. But +you keep him talking here," he whispered to Stefan. + +He turned towards the entrance, but retreated immediately, for Kituwia +started forward, and the dangerous quiver of his lips showed his large +white teeth. In a moment the room was in an uproar. Stefan, Buza, and +Kituwia, surrounded by struggling Chukchee, burst through the door, +which opened with a crash, and into the hall. Stefan lay with his +chest on Kituwia's chest; the native struggled beneath him and tried +unsuccessfully to free his hand. Stefan was thus able to seize him by +the throat. Kituwia choked and shook his head until he became +exhausted. Someone broke the strap on his neck with a jerk, and a +large broad-bladed knife flew jingling into a corner. Buza, in the +street, called for the Cossacks, and a large crowd of people came on +to the scene. Stefan and Jozef were now, in their turn, obliged to +defend the enfeebled Kituwia from the Chukchee's rage. At last +twenty-five Cossacks appeared; the assailant was arrested and led off +to prison, the crowd following him with insults. + +"You'll have a nice time!... A nice look-out for you!... You'll get +thirty such good lashes you won't want to sit down for a year to +come!... You'll remember what it is to come here with a knife!... +Perhaps you still want to butcher us all?... Ah, you are short-handed +now! Times have changed!" + +The warrior looked at them fiercely and shrugged his bound shoulders. + +"What is it all about?" Stefan and Jozef asked Buza. + +"Who knows anything about them?" he answered with indifference. +"Anyhow, they are drunk." + +"No, no; that's not it," a fisherman remarked. "It's an old quarrel +that has come down to them from their forefathers, and now they say +it's about Otowaka's daughter-in-law, Kituwia's own sister. Young +Aimurgin stole her. That's long ago, and they now have children, +but ... what memories these fellows have! I expect the old man paid a +good sum, for he was willing to make it up, but Kituwia never would. +They say that he had been living with his sister ... they aren't +baptized--though those who are often do the same. So Kituwia wanted to +take the woman away; but Otowaka certainly could not allow that, or he +would have had no peace on the tundra." + + * * * * * + +Buza became the hero of the hour, and received frequent invitations to +supper. After vodka, but not before, he related in detail what had +happened: + +"They were all drinking together and enjoying themselves. They were +playing the District Administrator's barrel organ and dancing--even +Otowaka himself was stamping his foot.... It would certainly have +ended badly if I hadn't seized him, for I saw him put his hand on his +neck." + +"You'll catch it from him! He'll pay you out for this! You know him." + +"How can he pay me out? I walk along the street quite openly; he had +better be careful himself. He has been sent away from the town. When I +see him I'll collar him at once and put him in prison. He had better +look out. For if he comes my way ... by God!... I'll knock him +down--I'll just knock him down! Don't let him forget! Why should I be +particular about a brigand like that, when Otowaka himself offers me +his friendship?" + +Otowaka remained near the town for some time longer, but was rarely +seen. Jozef and Stefan visited him in his encampment, where he +received them in an exceptionally friendly manner. He did not offer +them his daughters, but wished to give them a place of honour above +even the missionary, whom, together with Buza, he often entertained in +recollection of his son's adventure. The friends would not agree to +this, and thus won Father Pantelay's favour for all time, drawing from +him golden words on the humility which wins a man heaven. + +"I am urging him to seek the Divine grace and be baptized," he said, +looking towards the old Chukchee.... + +They were offered dessert--frozen reindeer marrow, chopped fine and +arranged in small heaps--which, being hard, was moistened with a +plentiful supply of vodka, as may be imagined. "It would be safer for +him to be baptized. He could encamp on the western tundra." + +"Well, is he willing?" + +"He doesn't refuse, but says that he will see." + +Before they left, the rich man presented each guest with a foxskin, +and begged him to be so kind as to visit him on the tundra. + +"There I am in my right place; that's my own country." + +Jozef's eyes sparkled. + +"What do you think--can we go, Father?" he asked the missionary when +they reached home. + +Father Pantelay was in a very good temper. + +"Perhaps we shall go.... If only he would be baptized! So many souls +would be saved, for he rules the whole family." + +"Oh, he is sure to be baptized. If we go there, he will be baptized +out of sheer hospitality to us. Besides, we can take him presents. +Here it's different, and nothing will come of it." + +"That is true. In his native country a man is more inclined to listen +to the voice of God, and a hard disposition is softened there more +easily. For virtue is immanent in everyone's soul, but the way into +the soul is often dark and crooked and difficult to find. People often +need a pretext to bring them on to the highroad to good and +salvation." + +Father Pantelay talked at great length on the difficulties of such a +task, and, as Jozef was an attentive listener and did not argue with +him, they soon became great friends. Meanwhile Stefan gradually made +preparations for the journey by buying up the best dogs. + +At length they started on their long missionary journey. + +It seemed like a waking dream to the two friends when, surrounded by a +crowd of inhabitants, they shouted to the dogs and were borne away at +full speed along the track. Excitedly they looked back at the little +town for the last time. The caravan consisted of three sledges, each +with fifteen dogs. Buza drove in front with the provisions. Father +Pantelay followed with his luggage and presents--tea, tobacco, and +other valuables; Stefan and Jozef came behind. Jozef had no idea how +to manage the dogs, and was of no use whatever on the journey. Father +Pantelay kept looking round at them and smiling in a friendly way. He +was glad that he had taken them with him, for he was setting out for +an unknown country, and although God is everywhere, and always has us +under His protection, yet it is pleasant to be surrounded by +courageous and friendly people with whom a refreshing and instructive +conversation is possible. + +"I have never been farther in this direction than the edge of the +tundra; the Spirit of God alone hovers over the waste beyond. Buza has +been there; he has travelled to the world's end. Hey, Buza! what is it +like farther on? Shall we be able to drink tea soon?" + +"Where we stop we shall drink tea," the Cossack answered gravely. + +He was immensely impressed by his own dignity as head of the +expedition. He sat on the cask of vodka as if it were a throne, +watching over it with a jealous eye. + +"When we have passed the edge of the forest there will be no more +houses or people to be seen. After that vodka will be all-powerful, +and will have to answer every purpose; even our lives depend on it. +Those cursed Chukchee drink it like fishes, and are wild to get it. +When they've had a little, they are ready to give up everything for +it; you've only to ask, and you can get anything from them. Yet we +shall have nothing with us when we come back, for we shall have eaten +our provisions and given away the presents. The sledges will be empty, +and there won't be any means of reloading them; and as the dogs will +have grown fat through resting and eating reindeer paunch at +Otowaka's, there'll be no holding them, and we shall tear back. Ha, +ha! Hey!" He alternately reflected, shouted, or sang a local song in a +thin voice: + + "O Sidorek, O Sidorek, + The light breath of warm breezes + Blows over land and sea! + Now go and fetch your sleigh; + Harness the dogs without delay. + Out to the rocks let them swiftly take you, + Out to the rocks by the shore of the sea, + O Sidorek, O Sidorek!" + +"Buza, Buza, curb your frivolity!" Father Pantelay admonished him from +a distance, as, in the silence of that frozen waste, his voice reached +the other travellers through the clear, cold air. + +The March sun made the snowdrifts appear so bright and smooth that by +contrast the smallest bush seemed like a wood, and the slightest +unevenness a hill. Soon, however, the summits of distant mountains +showed on the horizon, with their white line sharply defined against +the blue sky. The travellers turned towards these, and spent the night +in a lonely fishing hut, the last human habitation, on the very +outskirts of the dwindling forest. Henceforward they had only snow, +rocks, and sky round them; the only trees to be seen were those washed +down by the sea or by river floods, and the only people those in +Otowaka's encampment. + +The strong, well-fed dogs went at a brisk pace. After a day's journey +the travellers unexpectedly found themselves at the brink of a steep +chasm. Below it a snowy expanse showed as far as the eye could reach. + +"The sea!" Buza cried. + +They had guessed in time, and stopped the dogs. + +"Do you see those specks shining in the distance, as if they were bits +of sun? Those are ice-packs. But farther away--under that cloud on the +horizon--is the open sea which never freezes. They say there is land +beyond it; but no one has ever been there, for whoever goes doesn't +come back." + +For a while they stood entranced by the extent of the view and by the +sun, which threw delicate blue shadows on the long, still, frozen +waves. At last Buza reminded them that they must descend the cliffs +and drive along the shore. They passed dark chasms all day long, for +the sea had formed a bay here, and the whole shore was equally steep +and defended by rocks. + +"The waves beat up to the very top here; they are all 'bulls,'" Buza +said, using a Russian expression for the cliffs. + +There is indeed something defiant and bull-like in these last natural +land defences, lifting their rocky crests to the sky. + +The men spent the night under some tree trunks which had been washed +down there by a stream. + +"Do you know," Jozef said to Stefan, as they lay down to sleep, "I +have a superstitious fear that something will stop us, and it grows +with every verst we pass." + +Stefan was far too tired to analyze subtle emotions. + +The weather continued favourable. It was only on the third day that a +light, dry land breeze from the south began to blow the powdery snow +from the clefts in the rocks on to their heads. The cold did not +trouble them much, however, for the wall of cliffs protected them from +the full blast of the wind. All the same, the Cossack shook his head +and hurried on the dogs. + +"It's not far now, but we must make haste. There are two promontories +not far off, jutting out like stone bulls; they are called Pawal and +Peweka. We shall have to cut through to the sea between them. Wet or +fine, it's always windy there." + +They arrived at the foot of Pawal towards the afternoon. The giant +rock rose to a great height and ran out a long way into the sea. On +both sides the land fell back from it abruptly, as if in fear. On the +farther side of the narrow strait appeared a similar dark mass, though +its size was lessened by the distance. + +"You can see the encampment from here; it is on Peweka, in a hollow +between two crags. Yet it's strange that I don't see any smoke. +Perhaps the wind has blown it away. How it does blow! We shall have a +bad time." + +"Shall we spend the night here?" + +"Spend the night--where there isn't a tree? Besides, who would spend +the night here when he can see tents? The natives would lose all their +respect for us. Let's go on! It may blow worse to-morrow. We will just +feed the dogs, and then be off." + +They unpacked the provisions and began to feed the dogs, taking some +refreshment themselves. The wind made wild music among the rocks. When +at times a more violent blast reached this sheltered place, their +hands instantly became numb. + +"We shall be frozen in another moment!" + +"Please God, we shan't freeze, only we mustn't stop on the way or let +go of the sledges for a moment; and we must tie everything to them, +for whatever falls off will be lost. Keep close one behind the other, +so as not to have to shout, for it's no use; and be very careful not +to scatter snow over one another's sledge. Don't allow the dogs to +turn with the wind, but keep them against it sideways; and remember, +Father--and you too, sir--to have them well in hand. God preserve you +from going near Peweka, for it's open sea there, and the gale will +carry you away to your death. Don't stop by the way, for you will get +no rest by stopping. In the Name of the Father and the Son!" + +They rushed out impetuously from their sheltered nook. The gale caught +them at once, blowing about the dogs' hair and tilting the sledges +upwards. The men bent down to meet it, and turned their faces away, +but they felt it cutting through them more and more. It beat against +them with increasing force, piercing them through until there was no +warmth left in their bodies, nothing but a smarting sensation from the +snow which completely covered them. Their mouths and their clothes +were soon full of these parching flakes; they felt them penetrating +their furs to their very skin and melting there, making them shudder +all over. Streams of this powdery snow ran above the smooth, shining +surface of the ground, coiling with a hiss like an adder round their +feet and bodies, catching the dogs' drooping heads, striking the +runners of the sledges, and rolling back in grey balls which increased +as they wound in and out of the caravan. + +The men crouched in contorted attitudes, seeking to screen themselves +from the biting cold. Their chins almost rested on their knees, and +they only glanced ahead now and then to where the rock, which was to +be their refuge, was darkening in the distance. The dogs also +understood where their safety lay; they used their light shaggy paws +to the best of their power, and plunged resolutely into the raging +wind driving towards the sea. They constantly fell down, for they +slipped on the hard surface; their eyes were bloodshot and starting +from the sockets, the breast collar choked them, the sledge had +suddenly become a great weight on them. The poor animals ran stooping +low, and not even daring to open their mouths to take breath, for the +cold wind hurt their throat and lungs. The rattle of the sledges, the +dogs' whining, the men's curses, were like atoms in the furious, +hollow roar of the storm, and fell into space, as though no one were +calling, suffering, or struggling. Stefan never took his eyes off the +distance, mentally measuring it all the while; he realized +despairingly that his dogs were growing tired and would cease to +follow the leader, and that he must stand up to drive them on and turn +them back into the track. Jozef clung helplessly to the sledge, +shivering as in fever. At last, when they were nearly under the huge +crag of Peweka, the wind abated and merely blew in gusts. Stefan +looked up with a feeling of almost religious awe at this rock which +weathered gales and sea. Buza was waiting for them there. + +"Well, we have done more than we could expect! We may congratulate +ourselves. Now it will be just as if we were at home. I am only +surprised not to see anyone about. It's true the weather's bad. But +they ought to have seen us. Perhaps they have been killing reindeer or +catching seals, and have eaten too much and are asleep. We must go up +the mountain. Hi, Shaggy-hair! Noch! Noch!" + +The dogs, being hungry and in a bad temper, began to bite one +another. By the time they had been quieted and the harness set to +rights, the sun had hidden behind the high hills and the red glow of +evening was spreading over rocks and snow. + +They reached the pass by a narrow and difficult way. + +Then Buza, who was going on ahead, suddenly pulled up at a turn of the +path, thunderstruck; his dogs immediately lay down. The men rushed up +to him, but he neither answered their questions nor took his eyes off +something lying hidden under a rock. Empty tents, with the flaps +unfastened in a hospitable manner, stood before them in a strange +silence. But the Cossack's eyes were fixed on something else. + +A Chukchee, dressed in fur and with a spear in his hand, lay face +downwards across the pathway. A little farther on a head showed from +under a snowdrift, the whites of the eyes shining and the hair +dishevelled by the gale; a hand like a claw, clotted with blood, +protruded from lower down the drift. Streaks of blood mingled with the +red evening glow. + +"What does it mean? What is this?" + +"Hush! For the love of God, be quiet! Let us escape!" the Cossack +exclaimed, looking in consternation at the dogs, which suddenly sat up +and began to howl. "Let us escape!" he repeated, turning away. + +But Stefan and the priest objected. + +"We must see if there is anyone left alive. Perhaps we can help them." + +"No, I shan't go; I'm afraid. You can go yourselves. I'll lead the +dogs down to the valley. God!... God! Thy will be done!" + +Stefan took a revolver from the holster and went into the dark +interior of a tent. He saw a cold hearth, sprinkled with snow, and, +hanging above it, a cauldron with meat which had frozen. Having +lighted a match, he perceived a Chukchee lying naked to the waist, +with a terrible wound in his chest. "Is there anyone here?" he asked +in a trembling voice, not daring to enter the inner tent by the low +hanging. + +Instead of an answer, he only heard the tent skins rubbing together as +the wind tore at them, and the missionary's prayers. He therefore bent +down and crawled under the hanging; but he instantly drew back. The +whole inner tent seemed to be full of contorted human bodies. He +mastered himself, however, took the tallow candle from the priest, and +crept in. Here he found the naked bodies of murdered women and +children. It must all have happened quite recently, for the blood was +still red, the bodies had the look of marble, and the cuts were still +wide open; but they were all stark and cold as stone. The frost had +finished what the knife had left undone. + +One of the young women had evidently tried to escape. She had torn +the outer tent covering and endeavoured to jump out, but had been +caught at the entrance; the child, over whom she was bending with an +imploring gesture, must have hampered her movements, and she had been +run through the back and nailed to the ground with her baby. Stefan +looked at her face and recognized his recent guest, Impynena, the wife +of Aimurgin. + +"This is frightful! Let us escape!" they all exclaimed with one +accord, filled with fear and horror. + +"Women and children too! There is not a living soul left!" + +"Who is it? What can----?" + +"Oh, don't ask!" Buza said, shaking his head. "I will tell you +afterwards; let's go now!" + +"At once--in a wind like this and at night?" + +"What's to be done? At least it gives us a chance." + +They hastily descended. Buza kept his eyes fixed straight in front of +him, and dropped them when obliged to turn his head in the direction +from which he came. They halted under the rock for a moment, in order +to feed the dogs. + +"Be sure to keep the wind on your left--always on your left--then +wherever you go you will find land. There--round the coast by +Pawal--is the easiest. We shall meet there, if only we can hold out +till morning. But don't leave the sledge, or the storm will carry you +and it away. And don't look behind you--Heaven defend it! For 'They' +don't like it, and will come after you," he added significantly. + +Once more they plunged into the blizzard. Once more the snow encircled +their feet like hissing adders, the smarting sensation began again, +and they drew their breath with difficulty. To complete the +misfortune, twilight set in with the gale. The evening glow rested +lower and lower on the rocks, while dark clouds rose steadily from the +"open sea," where the country lies whence "no one has ever come back." +The tired dogs went unwillingly. Stefan was continually obliged to +jump up and urge them on with his heavy ice-spear. When the evening +glow had disappeared and the stars shone out, the gale, which seemed +to have been only waiting for the signal, rose with such violence +that, heedless of everything, the poor animals turned and ran before +it. For a long way Stefan ploughed the snow with the sharp ice-spear, +leaning his full weight against it, and hanging to the sledge, which +rushed along, rocking and bumping. At last, when they lighted on +softer ground, he succeeded in stopping it. The dogs lay down at once. +Without letting the reins go out of his hand, he stood up and looked +round. Before him rose a white, jagged ice-wall, and the light of the +stars showed the clouds from the "open sea" hanging over it. The coast +had disappeared somewhere, and on all sides the country was white and +flat. + +"We have come a long way!... Jozef, are you cold? How you are +shivering! Get up; can you eat something?" + +"I am cold. Is it still far?" + +"I don't know; the wind carried us away. Can you get up?" + +Jozef was silent and did not stir. + +Stefan shook the snow off him, turned the sledge and put the dogs in +readiness, rousing them by his voice and by blows of the ice-spear. He +skilfully did all this crawling on his knees, for when he stood up the +wind blew him over. At last the dogs got up and limped on. He +remembered that he ought to keep the wind on his left, but the shore +along which he had been driving was nowhere to be seen. There was +nothing but the white plain, the fury of the gale, and the stars in +the sky. This wind seemed at times like some powerful winnowing-fan, +violently driving them into the sea. When it struck the bed of the +sledge, it lifted it up like a sheet of paper, and whatever it tore +from it instantly disappeared. First they lost their bag of biscuits, +then the cushions; finally Jozef fell out and the storm carried him +off like a bag of down. Stefan was horror-struck as he watched him +helplessly waving his arms and trying in vain to stand upright. +Shouting despairingly, he turned the dogs in pursuit of his companion. +They rushed madly after the object rolling before them, and, fearing +that they would tear him to pieces if they caught him up, Stefan +cried: + +"Face the wind! Flat against the ground!" + +The wind carried his words, and Jozef evidently heard them, for he +began to twist round until he gained a foothold in the snow. Stefan +instantly struck the ice-spear into the ice with his full strength, so +that the sledge shook. + +"Crawl! I can't leave the dogs!" he called to Jozef. + +The latter answered something and tried to get up, but the wind blew +him over. In the end he managed to turn and face it. + +"Crawl--crawl!" His companion's voice was borne to him in a whisper in +the blasts of the snowstorm. + +"Leave me--never mind me--I can't----" he answered, but almost before +they had left his lips the gale blew his words in the opposite +direction. + +Finally, by a great effort, he began to crawl. All this took some +time, and meanwhile a rumbling sound deeper than the storm was added +to the roar of the wind. This came from the pack ice in the direction +of the clouds hanging over the "open sea." Stefan heard it, but did +not realize what it was until the ice was struck with a crash like +thunder. + +"The sea!" he cried. + +Jozef was now near the sledge. + +"Make haste!" he exclaimed, helping him into the sledge and strapping +him to it. "Do you hear? That's the sea! The storm is breaking up the +ice behind us." + +They plodded on once more. Stefan walked nearly all the time, pushing +the sledge, but tied to it by the waist for safety. He forgot that he +was cold or that his limbs might become frostbitten. The dogs exerted +all their strength, scenting the danger. Every minute the roar came +nearer; it sounded like a cannonade above the noise of the wind. +Driven by despair, they fled ever faster. Yet at last the ice rocked +under them, and in imagination they saw the water bubbling under their +feet. It was close behind them; but the ice on which they were driving +was still dry. + +"Throw out everything--clothes as well as food! Throw them all out of +the sledge!" Stefan shouted, scarcely able to keep pace with the +terrified dogs. Bags, implements of all kinds, and furs flew away into +the darkness. The lightened sledge sped forward rapidly, and Stefan +was only just in time to throw himself on to it beside Jozef; the dogs +needed no rein or guiding. + +"You will die through my fault, Stefan; forgive me," Jozef said. "When +I think of that, I want to jump out of the sledge and go back into the +storm; but I expect you would not let me, would you?" + +"What's the use of talking nonsense! We shall die together as we have +lived together. A year sooner or later...! But we shall be buried in +graves--never fear, we shall get back all right! Besides, the wind is +going down. Can that be the coast?" he exclaimed, as he looked up. + +Close above them rose a dark belt of rocks. Quickly they climbed up on +to this firm ground, and while sheltering there, half dead with +exhaustion, they watched the white ice-floes below packing with a loud +roar. Stefan went to look for wood, and found a tree trunk not far +away, from which he broke off a few splinters and lighted a small +fire. The wind soon changed this into a bonfire, and for the rest of +the night they slept beside it. + +Buza found them there at daybreak. + +"Are you alive? Thank God! It's a good thing that I didn't allow you +to take anything away with you from there, or we should never have +come off safe and sound. For this is just their 'bad weather.' It's +the crime that made it bad. We didn't even make a fire, for I am +afraid of the Chukchee. Didn't you light one? We saw a fire in this +direction." + +"We lighted one, for we haven't any of our things left, and nothing to +eat. We should have been frozen." + +They related how they had lost everything, and how the sea had chased +them. + +"Ah! that was not the sea--it wasn't the sea!" Buza sighed. "If only +we get home safely...." + +Sadly they returned along the cliffs. They were obliged to make a wide +circle, for the wind had blown them far beyond Pawal. They were unable +to light fires, and drove on without resting as long as the dogs' +strength held out. Buza continually cast anxious looks about him. + +Suddenly the dogs growled fiercely, and ran so fast towards the rocks +that Buza was scarcely able to hold them. + +"It only needed this!" he cried with pale lips. "A rock-spirit!" + +A dark brown, unmoving face looked through a crevice in the rock. + +"Make the sign of the Cross over him, Father!" + +With trembling hands the missionary made the sign of the Cross; but +the head did not disappear. Stefan held in his dogs, which were +straining at their harness. He looked fixedly at the head. + +"Otowaka! is that you?" he cried at last, when an old Chukchee, thin +and pale, came out, leading a little boy by the hand. + +"It is I ... Otowaka ... Kituwia...." he said; but his lips were too +parched to continue, and he merely waved his hand towards the distant +Peweka. "The Great Spirit would not allow my family to perish without +an avenger. I will go with you and be baptized, and bring him up." + +He laid his hand on the head of the boy, whose face suddenly took a +disdainful expression, reminding Stefan strikingly of Kituwia's stony +face. + + + + +THE RETURNING WAVE + +BY BOLESLAW PRUS (ALEXSANDER GLOWACKI) + + +CHAPTER I + +If Pastor Boehme's worthiness could have been weighed on a pair of +scales, the reverend gentleman would have been obliged to travel on a +goods truck. But as worthiness cannot be classified under any of the +three mathematical dimensions, but comes under the fourth, which does +not belong to the world of realities, he travelled in a little +one-horse britzka instead. + +To the fat, well-groomed pony, the flies, the heavy collar, the sultry +day, and the dusty road were of much greater interest than the virtues +of his master, or even his whip. His master took the whip with him +only for fear of being laughed at, for he never used it. In fact, he +would have been unable to use it; for when he exhibited his worthy +personality, with its short whiskers, panama hat, and white and pink +percoline coat, on the roads, he had to hold the reins firmly in one +hand to prevent the old pony from stumbling, and with the other he +poured out continual and benevolent, but ineffectual blessings on all +passers-by. For they all took off their caps to him; regardless of +religious differences they liked the "worthy German." + +On this particular July afternoon the reverend gentleman was on his +way to perform one of his minor spiritual duties, namely that of first +grieving his neighbour and then comforting him. In short, he was going +to see his friend Gottlieb Adler, to inform him that his son, +Ferdinand, had run into debt abroad, and subsequently to exhort the +father to forgive his prodigal son. + +Gottlieb Adler was the owner of a cotton-mill. The road along which +the pastor was driving connected the mill with the railway-station; it +was a well-kept road, though it had not been planted with trees. A +little country town lay on the left, and the factory on the right, at +some distance. The black and red roofs of the workmen's cottages +peeped from the sheltering plane-trees, limes and poplars; behind them +lay a large four-storied building in the shape of a horseshoe. This +was the factory. A thicker clump of trees close by indicated Adler's +garden; it surrounded an elegant villa with some farm buildings +attached. The sun was flooding everything with golden light. The tall +red-brick chimney sent out thick, curling smoke, and had the wind been +in his direction the pastor would have heard the busy roar of the +engines and the noise of the power-looms. But as it was, nothing +disturbed the peaceful silence except the whistle of a distant train +and the rattling of his own cart. A quail diving into the corn was +singing its little song. + +The constant attention needed to prevent the fat pony from stumbling +at last wore out the pastor; so trusting to the mercy of Him who +delivered Daniel from the lions' den and Jonah from the whale's belly, +he tied the reins to the back of the seat, and folded his hands as in +prayer. Boehme loved to dream, and a gentle doze helped to open +memory's enchanted gates. He now recalled (probably for the hundredth +time that year and at the same spot) another factory, somewhere in the +plains of Brandenburg, where he and his friend Gottlieb Adler had +spent their childhood. They were sons of fairly well-to-do +master-weavers, were born in the same year, and went to the same +elementary school. A quarter of a century passed after they left it +before they met again. Boehme had finished his theological studies at +the University of Tuebingen, and Adler had amassed some twenty thousand +thalers. + +On Polish soil, far away from their Fatherland, they met again. Boehme +had been appointed pastor of a Protestant parish, and Adler had set up +a little cotton-mill. Another quarter of a century had now passed, +during which they had never been separated; they visited each other +several times every week. Adler's little mill had grown into a huge +factory which at the moment employed some six hundred workmen, and +brought him in a clear profit of several thousand roubles a year. +Boehme had remained poor except for the profit of several thousand +blessings yearly. + +The two friends also differed in other respects. The pastor had a son +who was now finishing his studies at the technical college at Riga, +and who looked forward to supporting himself, his parents and his +sister for the rest of their lives. Adler's only son had never even +completed his school course; he was now travelling abroad, and his +only concern was to get as much as he could for himself out of his +father's money. While the pastor was fairly satisfied with his several +thousand blessings a year, and only wondered sometimes whether his +daughter, aged eighteen, would marry well, Adler was ever impatient +for his banking account to reach the desired sum of a million roubles +as quickly as possible, and he often worried himself with thoughts as +to what would ultimately become of his son. + +At the present moment Boehme was quite content to look at the +cornfields around him and the sky above--scattered with white and grey +clouds--and to recall the memories of childhood; a similar factory in +the shape of a horseshoe, the same kind of trees, and the same villa +with a pond in the garden.... What a pity there was no village school +here, no almshouses, no hospital! Adler had forgotten to build these, +although he had copied the shape of the Brandenburg factory. "Had +there not been a school there," the pastor reflected, "Adler would +never have been a millionaire, nor I a pastor." + +The britzka was now approaching the factory, and the noise became +audible and roused the musing pastor. A group of dirty children in +ragged dresses or only in shirts were playing in the road. Vans with +cotton goods became visible behind the wall which surrounded the yard, +and Adler's villa appeared to the left in all its elegance. The pastor +could now distinctly see the summer-house in the garden, near the +pond, where he and his friend usually sat drinking their hock and +talking of old times and current news. + +Here and there the washing was hanging out of the windows of the +workmen's cottages. The inhabitants were nearly all at work at the +mill; only a few pale, hollow-cheeked women greeted the pastor with +the words: + +"May the Lord be praised!" + +"For ever and ever!" he answered, raising his battered old panama hat. + +Meanwhile the britzka had turned to the left, for the pony, needing no +further guiding, trotted into the courtyard of the villa residence. A +groom came out at once, wiped his nose on his sleeve, and helped the +pastor out. + +"Is your master at home?" + +"He is at the factory; I'll run and tell him you are here, sir." + +The pastor entered the portico. Having divested himself of his coat, +the reverend gentleman now revealed himself in a long frock-coat which +made his short legs look still shorter, while the long nose adorning +his faded face seemed to grow in proportion. The pastor folded his +hands and waited, reminding himself of the object of his visit, and +rehearsing a well-thought-out address, which was to be divided into +three parts according to the laws of rhetoric. The introductory part +dealt with the unfathomable ways of Providence which lead human beings +along thorny paths to eternal joy; the second part dwelt on the story +of young Ferdinand Adler, who was unable to return to the paternal +home until his creditors had been satisfied.... This was likely to +produce an outburst of wrath on the part of the father, and a long +list of Ferdinand's misdoings. But when the angry cotton-spinner would +be on the point of disinheriting his son, there would follow the third +part of the pastor's address, which would include a reconciliation. +Boehme intended to allude to the story of the Prodigal Son, to touch +lightly on the fact that his friend was himself responsible for +Ferdinand's bad upbringing, and that in expiation of this sin he +should offer the sum demanded by the creditors as a sacrifice. + +While the pastor was rehearsing his plan of action, Adler appeared. He +was huge and of clumsy build, already slightly bent; with large feet, +a big round nose, and thick lips like those of a negro. He had thin +fair whiskers and no moustache, and was dressed in a long grey +frock-coat of an unfashionable cut, and trousers to match. When he +took off his hat in order to mop the perspiration off his forehead, he +showed tow-coloured, closely cropped hair, and projecting light blue +eyes without eyebrows. + +The millionaire walked with a heavy tread like a trooper; his big arms +stood out from his body like the ribs of some antediluvian animal. His +broad chest heaved and fell like a pair of smith's bellows as he +greeted the pastor from a distance with phlegmatic nods and loud +guffaws; but he did not smile. Indeed, it would have been difficult to +imagine what a smile would look like on this fleshy, apathetic face +which Nature had fashioned so roughly. Yet it was not repulsive, +merely rather strange; it did not inspire fear, only the feeling that +opposition to those clumsy hands would be useless. Obviously it was +impossible to get at the heart of this battering-ram in human form, +but, if injured, the whole fabric would collapse like a building the +foundations of which had crumbled away. + +"How are you, Martin?" Adler called from the lowest step of the +staircase. Shaking the pastor's hand firmly, he went on: "Ah, of +course, you were in Warsaw yesterday.... Have you heard anything of my +boy? The rascal writes so rarely.... Probably the only person who +knows his whereabouts is the banker." + +As they stood together in the portico, the little pastor looked, +beside his friend, like "a locust beside a camel." + +"Well, tell me," Adler continued, sitting down on a little cast-iron +seat; its metallic sound as it creaked under his weight harmonized +strangely with the thundering roar of the factory. "Has Ferdinand not +written to the bank?" + +Boehme found himself plunged unwillingly into the middle of his +business. Sitting down on the seat facing Adler, he remembered with +marvellous presence of mind the opening part of his speech--namely the +unfathomable ways of Providence. + +The pastor had one drawback; this was that he could not speak fluently +without his glasses, which he was in the habit of mislaying. He felt +that he ought now to begin the introduction; but how was he to begin +without his glasses? He cleared his throat and fidgeted, turned out +his pockets and found nothing. Where could he have left his +spectacles? He quite forgot his opening sentences. + +Adler, who knew his friend by heart, began to feel uneasy. + +"Why are you fidgeting like that?" he asked. + +"I am sorry--it is very annoying--I have left my spectacles behind." + +"What do you want your spectacles for? You are not going to preach a +sermon, are you?" + +"No, but you see----" + +"I am asking about Ferdinand--any news of him?" + +"I will tell you presently," Boehme said, grimacing. Again he put his +hand into his breast pocket, and took out a letter and a large purse, +but no spectacles. + +"I wonder if I left them in the britzka," he said, turning towards the +steps. + +Adler, who knew that the pastor carried only important documents in +his breast pocket, snatched the letter from his hand. + +"My dear Gottlieb," Boehme said, confused; "give me back the letter; I +will read it to you myself, but I must first find my glasses." + +He ran out into the courtyard, but returned in dismay a few minutes +later, not having found them. + +Adler was reading the letter with great interest; the veins stood out +on his forehead, and his eyes seemed to project more than ever. + +When he had finished he spat on the floor. + +"What a scoundrel, this Ferdinand!..." he burst out. "In two years' +time he is fifty-eight thousand and thirty-one roubles in debt, though +I gave him a yearly allowance of ten thousand roubles." + +"Ah, I know!" suddenly exclaimed the pastor, and ran off. "I couldn't +have left them anywhere but in the pocket of my overcoat." + +He returned triumphantly. + +"You are always mislaying your spectacles and finding them again," +grumbled Adler, leaning his head on his hand. He looked thoughtful and +sad. + +"Fifty-eight and twenty--that's seventy-eight thousand and thirty-one +roubles in two years. How shall I be able to make that up? By Heaven, +I don't know." + +Meanwhile the pastor had put on his spectacles and regained his usual +presence of mind. Though the introduction and the second part of his +speech had been lost, there was still the third part left. Boehme was +always resourceful in a difficulty, so he cleared his throat, and +began: + +"Although, dear Gottlieb, your feelings as a father may be deeply +wounded, and you may sometimes justly complain----" + +Adler roused himself from his reverie, and replied calmly: + +"It's more than mere complaining; I have to pay. Johann!" he suddenly +shouted, with a voice that shook the roof of the portico. + +The footman appeared. + +"A glass of water!" + +He emptied two glasses, and then said without a shade of excitement: +"I must telegraph to Rothschilds' to-night. I will send that rascal a +wire too; he must come back; he has had enough travelling." + +Boehme realized that not only the chance of the third part of his +speech was gone, but that Adler was treating his son far too +indulgently. To incur debts of nearly sixty thousand roubles was not +only a financial loss, but an abuse of parental confidence, and +therefore no light offence. Who knows? If it had not been for this +money, Adler might have been persuaded to found a school for the +children, without which they were growing up idle and wild. Instead of +standing up for the frivolous son, the pastor would now become his +censor, which was all the easier for him as he had known him from his +childhood. Moreover, he had now recovered his spectacles and his +balance of mind. + +Adler was leaning back with his hands clasped behind his head, looking +at the ceiling. Boehme put his hand on his knee and began: + +"My dear Gottlieb, your Christian submission in misfortune sets an +excellent example; but as we are very imperfect in the sight of God, +it is our duty not only to be resigned, but to be active. Our Lord not +only sacrificed Himself, but taught and improved men. Ferdinand is +your son in the flesh, and mine in the spirit. In spite of his gifts +and good qualities, he does not carry out the injunctions to work +which were laid upon man when he was driven from Paradise." + +"Johann!" shouted Adler. + +The footman instantly appeared. + +"The engine is going too fast; tell them to slacken down! It's always +like that when I am out of the way." + +The footman disappeared, and the pastor continued, undismayed: + +"Your son does not work, but wastes the powers of body and mind given +him by the Creator. I have told you my principles on this point many +times, and in educating my son Jozef I have endeavoured to be faithful +to them." + +Adler shook his head gloomily. + +"What is Jozef going to do when he leaves the technical college?" he +asked unexpectedly. + +"Go into an engineering business or factory, and perhaps in time +become a director." + +"And when he is a director?" + +"He will go on working." + +"What for?" + +Boehme was taken aback. + +"In order to be useful to himself and others," he replied. + +"Well, if Ferdinand comes back he can be a director here with me; and +he is already useful to others by spending seventy-eight thousand and +thirty-one roubles--and certainly to himself!" + +"But he does not work." + +"That is true, but I work for him and for myself. I have done the work +of five all my life; why shouldn't he enjoy himself? He won't do it +later on; I know that by my own experience. Work is a curse; I have +borne it all these years, and I have borne it well, as my fortune +proves. If Ferdinand was meant to work hard, as I have done, why +should God have given him the money? What will the boy get out of it +if he spends his life in adding ten millions to the one I have made, +and his son in adding another ten? God has created rich and poor; the +rich enjoy life. I myself shall probably never enjoy it; I am too old, +and I don't know how to. But why shouldn't my boy enjoy it?" + +"My dear Gottlieb," said the pastor, "a good Christian----" + +"Johann," interrupted the cotton-spinner, addressing the returning +footman and observing that the engine went more slowly, "take a bottle +of hock and some cakes into the summer-house. Martin----" He tapped +Boehme's shoulder with his heavy hand and guffawed. + +On their way into the garden a wretched-looking woman stopped them and +threw herself at their feet. + +"Please, sir, give me three roubles for the funeral," she sobbed. + +Adler calmly drew away. + +"Go to the publican," he said; "that's where your fool of a husband +wastes his money." + +"Oh, sir----" + +"Business matters are attended to in the office, not here," +interrupted Adler. "Go there." + +"I have been there, sir, but they turned me out." + +Again she stretched out her arms to embrace his feet. + +"Go away!" shouted the manufacturer. "You won't come to work, but you +know where to beg for your christenings and funerals." + +"How could I come to work, sir, just after my confinement?" + +"Well then, don't have children if you have no money for their +funerals." + +With this he pushed the pastor, who was indignant at this scene, +through the garden gate. When he had closed it, Boehme stood still. + +"I would rather not drink, Gottlieb," he said. + +"Oh!" said Adler, wondering. + +"The tears of the poor spoil the taste of the wine." + +"You need not be afraid; the glasses are clean and the bottles well +corked," Adler guffawed. + +The pastor flushed, turned away, and hurried into the courtyard +without a word. + +"Come back, you silly woman!" Adler shouted to the miserable creature, +who was crying near the gate. "Here is a rouble, and be off with you!" + +He threw her a paper rouble. + +"Martin! Boehme!... Come back, the wine is in the summer-house." + +But the pastor had got into his cart without his overcoat, and was +driving out of the gateway. + +"He is a madman," Adler observed to himself. He was not angry with the +pastor, who frequently treated him to such scenes. + +"These learned people always have a screw loose in their heads," he +reflected, looking after the dust raised by the pastor's britzka. "If +I were a learned man and had Boehme's income, Ferdinand would now be +toiling in a technical college. It is a good thing he is not learned, +either." + +He turned round, glanced at the stable, where a groom was making a +pretence of sweeping, sniffed in the smoke from the factory, looked at +the loaded vans, and went into the office. + +He ordered a clerk to credit Ferdinand's account with sixty thousand +roubles, and wired him instructions to pay his debts and to come home +at once. + +When Adler left the office, the old German book-keeper, who wore a +shade over his eyes and had sat on the same leather stool for many +years, looked round suspiciously and whispered to the clerk: + +"So we are going to 'economize' again. The young man has spent sixty +thousand roubles, and we are going to pay for it." + +In a quarter of an hour's time the rumour had reached the +engine-house, and in an hour had spread all over the factory, that +Adler was going to cut down the wages because his son had squandered a +hundred thousand roubles. By the evening Adler knew all that was being +said. Some threatened to break his bones, others that they would kill +him or set fire to the factory. Some said they would leave, but these +were shouted down; for where was one to go? The women wept and the men +cursed Adler, invoking God's punishment on him. The cotton-spinner was +satisfied. As long as the workpeople cursed they would do nothing +worse. He could safely reduce their wages. Those who threatened were +chiefly his most faithful men. + +During the night a plan of "economy" was prepared. The more a man +earned, the larger was the percentage knocked off his wages. There was +a general outburst of indignation when these plans became known next +day. For some years a bone-setter had been appointed to the factory +for urgent cases, and during an outbreak of cholera a doctor had been +added. The latter had now nothing to do according to Adler's ideas, +and was given notice, and the bone-setter's salary was reduced by +half. Both left the factory at once. Some score of workmen followed +their example; others did less work than usual, but talked the more. +At midday and again in the evening a deputation of workmen waited upon +Adler to entreat him not to wrong them in this way. They wept, cursed +and threatened, but Adler remained unmoved. + +As he had lost sixty thousand roubles through his son, economy would +have to bring him in at least fifteen to twenty thousand a year. +Nothing could alter this resolution. Besides, why should he alter it? +He was not risking anything. + +As a matter of fact, the workmen calmed down. Some went to work of +their own accord, others were sent away and their places taken by new +hands, to whom the wages seemed good. There was a great deal of +poverty in the district, and people were asking for employment. The +place of the bone-setter was taken "for the present" by an old workman +who, in Adler's opinion, was sufficiently acquainted with surgery to +attend to slight injuries. As to graver cases--and these were rare--it +was agreed to send for the doctor from the town, and the sick workmen +and their wives and children were to go there at their own expense. So +after this great upheaval matters were all right again at the factory. + +Information carefully collected showed Adler that, in spite of all the +wrongs he had done his workmen, nothing was going to happen to +him--that there was in fact no power on earth which could do him harm. + +The pastor, however, to whom Adler went without waiting to make up +their difference, shook his head, and shifting his spectacles, said: + +"Wrong begets wrong, my dear Gottlieb. You have neglected Ferdinand's +education, and you did wrong. He has squandered your money, and you +have reduced the workmen's wages in consequence, and done a greater +wrong. What will be the end of it all?" + +"Nothing," said Adler. + +"It cannot be nothing," said Boehme, solemnly raising his hands. "The +Almighty has so ordered things that every beginning has an end. Good +beginning, good end; bad beginning, bad end." + +"Not for me," said the cotton-spinner. "My capital is safely invested, +the hands won't burn the mill, and if they do it is insured. If they +leave, I shall find others. Besides, where could they go? Or do you +think they will kill me? Martin ... do you really think they will?" +the giant guffawed, clapping his huge hands together. + +"Do not tempt God," the pastor said angrily, and changed the +conversation. + + +CHAPTER II + +The history of Adler was as strange as he himself. After leaving the +elementary school he had learnt weaving, and by the time he was twenty +he was earning quite good wages. He was a strong fellow with a high +complexion, to all appearances clumsy, but in reality shrewd and able +to work like a horse. His seniors were satisfied with him, though +they often found fault with him for being too dissipated. Adler spent +every Sunday enjoying himself with friends and with women; they would +go on merry-go-rounds and see-saws, gorge themselves and drink +together; he was always the leader of the party. He enjoyed himself so +frantically that his companions were sometimes quite taken aback. But +on week-days he worked quite as frantically. His powerful organism +seemed to possess no soul; only nerves and muscles were at play. He +did not like reading or art of any kind; he could not even sing. + +No other thought possessed him than that of using his accumulated +animal strength to the full without bounds or limits, except envy for +the rich. He heard that there were large cities in the world, with +beautiful women ready to be loved, with whom one drank champagne in +gorgeously decorated rooms; that rich people rode fast horses to +death, climbed mountains on which one might break one's neck or drop +from exhaustion, and sailed their own yachts--and he longed to do all +these things. He dreamt of scouring the world from pole to pole, of +rushing on to battlefields thirsting for the enemy's blood; besides +these things he meant to drink the choicest wines, eat the richest +food, and travel with a whole harem. But how was all this going to +happen if he spent all his earnings, and even ran into debt? Then +suddenly an unusual thing happened. + +A fire broke out on the second floor of one of the factory buildings. +All the workpeople had got away safely except two women and a boy on +the fourth floor. These were only noticed after a time, when the +flames were bursting forth from all parts of the building. Nobody +thought of going to the rescue; this induced the mill-owner to shout +to the crowd: "Three hundred thalers to anyone who rescues them!" + +The noise and excitement increased. The people encouraged one another +to the venture, but did nothing, while the victims held out their arms +in despair, entreating for help. + +Then Adler stepped forward. He asked for a rope and a ladder with +hooks, tied the rope round his waist, and approached the burning +building. The crowd drew back in astonishment; they wondered how he +meant to reach the fourth floor. He hooked the ladder to the broad +cornices of each floor above him and ran up it like a cat. The flames +singed his hair and clothes, thick smoke enveloped him like a blanket. +But he climbed higher and higher, hanging like a spider over the +flames and the chasm below. When he reached the fourth floor the crowd +shouted and applauded. Adler fixed the ladder to the parapet on the +roof, and, with surprising skill for a youth so clumsy and heavy, +carried the people, who were half dead with fright, one after the +other on to the roof. As one wall of the building had no windows, +Adler let the rescued people down on that side with the help of the +rope, and finally slid down himself. When he reached the ground, burnt +and with bleeding hands, the crowd lifted him upon their shoulders. + +As a reward for this almost unparalleled bravery, Adler received the +gold medal from the Government, and a rise in wages as well as the +three hundred thalers from the mill-owner. + +This became a turning-point in his life. Finding himself in possession +of such a large sum, a desire for money grew in him. He did not value +it because he had risked his life for it, or because it reminded him +that he had saved the life of others. To him it simply represented a +sum of three hundred thalers. What a time he might have if he spent +three hundred thalers on enjoying himself! But if he first increased +it to a thousand he might have a still better time. Adler gave up his +old dissipated habits and became niggardly and a usurer. He started +lending his friends money for short terms, but at high interest; and +as he worked hard besides, and was getting on fast, after a few years +he possessed, not three hundred, but three thousand thalers. All this +was done with the idea that when he had amassed a considerable sum he +would enjoy himself like a rich man. But--as the sum increased, he +decided on ever new limits, towards which he advanced with the same +determination as before. + +While striving towards this "ideal" of the greatest possible +self-indulgence, he lost his sensual instincts, as a matter of fact. +He spent his gigantic strength in hard work, suppressed his dreams, +and fixed his thoughts on one thing only, and that was money. In the +beginning the money had represented the means to another end, but by +degrees even this disappeared, and his whole soul was filled with the +desire for work and money. + +When he was forty years old he possessed fifty thousand thalers gained +by real hard work, determination, uncommon shrewdness, meanness and +usury. He then went to Poland, where, he had heard, industry could be +turned to the greatest profit, and started a small cotton-mill. He +married a rich heiress, who died after a year in giving birth to a +son, Ferdinand; and having her money to work with, Adler set out to +become a millionaire. His new home proved a veritable land of promise, +for he was well trained in his exhausting business and in the race for +money, and found himself among people who let themselves be exploited: +some because they had no money; others because they had come by it too +easily and had too much, or they were not shrewd enough, or again +because they tried to be cleverer than they were. Adler despised these +people who possessed neither the most elementary economic qualities +nor the strength to carry through their aims. Having surveyed his +ground thoroughly, he knew how to make capital out of it. So his +fortune grew, and people thought that the successful manufacturer was +backed up by money from Germany. + +With the birth of Ferdinand a new feeling awoke in Adler's stony +heart--a feeling of unbounded and eternal love. He carried the +motherless baby about in his arms, and even used to take him to the +mill with him, where the frightened child got blue in the face with +screaming. When he grew bigger, the father satisfied all his wishes, +stuffed him with sweets, surrounded him with servants, and gave him +sovereigns to play with. + +The more the child developed, the more he loved him. Ferdinand's games +reminded him of his own childhood, of his own instincts and dreams. He +pictured to himself that it would be his son who would enjoy life and +reap the real benefit of the money. Ferdinand would reach the goal of +his own desires, not yet extinct, for distant travels, dangerous +expeditions and expensive tastes. + +"Only let him be grown up," the father thought, "then I will sell the +mill and we will go out into the world together; he will enjoy +himself, and I shall look on and see that he comes to no harm." + +As a human being cannot give to others more than he himself possesses, +Adler gave to his son an iron constitution, selfish propensities, +money, and an unbounded desire for enjoyment. He developed no higher +instincts in him. Neither father nor son had any understanding for the +true values of life; they cared nothing for beauty in Nature or in +Art, and they both despised their fellow-men. + +In the social life of the community, where every unit is consciously +or unconsciously tied by a thousand bonds of sympathy and +fellow-feeling, these two stood alone. The father loved money above +all things, and his son above money; the son liked his father, but +loved only himself and the things which satisfied his instincts. + +The boy had his tutors, and went to school for a few years. He learnt +several languages, was a fair talker and a good dancer, and dressed in +good taste. As he got on easily with people when they put no obstacles +in his way, was witty and spent money lavishly, he was popular; though +Boehme, who looked at things from a different point of view, +maintained that the boy knew very little and was on the wrong track. +Ferdinand was a Don Juan even in his seventeenth year; in his +eighteenth he was expelled from school. A year later he had incurred +debts at cards, and at twenty he went abroad. In spite of large sums +allowed him by his father, he ran into debt to the tune of sixty +thousand roubles. He had thus indirectly brought about the need for +"economy" at the factory, and caused himself and his father to be +cursed by the workpeople. + +During his few years' absence from home, Ferdinand had climbed Alpine +glaciers and Vesuvius, had been up in a balloon, and allowed himself +to be bored for a few weeks in London, where houses are built of red +brick and there are no amusements on Sundays. But the longest and +gayest time he had spent in Paris. + +He did not often write to his father; only when a stronger impression +than usual touched his iron nerves he reported it to him in detail. +These letters therefore were great events in Adler's life. The old +mill-owner read them again and again, and enjoyed every word of them; +they revived in him the ardent dreams of long ago. To go up in a +balloon or look down into the crater of a volcano; to join in a cancan +or give a woman champagne baths; to lose or win hundreds of roubles at +one throw--had these not been the ideals of his life? Did not +Ferdinand even surpass them? Under the influence of these letters, +sketched in the excitement of first impressions, the habit of dreaming +came back to this sternly realistic mind. At times he distinctly +visualized what he read, investing it with an almost poetic fancy, but +the vision fled before the rhythmic throb of the engines and +power-looms. Adler had only one longing, one hope and faith--to amass +a million, sell his mill, and go away with his son to see the world. + +"He will enjoy himself, and I shall look on all day long." + +Pastor Boehme was not at all in favour of this programme, worthy of +the corrupt Elders of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the Roman Empire. + +"When you have come to the end of the money and the pleasure, what +will you do then?" + +"Ah, but money like ours does not come to an end," the mill-owner +would reply. + + +CHAPTER III + +The day for Ferdinand's return had arrived. Adler got up at five +o'clock in the morning according to his custom, drank his coffee at +eight from his large china mug, inscribed with the motto: "Mit Gott +fuer Koenig und Vaterland," and visited the factory. At eleven he sent +the carriage and a luggage cart to the station, and then sat down in +the portico and waited, his face as apathetic and dull as usual. From +time to time he looked at his watch. The sun was hot; the scent of +mignonette and acacia from the courtyard mingled with the pungent +smell of smoke from the factory. The sky was clear and the air quite +still. Adler wiped the perspiration from his face, and kept changing +his position on the iron seat. The old mill-owner did not eat his +lunch at twelve, and did not drink his beer out of the big pot with +the pewter lid, as he had done every day for forty years. + +At one o'clock the carriage with Ferdinand arrived, followed by the +empty cart. Ferdinand was a tall, rather thin, but strongly built +young man with fair hair and blue eyes. He wore a Scotch cap with +ribbons and a light circular cape. As soon as he saw him, the +mill-owner drew up his huge figure to its full height, and holding out +his arms and giving one of his big laughs, exclaimed: + +"Well, Ferdinand, how are you?" + +The son jumped out of the carriage, embraced his father and kissed him +on both cheeks. + +"Has it been raining here, that you have your trousers turned up?" he +said. + +The father glanced at his trousers. + +"Ha, ha! How the rascal notices everything!" he roared. "Johann! +Lunch!" + +He took his son's cape and travelling bag, and gave him his arm as if +he were a lady. Looking back into the courtyard, he asked: "Why, the +cart is empty! Why haven't you brought your luggage from the station?" + +"My luggage? Why, father, do you think I am married and drag about +boxes and portmanteaux with me? My things are in the dressing-bag; +besides the fittings, there are a couple of shirts and a few pairs of +gloves--that's all." + +He talked vivaciously and in a loud voice, and laughed much. Pressing +his father's hand several times, he continued: "Well, and how are you, +father? What's the news? I am told you are doing very well with your +piques and dimities.... Let us sit down." + +They clinked their glasses and finished their lunch quickly. When they +had retired to the study, Ferdinand said, lighting a cigar: + +"I must introduce the French way of living here, and especially the +French way of cooking." + +The father made a grimace. + +"Why? Isn't the German cuisine good enough?" + +"The Germans are pigs!" + +"What?" said the old man. + +"I say the Germans are pigs," laughed the son. "They neither know how +to eat nor how to enjoy themselves." + +"Well," interrupted the father, "and what are you?" + +"I? I am a human being--in other words, a citizen of the world." + +That his son should call himself cosmopolitan mattered little to +Adler, but he was much hurt by the wholesale relegation of Germans to +the class of unclean animals. + +"I thought, my dear Ferdinand, that you might have learnt some sense +for the sixty thousand roubles you have spent." + +The son flung away his cigar and fell on his father's neck. + +"What an excellent father you are!" he exclaimed, kissing him. "What a +fine example of a real, stereotyped, conservative Baron! Well, don't +frown--cheer up! Come, don't look so glum!" + +He seized him by his hands and drew him into the middle of the room. +Tapping his chest, he said: + +"What a chest! ... what calves! If I had a young wife, I should know +who to be jealous of. And you really mean to say all the same that you +agree with these dead and stale theories? 'The devil take the Germans +and their cookery!' That is a motto worthy of the age and of strong +men." + +"You must be crazy," interrupted the father, somewhat pacified. "But +what are you if you have ceased to be a German?" + +"I?" replied Ferdinand with mock seriousness. "Among Germans I am a +Polish nobleman, Adler von Adlersdorf; among Frenchmen I am a +republican and a democrat." + +Such was Ferdinand's first meeting with his father, and such were the +spiritual gains of his stay abroad, paid for with sixty thousand +roubles. + +On the same day father and son drove over to see Pastor Boehme. The +mill-owner introduced Ferdinand to him as a converted sinner who had +spent much money and gained much experience for it. The pastor +tenderly embraced his godson and held up to him as an example his son, +Jozef, who was working hard, and would continue to work to the end of +his life. Ferdinand replied that work was really the only thing that +gave human beings the right to exist. He added that he himself had +been a little inconsiderate in spending his life among the people of a +nation which boasted of its levity and idleness. Finally he asserted +that one Englishman worked as much as two Frenchmen or three Germans, +and that he had for this reason lately acquired a great respect for +the English. Adler was astonished at his son's earnestness and the +sincerity of his conviction, and Boehme remarked that young wine must +ferment and that his experienced eye could detect a change for the +better in Ferdinand, which was worth more than the expenditure of +sixty thousand roubles. After these solemn words the old people, with +the addition of the Frau Pastor, sat down to a bottle of hock, and +talked of their children. + +"You know, dear Gottlieb," said the pastor, "I am beginning to admire +Ferdinand. From being a young windbag of a fellow he has now become a +_verus vir_. He has experience and judgment, and knows himself too." + +"Oh yes," confirmed the Frau Pastor, "he reminds me altogether of our +Jozio. Do you remember, father, when Jozio was here last vacation he +said the same thing about the English? Dear boy!" + +And the kind, thin lady sighed and pulled at the bodice of her black +dress, which seemed to have been made in expectation of greater +corpulence. + +Ferdinand meanwhile was walking in the garden with Annette, the pretty +daughter of the pastor. They had known each other from childhood, and +the young girl had greeted the companion, whom she had not seen for so +long, warmly and even enthusiastically. They walked about together for +nearly an hour; but as the day was very hot, Annette had suddenly +complained of a headache and gone up to her room, and Ferdinand +returned to the old people. He was sulky and did not talk much. This +did not astonish the pastor and his wife. A young man would naturally +prefer the society of a young girl. Soon after Adler and his son +returned home, and Ferdinand informed his father that he would have to +go to Warsaw the next day. + +"What for?" asked his father. "Have you got tired of home in eight +hours?" + +"Not in the least; only, you see, I need shirts and some suits, and +also a carriage in which I can pay visits in the neighbourhood." + +These reasons did not seem conclusive to the elder man. He said that +the housekeeper could go to Warsaw to order the clothes; and if he +bought a carriage, he would like to buy it himself from a +carriage-builder of his acquaintance. It was difficult to agree about +the clothes, but it was finally settled that a suit should be sent to +the tailor as a pattern. Ferdinand did not look at all pleased at +this. + +"I suppose you keep a riding horse?" + +"No; what good would it be to me?" replied the mill-owner. + +"Well, but I must have one, and I hope you will at least not refuse me +this?" + +"Of course not." + +"I should like to go into the town to-morrow to see if one of the +nobility has a good horse for sale. You won't object to that?" + +"Not in the least." + +By ten o'clock in the morning Ferdinand had left home to go into the +town, and a few minutes later Boehme's cart and horse drew up in the +courtyard. The pastor seemed unusually excited. When he hurried into +the room, there were two flushed spots between his whiskers and his +long nose. As soon as he saw Adler, he called out: + +"Is Ferdinand at home?" + +Adler was astonished, and noticed that his friend's voice was +trembling. + +"Why? What do you want Ferdinand for?" he asked. + +"The scoundrel! He's a bad lot! Do you know what he said to Annette +yesterday?" + +Adler's face showed that he neither knew nor suspected anything. + +"He actually," continued the pastor, getting still more excited, "he +asked her...." He broke off, and exclaimed indignantly: "The +insolence! The shame of it!" + +"What is the matter with you?" asked Adler, growing anxious. "What did +he say to her?" + +"He asked her to leave the window of her room open for him at night." + +The poor pastor, from the excess of his feelings, flung his panama hat +on the floor. + +In matters which had nothing to do with the manufacture and sale of +cotton goods Adler took a long time to think. The chord that would +have been touched by the wrong done to the girl was missing in his +heart; but he had a feeling of friendship for the pastor, and starting +from this basis and reasoning phlegmatically and logically, he came to +the conclusion that, if the young girl had listened to the proposal, +Ferdinand would have to marry her. In any case he would have to marry +her; the old man saw no other way out of it. + +This then was the end of it! A few hours after his arrival, and a few +minutes after his excellent speech about his improvement, Ferdinand +had put himself into such a position that he, the son of a +millionaire, would have to marry a dowerless girl--the pastor's +daughter! Instead of enjoying life at his side, and seeing him take +the best of what money, youth and unrestrained freedom could give, he +would now have to marry the boy to this girl. + +It was only after the nervous old Boehme had begun to cry in his anger +that Adler's wrath burst out in words. + +"He is a scoundrel, that fellow!" he shouted. "A week ago I paid sixty +thousand roubles for him, and now he extorts more money from me and +behaves like this on the top of it all!" + +He lifted his hands and shook them like Moses when he threw down the +stone tablets on the heads of the worshippers of the golden calf. + +"I will thrash him!" roared the mill-owner. + +Seeing his excitement, and guessing that a stick in Adler's hand might +have deplorable results, the pastor pacified him. + +"My dear Gottlieb, that is quite unnecessary. Leave it to me, and I +will tell Ferdinand either not to come to our house, or to behave in a +decent and Christian way." + +"Johann!" shouted the manufacturer, and when the footman appeared he +continued without softening his voice: "Send to the town at once for +Ferdinand. I will flog the scoundrel!" + +The footman looked amazed and frightened, but the pastor gave him a +knowing look, and the sagacious Johann went out. + +"Dear Gottlieb," said Boehme, "Ferdinand is too old to be flogged +with a stick, or even to be reprimanded too violently. Excessive +severity will not only fail to improve him, but may cause him to lay +hands on his own life; he is an ambitious boy." + +This remark had a sudden effect on Adler. He opened his eyes wide and +fell back into a chair. + +"What is that you are saying, Martin?" he gasped. "Johann! Water!" + +Johann brought the water, and the old man calmed down by degrees. He +gave no more orders to fetch Ferdinand. + +"Yes, the madcap might do such a thing," he whispered in depression, +and dropped his head on his chest. + +This strong and energetic old man understood that his son had taken +the wrong turning and ought to be led back, but he did not know how to +do it. + +Late at night Ferdinand returned home in an excellent temper. He +looked for his father in all the rooms, left the doors open, and beat +a tattoo on tables and chairs with his walking-stick, singing in a +loud and false baritone: + + "Allons, enfants de la patrie...." + +He reached the study and stood before his father, with his Scotch cap +perched on the back of his head, his waistcoat unbuttoned, and +smelling of wine; sparks of mirth, untempered by reason, were burning +in his eyes. When he came to the line + + "Aux armes, citoyens!" + +his enthusiasm was such that he flourished his cane over his father's +head. + +The old man was not accustomed to people who waved sticks over him. He +sprang up from his chair, and looking fiercely at his son, cried: "You +are drunk, you scoundrel!" + +Ferdinand stepped back and said coolly: "Please don't call me a +scoundrel, father; if I get accustomed to being called such names at +home, it might not make the slightest difference to me if anyone else +called me or my father these names. One can get accustomed to +anything." + +The moderate tone and clear exposition did not fail to impress the +cotton-spinner. + +"You are without honour," he said after a while; "you wanted to seduce +old Boehme's daughter." + +"Did you think it likely I should try to seduce the mother?" asked +Ferdinand in a tone of astonishment. + +"Stop these bad jokes," the father said angrily; "the pastor has been +here to-day, and requests that you do not set foot in his house again. +He refuses to have anything to do with you." + +"What a pity!" Ferdinand laughed, throwing his cap down on a pile of +papers, and himself at full length upon the sofa. "He is really doing +me the greatest favour by releasing me from those dull visits. They +are a queer lot. The old man believes that he is living among +cannibals, and is always converting somebody or rejoicing at +somebody's conversion. The old woman has nothing but water on the +brain, in which that learned snail, Jozio, swims about. The daughter +is sacred like an altar at which only pastors are allowed to +officiate. When she has had two children, she will be a skeleton like +her mother, and then I congratulate her husband. How dreadfully dull +and pedantic all these people are!" + +"Very well, they may be pedantic," said his father; "but if you had +been with them you would not have squandered sixty thousand roubles." + +Ferdinand had just started a yawn, but did not finish it. He sat up on +the sofa and looked sorrowfully at his father. + +"I see, father, you will never forget those few thousand roubles." + +"Certainly I shan't forget them," shouted the old man. "How can a man +in his right mind spend so much money for devil knows what? I was +going to tell you that yesterday." + +Ferdinand took his feet off the sofa, smacked his knee with his hand, +and feeling that his father's anger did not go very deep, began: + +"My dear father, let us for once in our lives have a reasonable talk. +I suppose you do not look upon me any more as a child?" + +"You are a monkey," the old man said abruptly. His heart was touched +by his son's seriousness. + +"Well then, father, as a man who looks below the surface of things, +you probably understand, though you won't confess to it, that I am +such as Nature and our family made me. Our family does not consist of +such units as the pastor and his son. Our family was once upon a time +given the name of 'Adler,'[24] not 'frog' or 'crab.' If you look at it +even from the physical point of view, you can see that it consists of +people with huge frames. It possesses a man who has gained millions +and an excellent position in a strange country only through the work +of his ten fingers. That shows that our family has imagination and +strength." + +Ferdinand said all this with true or feigned emotion, and his father +was much impressed. + +"Is it my fault," he went on, gradually raising his voice, "that I +have inherited this imagination and this strength from my ancestors? I +must live more fully and do more than a 'stone' or a 'flower,' or even +an ordinary 'bird'--for I am an 'eagle.' I am not satisfied with a +narrow corner; I must have the world. My strength requires that I +should either have great obstacles to overcome and difficult +circumstances to master, or else I must have plenty of dissipation. +Otherwise I should burst. Men of temperament either wreck empires or +become criminals. Bismarck smashed beer-mugs on the heads of the +Philistines before he smashed up the Austrian and French Empires. He +was then exactly what I am to-day. To rise to the surface and to be a +true 'eagle,' I must have suitable circumstances; I am not living in +my proper sphere now. I have nothing to fix my attention on, and +nothing to wear out my strength; that is why I am so fast. If I +weren't, I should die like an eagle in a cage. You have your aims in +life; you order about hundreds of workmen, and set engines in motion; +you have had a big fight to assert yourself against others and to get +your money. I have not even got that pleasure. What is there for me to +do?" + +"Who prevents you from taking an interest in the factory, or ordering +the people about and increasing our capital? That would be a better +thing than to go and waste it." + +"All right!" exclaimed Ferdinand, jumping up; "give me some of your +authority, and I will set to work to-morrow. It will be with really +hard work that my wings will grow. Well now, will you give over the +management of the factory to me to-morrow? I will take it over, if +it's only for something to do; I am tired of this empty life." + +Had old Adler had tears to shed, he would have cried for joy, but he +had to be satisfied with pressing his son's hand repeatedly. He had +surpassed all his expectations. What a piece of luck that Ferdinand +should wish to take over the management of the factory! In a few years +their fortune would be doubled, and then they would go out into the +world and look for a wider horizon for the young eagle. + +The mill-owner slept badly that night. The next morning Ferdinand +really went to the mill, and made the round of all the departments. +The workmen looked at him with curiosity, and vied with one another in +giving him information and carrying out his orders. The jolly, +friendly young man, who was quite the opposite to his stern father, +made a favourable impression on them. But all the same, at ten o'clock +one of the foremen came to the office to complain that the young +gentleman was flirting with his wife and behaving improperly with the +workwomen. + +"Nonsense!" said Adler. + +In an hour's time the foreman of the spinning department came running +in with a frightened face. + +"Pan Adler," he shouted, "Pan Ferdinand has heard that the hands have +had their wages reduced, and he is urging them to leave. He is +repeating this in all the workrooms, and is telling the hands all +sorts of strange things." + +"Has the fellow gone out of his mind?" burst out the mill-owner. + +He sent for his son immediately, and ran to meet him. They met in +front of the warehouse, Ferdinand with a lighted cigar in his mouth. + +"What! you are smoking in the factory? Throw that down at once!" and +the old man took it away from him and stamped on it angrily. + +"What do you mean? Am I not allowed to smoke a cigar? I--I?" + +"Nobody is allowed to smoke inside the factory," bawled Adler. "You +will set the place on fire. You are stirring up my workpeople. Get out +of this!" + +The encounter had many witnesses, and Ferdinand was offended. + +"Oh, if you are going to treat me like this, I have done with you. +Upon my honour, I won't set foot in your factory again. I have had +enough of these pleasant home scenes." + +He stamped on his cigar and went into the house without even looking +at his father, who was panting hard with mingled feelings of anger and +shame. + +When they met again at lunch, old Adler said: + +"Well, you need not trouble me with your help. I will give you a +monthly allowance of three hundred roubles, a carriage, horses and +servants, and you can do what you like, provided you promise me to +keep away from the mill." + +Ferdinand leaned his elbows on the table, and said: + +"My dear father, let us talk like reasonable people. I cannot waste my +life in this house. I have mentioned to you before that I am +threatened with an illness called 'spleen,' and that the doctors have +forbidden me to be bored. As our life here is very monotonous, I feel +already that I am beginning to fail. I do not want to grieve you, but +if I am condemned to death----" + +His father was frightened. + +"But I am going to give you three hundred roubles a month," he +shouted. + +Ferdinand made a contemptuous gesture. + +"Well, say four hundred, then." + +The son shook his head sadly. + +"Six hundred--but the devil take you!" screamed Adler, banging the +table with his fist. "I cannot give more; the mill economies cannot be +strained any further. You will make me bankrupt." + +"Well, well, I will try and live on six hundred a month," replied his +son. "Oh, I wish my illness would----" + +The wretch knew that it was not worth while going to Warsaw with such +an income, but that here in the country he could be the king of the +local _jeunesse doree_, and for the present he was satisfied with his +part. He was really a very reasonable young man for his age.... + +From that day onwards Ferdinand began to live very fast again, though +on a smaller scale than before. He paid visits to all the landowners +in the neighbourhood. The more respectable among them did not receive +him at all, or received him and did not return his call; for old Adler +did not enjoy a good reputation, and his son was known as a +ne'er-do-well. Nevertheless he succeeded in scraping up an +acquaintance with several younger and elderly gentlemen of his own +type, whom he met frequently in the little country town, or +entertained ostentatiously at his father's house, where the cuisine +and cellars greatly attracted them. + +The old manufacturer would slip away during these festivities. Though +the titles and perfect manners of some of Ferdinand's friends +flattered his pride, yet on the whole he did not like these men, and +would often say to his old book-keeper: + +"If these gentlemen would pool their debts, we could build three +factories the size of ours with the amount." + +"A respectable set," whispered the obsequious book-keeper. + +"Fools!" said Adler. + +"That's what I mean," smiled the book-keeper submissively from under +his shade. + +Ferdinand spent whole nights playing cards and drinking. He had many +love adventures, and acquired a bad reputation. Meanwhile the factory +hands were ground down by more and more "economies." Fines were +imposed for coming late, for talking, for damages which were often +purely imaginary. Those who were unable to do arithmetic had their +wages simply reduced. They all cursed their employer and his son, for +they saw the debauchery that was going on, and knew that they +themselves were paying for it. + + +CHAPTER IV + +Many years ago a certain nobleman had lived in the part of Poland to +which we have introduced the reader, who was called a "crank" by his +neighbours. He did not lead a dissipated life, and had married only +when well advanced in years; but there was a stain upon his +character--namely this: he indulged in teaching the peasants. He +opened an elementary school where all the children were taught +reading, writing and arithmetic, had religious instruction, and learnt +a little tailoring and cobbling. Every boy had to learn to make simple +suits, shirts and caps. All this formed the basis of the education. +Afterwards he engaged a gardener, a blacksmith, a locksmith, a +carpenter and a wheelwright, and the pupils now passed on to +instruction in these trades, as well as to advanced arithmetic, +geometry and drawing. The nobleman himself taught geography and +history, read instructive books to the pupils, and told them countless +anecdotes, all of which had the same moral--namely, that being +honest, patient, industrious and thrifty, among other good qualities, +gave a man the true value of a human being. + +The neighbouring landowners complained that he was spoiling the +peasants, and experts laughed because he taught the boys all the +trades. But he shrugged his shoulders, and said that if there were +more Robinson Crusoes on earth, forced to know something of all trades +while they were young, there would be fewer ignoramuses, loafers, +scoundrels, or slaves tied to one place. + +"Besides," said the quaint old man, "this is a whim of mine, if you +like that better. You breed particular kinds of dogs, cattle and +horses; why shouldn't I breed a particular class of human beings?" + +He died suddenly, and his relations inherited his property, ran +through it in a few years, and the school was forgotten. But it had +produced a certain number of men of great economic, intellectual and +moral value, though none of these ever occupied prominent positions. + +The nobleman's spirit would have rejoiced at his pupils' progress, for +he had not brought them up to be geniuses, but to be useful, average +citizens such as are always needed in the community. One of these +pupils was Kazimierz Goslawski. He, too, had learnt various trades, +but he took a special liking to two of them--those of blacksmith and +locksmith. He could also draw a plan of an engine or a building, make +mathematical calculations, prepare a wooden model of a foundry, and at +a pinch make his own clothes and boots. The longer Goslawski lived, +the more he appreciated his master's methods, and realized the +practical importance of the anecdotes. He held his benefactor's memory +sacred, and he and his wife and little daughter prayed for his soul +every day. Goslawski had been working in the mechanical part of +Adler's factory for seven years, and was the soul of the workshop. His +earnings amounted to two and sometimes even to three roubles a day. +There was a certain head-mechanic knocking about who drew a salary of +fifteen hundred roubles a year, but he occupied himself more with +factory scandals than with his own work. + +In order to uphold his authority, this mechanic gave orders and +explanations, but he did it in such a way that no one either +understood them or attempted to carry them out; and this was a +blessing for the factory, for had his mechanical ideas been realized +in iron, steel and wood, the greater part of the engines would have +had to go into the melting-pot. + +It was only after Goslawski had found out the damage done to an +engine, and put his hand to repairing it, that things went right +again. More than once this simple locksmith had replaced parts of +engines; unconsciously he had sometimes made inventions without +anyone knowing about it. If it had been known, the invention would +have been put down to the genius of the head-mechanic, who always +boasted of his achievements, and regretted that in this unintelligent +Poland one had no chances of becoming director of several factories, +no matter of what kind. + +Adler had too keen an eye not to see Goslawski's value and the +incompetence of his head-mechanic. But Goslawski was made of too +dangerous a material to be given a place as independent manager, and +the head-mechanic was a good scandal-monger; so he was kept in the +foreground, and the other did the work. In this way everybody was +satisfied, and the world at large never suspected that the well-known +factory was really run by the brains of a "stupid Polish workman." + +Goslawski was a man of medium height, with the coarse hands and +bow-legs of a workman. When he was bending over his vice he was +indistinguishable from the others; but when he looked up from under +his mop of dark hair, his thin, pale face showed that he was an +intellectually developed human being with a nervous disposition. Yet +his calmness and the look in his thoughtful grey eyes proved that +reason prevailed over his temperament. + +He talked neither too much nor too little, and never too loudly. +Sometimes he got animated, but never let himself be carried away by +excitement; and he knew how to listen, looking attentively and +intelligently all the while into the speaker's eyes. Only to factory +scandals he listened with half an ear and without interrupting his +work. "What is the good of these things?" he used to say. But he would +interrupt his most important work to listen to explanations coming +within the range of his profession. He kept himself a little aloof +from his fellow-workmen, though he was always friendly and ready to +give advice, or even help, in small jobs. Yet he would never ask +anybody's help for himself, for he had the same respect for a man's +knowledge or time that he had for his money. The aim of his life was +to establish a smith's workshop of his own. For this reason he hoarded +up his earnings; he did not trust his money to the bank, and did not +like to lend it to his fellow-workmen: rather would he give away a +rouble or two now and then. For he was not mean: both he and his wife +had plenty of clothes, plain but good, and on Sundays he would not +begrudge himself a glass of beer or even a glass of wine. By means of +this reasonable economy he had saved about eighteen hundred roubles, +and was now looking about for the loan of a small building on some +landowner's estate, in which he could set up his workshop. In exchange +he would give preference to the landowner's orders. These arrangements +are often made between a landowner and his smith, and Goslawski had a +place of this kind in view for Michaelmas. + +His earnings in the mill were rather uncertain. When a new line was +tried in the manufacture of cotton goods (and in this Goslawski was +unequalled), he was very well paid by the piece; but when the +experiment had turned out a success, and he had taught others how to +do the work, his pay was reduced by half, or even three-quarters; +sometimes he was only paid the tenth part. To keep the level of his +wages higher, he would often work overtime, come early and stay late. + +When the workmen complained that the boss was cheating them, Goslawski +replied that they could not wonder, for they were cheating him in +return. But sometimes he would lose patience, and mutter between his +teeth: + +"Vile German thief!" + +Goslawski's wife wished to help her husband by working in the mill +too, but he gave her a good scolding. + +"You had better look after the child and the dinner! For every rouble +you earn at the mill, two are lost at home." + +He knew quite well, however, that she would earn more and the home +would lose less; but he was ambitious, and did not want the wife of a +future master to mix with common factory women. He was a good husband; +sometimes he grumbled that the dinner was unpunctual or badly cooked, +that the child was dirty, or that his shirt had been made too blue. +But he never made a scene or raised his voice. On Sundays he took his +wife to church, a few versts off, and when it was fine he carried his +little girl there too. Whenever he went into the town, he bought a toy +for the child and some little piece of finery for his wife. He loved +his little girl, though he was sorry not to have a son. + +"What is the good of a girl?" he said. "You bring her up for another, +and have to provide her with a dowry into the bargain to get her +settled. With a son it is different: he is a support to you in your +old age, and might take over the workshop." + +"Just you get the workshop started, and then the son will come too," +his wife replied. + +"Oh, well, you have been saying that for three years; there is not +much hope of you, as far as I can see," said the locksmith. + +His wife was, however, not boasting without reason this time; for in +the sixth year of their marriage, about the time when young Adler +returned from abroad, she had given birth to a son. Goslawski was +beside himself with joy. He spent about thirty roubles on the +christening, and bought his wife a new dress, not counting the +expenses of the confinement. His savings were thereby diminished by +several hundred roubles, but he resolved to make them up before +Michaelmas. + +Then, to his misfortune, "economy" was introduced into the mill. This +time Goslawski cursed with the others, but he went on working with +redoubled zeal. He went to the mill at five o'clock in the morning, +and did not come back till eleven o'clock at night, too tired to greet +his wife or kiss the children. He fell on to the bed in his clothes, +and slept like a log. + +Such extreme effort annoyed his fellow-workmen; and his friend +Zalinski, the engineer, a fat and quick-tempered man, said to him: +"Kazik, why the devil are you toadying up to the boss and spoiling +other people's chances? When they went to him yesterday to complain +about the wages, he said to them: 'Do as Goslawski does; then you will +have enough.'" + +Goslawski excused himself. + +"You see, my dear fellow, my wife has been ill, and I have had very +heavy expenses. I would like to make up as much as I can, because, you +know, I want to start on my own. What else am I to do since that dog +has reduced the wages? I must go on slaving like this, though I have a +pain in my side and my head swims." + +"Bah!" said Zalinski; "I suppose you will take it out of the +journeymen in your own workshop." + +Goslawski shook his head. + +"I don't want to profit by doing wrong. I don't give what is mine for +nothing, but I won't take what belongs to others, either." + +And he went off to his work, which, though he was used to it, had worn +him out lately to such an extent that he was not able to collect his +thoughts. + +"If only I can start on my own," he thought, "I shall forget all +this." + +But the task was too great. To feed a family, to save all he could, to +make up the expenses caused by his wife's confinement, and to pay for +young Adler's travels into the bargain, went beyond the strength of +any human being. + +He looked sad and got still thinner and paler; sometimes the +perspiration would break out all over him, and he would drop his hands +on his vice and wonder why his brain, usually so quick, felt quite +empty and dark. Possibly he would have slackened off if he had not +seen in the darkness a fiery signboard: + + GOSLAWSKI'S MECHANICAL WORKSHOP.... + +Get on! Only three months more! + +Meanwhile fortune again smiled on Adler. The demand for his goods, +which were excellent, was greater than ever, and in July double the +amount of orders came in. He accepted them all after consulting his +confidential clerks, and bought up cotton with all his available +capital. The hands were told that they would have to work until nine +o'clock in the evening, and they were to be paid double for overtime. +More workshops were added, and the question of how to make use of the +Sundays arose. With regard to this Adler had his plan ready. Sunday +work was to be paid at a double rate in the beginning, but in a +measure, as the hands got used to it, the pay would be reduced. + +If everything went all right, Adler calculated that the profits of the +current year would make it possible for him to sell the factory, for +which he would easily find a purchaser, and to take his millions and +his son abroad. + +Thus both the workman and the principal were simultaneously +approaching the realization of their hopes. + +The increased activity in the mill affected the engineering workshop +in the first place. New hands were taken on, the compulsory hours were +extended until nine, and overtime work until midnight. The first two +hours of overtime were paid double, the next three times as much. A +stricter control was introduced, and if anyone left off work before +time, so much was deducted from his wages that his profits were +practically reduced to nothing. The hands were weary in consequence, +especially Goslawski, who, as the most expert, was obliged to work +until midnight. + +Even he himself felt that he could not go on at this rate, and asked +for relief. The millionaire agreed, and proposed a new arrangement. +Goslawski was in future to receive a fixed salary, and work with his +hands only at those parts of the machinery which required the greatest +exactitude. His chief business would be to supervise the general run +of the work and direct others. He would in reality be the head of the +workshop, and while doing the work of a simple workman receive the pay +of a head-mechanic. + +No German would have agreed to such a proposal, but when it was first +made it flattered Goslawski. He soon realized, however, that he was +being exploited again, for he had to work physically as hard as +before, and had in addition a greater strain on his mind. All day long +he had to rush from the vice to the anvil, and from the anvil to the +lathe, and was importuned besides by his fellow-workmen, who thought +that Goslawski was there not only to give them information, but to do +their work for them as well. + +By the end of June he looked like an automaton. He never smiled, and +hardly ever talked about anything that was not connected with his +work. He, who had been so particular about tidiness, began to neglect +his appearance. He ceased to go to church on Sundays, and slept till +midday instead. In his relations with others he became irritable. His +one pleasure was to sleep; he slept like a man in convalescence. He +became a little more animated perhaps, when he kissed his little son +"Good-morning" or "Good-night." + +Goslawski himself quite understood the state he was in. He knew that +the hard work was wearing him out, but he saw no way of freeing +himself from it. The contract with the landowner could not be signed +before August, and he could not take possession of the workshop till +October. If he left the mill he would have to live on his ready money, +and spend in a few months some hundreds of roubles which were +indispensable for the new start. The only thing to be done was to +stick to his post and strain his strength to the utmost. Perhaps a +week's rest after he had moved into his own household would restore +the disturbed balance of his organism. + +But he was sick of the mill. He carried a little calendar about with +him on which he crossed out the days as they passed: only two months +and a half now; sixty-five days; two months only!... + + +CHAPTER V + +On a certain Saturday night in August the engineering workshop was in +a ferment of rush and work. + +It was a large building covered with glass like a hothouse; along one +wall was the power-engine, along the other two forges. There was also +a small hammer worked by a hand-wheel, several vices, a lathe, +drilling machinery and a number of hand tools. Midnight was +approaching, the lights had long been put out in all the other parts +of the mill; the tired weavers were asleep in their homes. + +But here the great rush goes on. The hurried breath of the engine, the +throb of the pumps, the din of the hammer, the rattle of the lathe, +the grating of the files increase more and more. The air is soaked +with steam, coal-dust and fine iron filings; the flames of the +gas-lamps flicker through the heavy atmosphere like will-o'-the-wisps. +Outside there is the stillness of night as a background to the mill; +the moon peeps in through the glass which quivers incessantly from the +noise. + +There is hardly any talking in the room; the work is urgent, the hour +late, so the men hurry on in silence. Here a group of grimy +blacksmiths are dragging a huge white-hot iron bar to be hammered; +there a row of them bend and raise themselves as under a command over +their vices. Opposite them the turners bend to watch the revolving +work in the machines. Sparks fly from under the hammer. From time to +time an order or a curse is heard. Sometimes the hammering and filing +slackens down, and then the mournful groan of the bellows blowing on +to the furnaces begins. + +Goslawski is at the lathe, turning a large steel cylinder; the work +must be done exactly to the thousandth of an inch! But somehow +Goslawski is off his work. There had been so much to do that day that +he had not been able to leave the workshop during the evening recess; +he is even more than usually tired therefore. A light fever torments +him, streams of perspiration flow down his body, at moments he has +hallucinations, and then he imagines that he is somewhere else, far +away. But he quickly rouses himself, rubs his eyes with his grimy +hands to shake off the lassitude, and looks anxiously to see whether +the cutting tool has not taken away too much of the cylinder. + +"I am dead-beat," said his neighbour to him. + +"So am I," replied Goslawski, sitting down on a stool. + +"It's the heat," said the other. "The engine is red-hot, the +blacksmiths are working with both forges; besides, it is getting late. +Take a pinch of snuff." + +"No, thank you," replied Goslawski, "I should like a pipe, but not +snuff. I would rather have a drink of water." + +He stepped away and dipped a rusty mug into a barrel of water. But the +water was warm, and instead of being refreshed, Goslawski felt the +perspiration breaking out still more. He was losing his strength. + +"What's the time?" he asked his neighbour. + +"A quarter to twelve. Will you finish work to-day?" + +"Yes, I think so. I must still take a hair's-breadth off the cylinder; +but, damn it! I see everything double." + +"It's the heat--the heat!" repeated the neighbour, taking another +pinch of snuff and moving away. + +Goslawski measured the diameter of the cylinder, moved the cutting +tool, clamped it with the screws, and once more set the machine in +motion. After the momentary strain of attention there followed a +reaction in him, and he began to doze standing, his eyes fixed on the +shining surface of the cylinder, on which drops of water were falling. + +"Did you speak?" he suddenly asked his neighbour. + +But the man, bending over his work, did not hear the question. + +At that moment Goslawski fancied that he was at home: his wife and +children are asleep; the lamp, turned low, is burning on the chest of +drawers; his bed is ready for him.... Yes, here is the table, there is +the chair! Worn out with fatigue, he wants to sit down on the chair; +he leans his heavy arm on the edge of the table.... + +The lathe made a strange noise. Something cracked in it and began to +go to pieces, and a dreadful human shriek resounded through the +workroom.... + +Goslawski's right hand had been caught between the cogwheels; in the +twinkling of an eye he was hung up as though welded to the machinery, +which had got hold first of the fingers, then of the hand, then of the +bone up to the elbow: the blood gushed out. The wretched man saw what +had happened and tore himself away; the crushed and broken bones and +torn muscles were not able to bear the load, they broke, and Goslawski +fell heavily to the floor. + +All this happened within a few seconds. + +"Stop the engine!" shouted Goslawski's neighbour. + +The engine was stopped, and all the men left their work and came +running up to the wounded man. Someone poured a can of water over him; +one young man had a fit when he saw the blood; others ran out of the +workshop without knowing why. + +"Fetch the doctor!" Goslawski cried in a changed voice. + +"A horse ... hurry up! ... run to the town!" shouted the workmen, as +if they were out of their senses. + +"Oh, the blood, the blood!" groaned the wounded man. + +The bystanders did not know what he meant. + +"For God's sake, stop the blood! Tie up my arm!" + +Nobody moved; they did not know how to stop the blood, and were +paralyzed with fright. + +"What a place this is!" cried the man who had been working next to +Goslawski--"no doctor, no bone-setter!... Where is Schmidt? Run for +Schmidt!" + +Some ran for Schmidt. Meanwhile one of the old blacksmiths showed more +presence of mind than the others, knelt down, and compressed the arm +above the elbow with his hands. The blood began to flow more slowly. +It was a terrible injury; part of the arm and two fingers were left, +the rest had been torn away. At last, after a quarter of an hour, +Schmidt, who took the doctor's place in the factory, appeared. He was +just as terrified as the rest, and bandaged the wounded arm with rags, +which instantly became soaked with blood. He ordered the men to carry +Goslawski home. They laid him on some boards; two men carried him, two +supported his head, the rest crowded round, and they all moved away in +a body. + +There was no one in the offices, and no light showed in Adler's house. +The dogs, scenting blood, began to howl; the night watchman took off +his cap and looked with pale face after the procession moving along +the highroad, which was flooded by the moonlight. + +A factory hand appeared at an open window in his shirt-sleeves, and +called out: + +"Hallo! What's the matter?" + +"Goslawski has had his hand torn off!" + +The wounded man uttered low groans. Suddenly the clatter of hoofs was +heard, and a carriage with a pair of greys and a coachman in livery +appeared on the highroad. Ferdinand, who was returning from a +drinking bout, was lolling inside. + +"Out of the way!" shouted the coachman. + +"Out of the way yourself! We are carrying a wounded man!" + +The procession drew near to the carriage. Ferdinand Adler roused +himself, looked out of the carriage, and asked: + +"What's the matter there?" + +"Goslawski has had his hand torn off." + +"Goslawski? Is that the fellow who has the pretty wife?" said +Ferdinand. + +There was a momentary silence. Then somebody murmured: + +"How sharp he is!" + +Ferdinand regained his senses, and asked, changing his voice: + +"Has the doctor dressed his wounds?" + +"There is no doctor in the factory." + +"Ah, true.... Has the bone-setter seen to it?" + +"There is no bone-setter either, now." + +"Very well then: horses must be sent to fetch the doctor from the +town." + +"Perhaps, sir, you would order your coachman to turn round?" one of +the men suggested. + +"My horses are tired," said Ferdinand; "I will send others." And the +carriage moved on. + +"What a fellow!" said the workmen; "we can wear ourselves out, and he +does not think of giving us rest; but his horses must be rested!" + +"Oh, well ... you have got to pay for horses, and workpeople can be +had for nothing," another replied. + +The crowd was approaching Goslawski's cottage. A lamp was burning in +the window. One of the workmen gently knocked at the door. + +"Who is there?" + +"Open the door, Pani Goslawska!" + +In a moment a woman appeared half dressed in the doorway. + +"What is it?" she asked, looking terrified at the crowd. + +"Your husband has had a slight accident, so we brought him home." + +"Jesus!" she cried, and ran up to the stretcher. "Oh, Kazio, what has +happened to you?" + +"Don't wake the children," whispered her husband. + +"What a lot of blood--Mother of Mercy!" + +"Be quiet!" murmured the wounded man. "My hand has been torn off, but +that is nothing; send for the doctor." + +The woman trembled and began to sob. Two workmen took her by the arms +and led her into the room; others carried the wounded man inside. His +face was distorted with pain, and he bit his lips to suppress the +groans that might have waked the children. + +In the morning Adler was informed of the accident. He listened in +silence, and asked: + +"Has the doctor been?" + +"We sent for the doctor and for the bone-setter, but they were both +out, attending to other patients." + +"Fetch another doctor. Telegraph to Warsaw for a locksmith in +Goslawski's place." + +About ten o'clock Adler went to the workshop to have a look at the +damaged lathe. Near the machine he stepped by accident into a pool of +blood and shuddered, but soon recovered himself. He carefully examined +the cogwheel, to which bits of flesh and of the torn shirt still +adhered. There were a few notches in the wheel. + +"Have we got another wheel like that?" he asked the head-mechanic. + +"Yes," whispered the pale German, who was sick at the sight of the +blood. + +"Has the doctor come?" + +"Not yet." + +Adler whistled through his teeth with impatience. The absence of the +doctor made a very unpleasant impression on him. At last, about noon, +he was informed that the doctor had arrived. The old man quickly left +the house. In passing the room where Ferdinand was still sleeping off +the effects of his drinking bout, he beat a tattoo on the door with +his stick, but got no answer. There was a large crowd outside +Goslawski's cottage, for hardly anyone had gone to church. They all +wanted to know the details of Goslawski's accident. A neighbour had +taken his wife and children to her house. + +All conversation was stopped when the crowd caught sight of Adler. +Only the most timid took off their caps, the others turned their heads +away, and the boldest looked at him without raising their hands to +their caps. + +The mill-owner was struck. "What do they want of me?" he thought. + +He spoke to one of the workmen, a German, and asked how the sick man +was. + +"They can't tell," the man answered sullenly. "They say his whole arm +had to be taken off." + +Adler sent someone to ask the doctor to come out to him. + +"Well, how is he?" inquired the mill-owner. + +"Dying," answered the doctor. + +Adler was staggered, and exclaimed, raising his voice: + +"What nonsense! People sometimes lose both hands or both legs and +don't die of it." + +"The dressing was bad; there had been enormous loss of blood. Besides, +the man had been overworked." + +This answer soon made the round of the crowd, and a murmur arose. + +"I will pay you well if you will look carefully after him. It cannot +be true that people die from such an injury as that." + +At this moment the sick man cried out; the doctor ran back into the +house, and the mill-owner turned to go home. + +"If there had been a doctor at the factory this would not have +happened!" someone in the crowd called out. + +"We shall all come to this if they go on keeping us at work till +midnight," cried another. + +Curses and threats were uttered here and there. But the old giant held +his head erect, put his hands in his pockets, and passed through the +thickest crowd. Only he half closed his eyes and was pale down to his +neck. He did not seem to hear what those on the edge of the crowd were +saying, and those near him gave way, guessing instinctively that this +man was afraid neither of curses nor even of an open attack. + +Towards evening Goslawski, whom the doctor had not left for a moment, +called for his wife. She came in on tiptoe, staggering and keeping +back the tears that dimmed her eyes. The wounded man looked strangely +haggard, and his eyes were fixed. In the dusk his face seemed to have +the colour of earth. + +"Where are you, Magdzia?" he asked indistinctly, and then said, with +long pauses: "Nothing will come of our workshop now ... I have no +arm ... I am going to follow after it ... why should I eat my bread +for nothing?" + +His wife began to sob. + +"Are you there, Magdzia?... Remember the children. The money for my +funeral is in the drawer--you know.... What a lot of flies there +are ... such a buzzing...." + +He began to toss about restlessly, and breathed heavily, like a man +going off into a deep sleep. The doctor made a sign, and somebody took +the wife away almost by force and led her into the friendly +neighbour's cottage. In a few minutes the doctor followed her there; +the poor woman looked into his eyes and knelt down on the floor +weeping bitterly. + +"Oh, sir, why have you left him? Is he so ill? Perhaps----" + +"The Lord will comfort you," said the doctor. + +The women crowded round to try and quiet her. + +"Don't cry, Pani Goslawska. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. +Get up and don't cry--the children will hear you!" + +The widow was almost choked with sobs. + +"Let me be on the floor; I feel better here," she whispered. "May the +Lord give you all the good, since He has given me all the bad. I have +lost my Kazio! Oh, my beloved! why did you work so hard and suffer so +much? Only yesterday he said that we should be on our own in October, +and now he has gone to his grave instead of to his workshop!" + +When the workmen entered into the dead man's home and began to move +the furniture about, and she realized that no noise would wake her +husband again, she gave a terrible shriek and fainted. + + * * * * * + +Goslawski's death subsequently became the cause of much disturbance at +the factory and of much trouble to Adler. A deputation waited upon him +on the Tuesday to ask permission for all the hands to go to the +funeral. Adler was furious, and would only allow a few delegates from +each room to go, announcing at the same time that every workman who +should leave the factory of his own accord would be fined. In spite of +this most of the hands left the mill, and Adler posted up a notice +that every workman who had absented himself would have his daily pay +halved and would be fined a rouble in addition. Whereupon the more +spirited among the hands urged their mates to strike, and one of the +stokers suggested the blowing up of the boiler. Adler would have taken +no notice of such talk at another time, but now he was beside himself. +He called their grumbling mutiny, demanded police from the town, drove +the leaders out of the mill and brought an action against the stoker. + +When the workpeople saw these drastic measures, they were cowed into +submission. They ceased to threaten a strike, but asked for the +reinstatement of all the hands, and that at least a bone-setter should +be engaged with the money extorted by the fines. + +To this Adler replied that he would do what he liked, when he liked, +and refused to listen at all to the demand for reinstatement of those +he had dismissed. + +By the following Monday things had calmed down at the factory. Pastor +Boehme came to see Adler, with the intention of inducing him to give +way to some of the reasonable demands of the workpeople. But he +encountered an unexpected resistance; the mill-owner declared that, if +he had ever had intentions of giving way to his workpeople's demands, +he no longer had any, that he would rather close the factory than give +in. + +"Do you know, Martin," he said, "that they have got us talked about in +the newspapers? The comic papers have ridiculed Ferdinand, and it has +been said that Goslawski died from overwork and because there was no +doctor." + +"There is some truth in that," answered Boehme. + +"There is no truth whatsoever in it," shouted the mill-owner. "I have +worked much harder than Goslawski, every German workman works harder; +and as for the doctor, he might just as well have been absent from the +factory to visit a patient, as he was from town at that particular +moment." + +"The bone-setter might have been there at any rate," observed the +pastor. + +Adler gave no answer. He walked up and down the room with long +strides, breathing hard. + +"Let us go into the garden," he proposed. "Johann, take a bottle of +hock into the summer-house." + +The pleasant coolness in the summer-house near the pond, the freshness +of the wind rustling in the trees, and perhaps the glass of good wine, +gradually soothed Adler. Pastor Boehme looked at him over the rim of +his gold spectacles, and seeing him in a better mood, resolved to +return to the attack. + +"Well," he said, clinking his glass against Adler's, "a man who keeps +such excellent wine as this cannot have a bad heart. Let them off +their fines, Gottlieb, take them all on again, and install a +doctor.... Your health!" + +"I will drink your health, Martin, but I promise nothing of the sort," +repeated the mill-owner, although his anger had somewhat cooled. + +The pastor shook his head, and muttered: + +"H'm! it's a pity you are so obstinate!" + +"I cannot sacrifice my interest to sentiments. If I give them a +thousand roubles to-day, they will want a million to-morrow." + +"You exaggerate," said Boehme, annoyed; "my advice is that, if you can +settle this business for ten thousand roubles, give fifteen thousand +rather, and make an end of it." + +"It is at an end already," said Adler. "The worst of them are gone, +and the rest know that there is discipline here. If I were as +soft-hearted as you, they would trample me under foot." + +The pastor said nothing, but began to throw things on to the surface +of the pond--first a cork, then bits of wood broken off from a stick. + +"My dear Martin, what are you throwing rubbish on the water for?" +asked Adler. + +The pastor pointed towards the pond, where the things he had thrown +upon the water were making circles that grew larger and larger. + +"Do you see how the waves are getting farther and farther away from +the middle?" he asked. + +"They are always doing that. What is there peculiar in it?" + +"You are quite right," said the pastor; "it is always like +that--everywhere, on the pond and in our lives. When something good +happens in the world, waves are produced by it; they grow larger and +larger and extend farther and farther." + +"I don't understand you," said Adler indifferently, sipping his wine. + +"I will explain it to you, if you will not be angry with me." + +"I am never angry with you." + +"Very well. You see, it is like this: you have brought your son up +badly and have turned him loose upon the world, as I threw that stick +into the water. He has incurred debts--that was the first wave. Then +you reduced the workmen's pay--that was the second. Goslawski's death +was the third; the troubles in the factory and the newspaper scandals +were the fourth; and so on with the dismissal of the hands and the +lawsuit. What will the tenth wave be?" + +"That does not concern me," said Adler. "Let your waves go out into +the world and frighten fools; I am not interested in them." + +The pastor pointed to a cork he had just thrown on to the surface. + +"Look, Gottlieb, sometimes it is the tenth wave which rebounds on the +shore and returns to where it came from." + +The old mill-owner reflected for a while on this demonstration, which +was quite clear, and for a brief moment it seemed as if he were +hesitating, as if an indefinable fear had sprung up in him. But it was +only for a moment. Adler had too little imagination and reasoned too +obstinately to foresee remote possibilities. He convinced himself that +the pastor was talking drivel and preaching one of his sermons, so he +laughed and replied in his thick voice: + +"No, no, Martin; I have taken proper precautions to prevent your waves +from returning to me." + +"How can you tell?" + +"The doctor will not come back, nor the leaders of the strike, nor the +fines, nor even Goslawski!" + +"But misfortune may return." + +"No, no, no, it will not return! ... or if it does it will break +against my fists, against the factory, the insurance, the police ... +and above all against my money...." + +It was late when the friends parted. + +"What a fool Martin is!" thought Adler; "he means to frighten me." + +The pastor, driving home in his little cart and looking upwards to the +starlit sky, asked anxiously: "Which of the waves will return?" The +comparison had come into his head unexpectedly, and he looked upon it +as a sort of revelation. He believed firmly that the wave of wrong +would turn; but when? ... which of them would it be?... + + +CHAPTER VI + +Generally, good or bad actions only assume their proper significance +in people's opinion when they are reported in print. It had been known +for a long time that old Adler was an egoist and a sweater, and his +son an egoist and a debauchee. But public opinion had not been raised +against them before the articles on Goslawski's death had been +published. After that the whole neighbourhood became interested in +what was going on at the mill. Everybody knew the extent of +Ferdinand's debts, the sums which old Adler sweated out of his workmen +by reducing their pay, etc. Goslawski was considered to have been a +victim of the father's greed and the son's debauchery. + +Public opinion made itself felt in people's relations to Ferdinand. A +few young men had cut him dead at the request of their parents; others +preserved only the outward forms of politeness. Even from the friends +that stuck to him, and these were not of the best sort, he often heard +remarks which sounded like a provocation. + +Nor was this all. In hotels and restaurants, wineshops and cafes, +though they had made much money out of Ferdinand, newspapers +containing correspondence about Goslawski's death were purposely put +on his table; and when, surrounded by his friends, he once called for +wine and wished to know if a good kind of red wine were to be had, he +got the answer: + +"Yes, sir, red as blood." + +Another man might have been impressed by these manifestations of +general ill-will, and might have gone away for a time, or even changed +his mode of living and exercised some influence over his father. Not +so Ferdinand. He had no desire to work and no intention of giving up +his amusements. Public opinion not only did not distress him--he liked +to provoke it. He judged people's standard by that of the companions +of his revels, and felt sure that sooner or later everybody would +crawl to him. The silent struggle between him and the public excited +him pleasurably, and he saw possibilities of future triumphs in it; +for he was determined to quarrel with the first person who should get +in his way. He felt in desperate need of a quarrel to revive his jaded +nerves and to establish his reputation as a dangerous adversary. In +his own way he delighted in breaking down obstacles, for he was his +father's true son. + +He had a great dislike to a certain Pan Zapora, a landowner and a +judge. This man was of severe and unprepossessing appearance, of +medium height, thick-set, and with overhanging brows. He talked +little, but in a decided way, made no ceremonies with anybody, and +called a spade a spade. But behind his rough exterior he possessed +great intelligence and a wide knowledge, a noble heart and a loyal +character. It was impossible to ingratiate oneself with him either by +politeness, position, or the propounding of theories. With him only +actions counted. He would listen indifferently to talk, looking +sullenly at the speaker and taking his measure all the while. But if +he found a man to be honest he would become his friend for good or +ill. For people with bad character or no character at all he had a +profound contempt. + +Young Adler had met this formidable judge several times, but had never +talked to him, as there had been no opportunity. Zapora neither sought +nor avoided him; his friends knew, however, that when he spoke of +"that fool," he meant Ferdinand, and the more experienced felt sure +that the two men would meet sooner or later in the narrow sphere of +provincial life, and that Adler would then hear a few bitter +home-truths. Ferdinand instinctively felt Zapora's dislike for him; +more than that, he suspected him of being the author of the newspaper +articles. He was in no hurry to make his acquaintance, but he had made +up his mind to pay him out at the first opportunity that offered. + +In the beginning of September the usual fair took place in the little +town, and the noblemen from the surrounding districts were in the +habit of meeting on this occasion. Zapora, who had an office in the +town, settled some pressing affairs, purchased what he needed, and +went to have dinner at the hotel at two o'clock in the afternoon. + +He found a crowd of acquaintances in the dining-room; the tables were +set in one long row and lavishly provided with bottles of wine, mostly +champagne, and the preparations seemed to promise a drinking bout. + +"What is this?" asked Zapora. "Is someone giving a dinner?" + +Among the acquaintances who greeted him was a friend of young Adler's. + +"Just fancy," he said. "Adler is paying for all the dinners to-day, +and anyone who comes is invited. I hope you will not refuse us the +pleasure of your company?" + +Zapora looked at him from the corner of his eye. + +"I do refuse," he replied. + +The young man, who was not remarkable for excessive tact, asked: + +"Why?" + +"Because only old Adler would have the right to ask me to a dinner +paid for with his money, and even if he did ask me I should refuse." + +Another of Ferdinand's friends joined in the conversation. + +"What do you have to throw in the Adlers' teeth?" + +"Not much; only that the father is a sweater and the son a loafer, and +that between the two they do more harm than good." + +Public opinion seemed to be summed up in these words from a man of +personal courage. Adler's friends were silent, the other guests +embarrassed, and the more sensitive took their hats to leave the room. +At that moment the door was flung wide open and Ferdinand hurried in, +accompanied by one of his friends. He noticed the judge at once, and +not knowing what had happened, asked his companion to introduce him. + +"Right you are!" said the friend, advancing towards the judge. + +"What a lucky chance!" he exclaimed. "Adler is just going to give a +dinner here, and as you have fallen into the trap, we will not let you +go. But you don't know one another?" + +There was a general silence in the room during the introduction. + +"Pan Adler--Pan Zapora." + +Ferdinand held out his hand. + +"I have long wished to make your acquaintance." + +"Delighted," said Zapora, without moving. + +Some of the guests smiled maliciously. Ferdinand grew pale; for a +moment he was confused. But he pulled himself together at once and +changed his tactics. + +"I have wished to make your acquaintance," he continued, "in order to +thank you for the correspondence about my father in the newspapers." + +Zapora fixed him with a severe look. + +"About your father?" he asked. "I have written only one letter about +your father, and that was to the village mayor about the summons." + +Adler was boiling with rage. + +"It was myself, then, you wrote about in the comic papers?" + +Zapora did not lose his calmness for an instant. He only gripped his +stick tighter, and said: + +"You are quite mistaken. I leave correspondence in the comic papers to +young men of no occupation who wish to become notorious by any means +at their disposal." + +Adler lost his self-control. + +"You are insulting me!" he shouted. + +"On the contrary, I will not even retract my last statement in order +not to offend you." + +The excited young man was on the point of throwing himself upon +Zapora. + +"You shall give me satisfaction!" he panted. + +"With pleasure." + +"At once!" + +"Well, I must have my dinner first; I am hungry," said Zapora coolly. +"It does not take me more than an hour; after that I shall be at your +disposal in my house." + +And nodding to his acquaintances, he slowly left the room. + +Ferdinand's banquet was not a success. Many of the guests left before +dinner; others shammed gaiety. But Ferdinand himself was in excellent +spirits. His first glass of wine soothed him; the second gave his +excitement a pleasant flavour. He was delighted at the prospect of a +duel, especially of a duel with Zapora, and he had not the slightest +doubt of his success. + +"I shall give him a lesson in shooting," he whispered to one of his +seconds, "and that will be the end of it." + +And he thought: "That will do more to put my position right than any +amount of dinners." + +The more experienced adventurers, of whom there was no lack in the +room, had to admit, when they looked at him, that he had grit and +pluck of a certain kind. + +"Thank Heaven!" said one of them, "our newspapers will at last have +something sensational to talk about." + +"I am only sorry...." said another. + +"For what?" + +"Those bottles that we may see no more." + +"Oh, I hope we shall give them decent burial." + +"I hope we shan't have to do the same with one of the principals." + +"I doubt it. What are the conditions?" + +"Pistols, and to fight till blood flows." + +"Damn it! Whose idea was that?" + +"Adler's." + +"Is he so sure of himself?" + +"He is an excellent shot." + +Towards the end of the dinner it became known that Zapora had accepted +the conditions, and that the duel was to take place the next morning. + +"Gentlemen," said Adler, "I invite you all. We will drink all night." + +"Is that wise?" + +"I always do it before a contre-dance. This is my fourth," said +Ferdinand. + +In another and more respectable restaurant, Zapora's friends were also +discussing what had happened. + +"It is a shame," said one of them, "that a respectable man like Zapora +should have to fight with such a senseless fool." + +"Zapora had no business to fall into the trap." + +"He fell into it by accident, but after that there was no way out of +it." + +"It is a strange thing," said an old nobleman, "that such a +good-for-nothing young fellow as Adler should not only be admitted +into society, but also be at liberty to force a quarrel of this kind +upon a man like Zapora. Formerly that sort of thing would have been +impossible. It is because public opinion is getting slack that +respectable men have to stake their lives. Nevertheless I am sorry for +Zapora." + +"Isn't he a good shot?" + +"Quite fair, but the other is more--he is a real virtuoso." + +At about six o'clock Ferdinand retired to his room in the hotel. He +wanted a little rest between his dinner-party and his night orgy; but +he could not sleep, and began pacing up and down. Then he noticed that +the windows opposite were those of Zapora's office. + +The street was narrow; the office was on the ground floor, and his own +room on the first floor; Ferdinand could therefore closely observe +what was going on. The judge was talking to his clerk and to a +barrister, and showing them some papers. After some time the barrister +took his leave and the clerk went out of the room. The judge was left +alone. + +He placed the lamp on the writing-table, lighted a cigar, and began to +write on a large sheet of paper: first a long heading, then he +continued quickly and evenly. Adler felt sure that the judge was +writing his will. + +Ferdinand had already fought several duels, considering them a kind of +dangerous amusement. But now he became conscious that a duel could +also be a very serious affair, for which one ought to be properly +prepared. But how? + +There was this man writing a will! + +He lay down on his sofa. While he was distinctly conscious of all the +noises going on in the corridor, the remembrance of an incident in his +early boyhood, when the mill had not long been started, came back +vividly to him. He had noticed a small door fastened with a nail in +the engine-room. This door used to interest and alarm him. One day he +took courage, pressed the bent nail aside, and opened the door. He +looked into a small recess; there were a few copper pipes, a coil of +rope and a broom. + +The memory of this little adventure came back to him whenever he was +going to fight a duel, usually at the moment when the seconds had +measured the distance and he saw the barrel of his adversary's pistol +pointed at him and felt the trigger under his own finger. The +mysterious door of Destiny, which is sometimes opened by a bullet, had +so far not revealed anything remarkable to him--merely a wounded +adversary or else a score of champagne bottles emptied with jolly +companions. But what had these duels amounted to? One shot on either +side, for the sake of a prima-donna, or a bet at the races, or a +jostle in the streets. + +To-morrow's affair was of a different kind. Here was he, the son of an +unpopular father, coming forward to fight a man respected by +everybody, and as it were the representative of an offended community. +On the side of his adversary were all those who had the courage to +stand up against Adler, all the workpeople and most of the officials +at the factory. And who was on his side? + +Not his father, for he would not have allowed him to fight; not the +companions of his dissipations, for they felt uncomfortable, and were +only waiting for an opportunity to desert him. Should he wound Zapora, +he would give his enemies fresh cause for indignation; should he be +wounded himself, people would say it was a just punishment on him and +his father. + +What was the meaning of it all? He only wanted to enjoy life along +with everybody else. He had been used to being treated with exquisite +manners by his companions; people had been indulgent, timid with him. +This man, who flung impertinences in his face--where did he spring +from so suddenly? Why had there been no one to warn him? Why should +the follies of his youth come to such a tragic end? + +The mysterious door assumed a sinister aspect. He had a presentiment +that this time it would not conceal pipes, ropes and a broom, but a +notice on a coffin, which he had once seen in an undertaker's shop in +Warsaw: "Lodgings for a single person." + +"The undertaker must have been a wag," Ferdinand thought. + +The hotel sofa was not remarkable for its softness; when Ferdinand +leant his head against its arm, he was reminded of his midnight drives +home in his carriage. For a man in a sitting posture that was +extremely comfortable, but when you lay down it was as uncomfortable +as this sofa. He had the sensation of driving home in it--of the +gentle jostling, the clatter of the horses' hoofs: it is midnight; the +moon, standing high in the sky, lights up the road. The carriage +quivers and then stops. + +"What is the matter?" asks Ferdinand in his dream. + +"Goslawski's arm has been torn off," answers a low voice. + +"Is that the man with the pretty wife?" + +"How sharp he is!" says the same low voice. + +"Sharp? Who is sharp?" says Ferdinand to himself, turning round on the +sofa, away from the scene. But the phantoms do not vanish; he again +sees the crowd of men round the stretcher, and the wounded man, his +arm in blood-soaked wrappings laid on his chest. He can even see the +foreshortening of the shadows on the road. + +"How the man suffers!" whispers Ferdinand. "And he must die--must +die!" He has the sensation of being the man on the stretcher, tortured +with pain, his arm shattered, and of seeing his own face in the cold, +cruel moonlight. + +Whatever had happened? Champagne had never had this effect on him +before. Something entirely new was overpowering, oppressing +him--tearing his heart--boring into his brain; he felt as if he must +shout, run away, hide somewhere. + +Ferdinand jumped up. Dusk was filling the room. + +"What the devil! I seem to be afraid ... afraid!... I?..." + +With difficulty he found the matches, scattered them on the floor, +picked one up, struck it--it went out--struck another, and lighted the +candle. + +He looked at himself in the glass; his face was ashen, and there were +dark circles round his eyes; his pupils were much enlarged. + +"Am I afraid?" he repeated. + +The candle was trembling in his hand. + +"If the pistol is going to jump like that to-morrow, I shall be in a +nice mess!" he thought. + +He looked out of the window. There was Zapora, still sitting at his +desk on the ground floor across the street, writing quietly and +evenly. The sight made Ferdinand shake off his nervousness. His +vivacious temperament got the better of the phantoms. + +"Go on writing, my dear, and I will put the full-stop to it!" + +Steps approached in the corridor, and there was a knock at the door. + +"Get up, Ferdinand, we are ready for the bout!" called a familiar +voice. + +Ferdinand was himself again. If he had had to jump into a precipice +bristling with bayonets, he would not have flinched. When he opened +the door to his friend he greeted him with a hearty laugh. He laughed +at his momentary nervousness, at the phantoms, at the question: "Am I +afraid?" + +No, he was not afraid. He felt again the strength of a lion and the +reckless courage of youth, which fears no danger and has no limits. + +The carouse went on till break of day. The windows of the hotel shook +with the laughter and noise, and the cellars ran empty, so that wine +had to be fetched from elsewhere.... + +At six o'clock four carriages left the town. + + +CHAPTER VII + +For several days heavy bales of cotton had been pouring into the +factory. Adler, expecting a rise in the prices of raw material, had +invested all his available money in the buying up of large quantities. +Only part of it had so far been delivered. + +His calculations had not deceived him; a few days after the contract +was signed the prices rose, and they were still rising. Adler declined +the most advantageous offers for re-sale. He rubbed his hands with +pleasure. This was the best stroke of business he had done for a long +time, and he foresaw that, long before all his raw material had been +made up, his capital would have been trebled. + +"I shall have finished with the mill soon," he said to himself. + +It was a strange thing--from the moment that he saw the goal of his +wishes definitely before him, a hitherto unknown lassitude took +possession of him. He was tired of the mill, and vaguely longed for +other things. Sometimes he begged his son not to go out so much, to +stay at home and talk to him of his travels. More and more often he +would slip over to Pastor Boehme for a talk. + +"I am tired out," he said to him. "Goslawski's death and the riots in +the factory stick in my throat like bones. Do you know that sometimes +I even find myself envying your way of living. But that's all +nonsense; it shows I am getting old." + +And as Goslawski, on whose grave the earth was still fresh, had +counted the days, so the old mill-owner now counted the months of his +stay at the mill. + +"By next July I ought to have made up all the cotton. In June I must +announce the sale of the mill; in August at the latest they must pay +up, for I don't give credit. In September I shall be free. I won't say +anything to Ferdinand until the last moment. How pleased he will be! +Then I shall invest the money and live on the interest; for the rascal +would run through it in a few years' time, and then I should have to +go and be foreman somewhere." + +His love for Ferdinand grew stronger and stronger, and he excused his +obvious neglect of his father. + +"Why should I force the boy to work at the mill, when I am sick of it +myself? And why should he care if I am longing for his company? He +must have young people to amuse himself with; and my amusement +is--work!" + +On the day following the fair the old mill-owner was, as usual, making +the round of all the workshops and offices. Many of his employes had +been in the town, and there was much gossip about the joke Ferdinand +had played upon the neighbourhood. It was said that he had bought up +all the dinners at the hotel, and that every nobleman had to bow to +him before he could obtain anything to eat or to drink. At first Adler +laughed, but when he had reckoned up what this joke was likely to cost +him his face became sullen. + +The vanloads of raw cotton were standing in the courtyard, and were +being unloaded by extra hands. Adler looked on for a while, and then +proceeded on his round of inspection, giving strict orders that no one +was to smoke anywhere. When he turned into his office, he saw two +women talking excitedly to the porter; seeing Adler, they ran away. +But he paid no attention to them. + +A clerk, looking strangely unnerved, came running out of the office; +the book-keeper, the cashier and his assistant, were talking together +in one corner of the room with obvious signs of excitement. At the +sight of their chief they quickly returned to their desks, bending low +over their books. Even this roused no suspicion in Adler. They had +probably been at the fair and were discussing scandal of some sort. + +In his private office Adler found himself face to face with a +stranger. The man was impatient and restless. He was pacing quickly up +and down the room. When the mill-owner entered, he stood still and +asked, in an embarrassed tone: + +"Pan Adler?" + +"Yes; do you wish to see me?" + +For a while the man was silent. His mouth twitched. The mill-owner +looked at him searchingly, trying to guess who he was and what he +wanted. He did not look like a candidate for a post at the mill, but +rather like a rich young gentleman. + +"I have an important affair to discuss with you," he said at last. + +"Perhaps you would rather speak to me at my own house?" said Adler, +realizing that with such an excited person it might be better to talk +out of earshot of the clerks. He might have some claim on him. + +The stranger hesitated for a moment, and then spoke quickly: + +"All right; let us go to the house. I have been there already." + +"Were you looking for me?" + +"Yes; because--you see, Pan Adler, we have taken Ferdinand there." + +The thought of a calamity of any kind was so far from Adler that he +asked quite cheerfully: + +"Was Ferdinand so drunk that you had to bring him home?" + +"He is wounded," replied the stranger. + +They were now in front of the house. Adler stopped. + +"Who is wounded?" he asked. + +"Ferdinand." + +The old man did not comprehend. + +"Has he broken his leg or his neck, or what do you mean?" + +"It is a bullet wound." + +"A bullet? How?" + +"He has had a duel." + +The mill-owner's red face now flushed the colour of brick. He threw +down his hat in the portico and hurried through the open door. He did +not ask who had wounded his son. What did that matter? + +He found the servants and another stranger in the room. Pushing them +aside, he stepped up to where Ferdinand was lying on the couch. The +wounded man was without coat or waistcoat, and his face was so +dreadfully changed that at first the father scarcely recognized his +own son. The doctor was sitting at the head of the couch. Adler +stared, and then fell upon a chair, leant forward with his hands on +his knees, and asked in a stifled voice: + +"What have you been doing, you scamp?" + +Ferdinand gave him a look of indescribable sadness; then he took his +father's hand and kissed it. He had not done this for a long time. + +Adler shuddered and was silent. Ferdinand began to speak in a low +voice and with pauses: + +"I had to ... father ... I had to. Everyone spoke against us, the +nobility, the newspapers, even the waiters. They were saying that I +was squandering the money while you sweated the workpeople. Before +long they would have spat in our faces." + +"Do not exert yourself," whispered the doctor. + +The old man listened with the greatest astonishment and sorrow. His +thick lips were parted. + +"Save me ... father...!" cried Ferdinand with raised voice. "I have +promised ten thousand roubles to the doctor." + +A cloud of displeasure flashed across Adler's face. "Why so much?" he +asked mechanically. + +"Because I am dying ... I feel I am dying." + +The old man started up from his chair. + +"You are mad!" he exclaimed. "You have done a foolish thing, but you +are not going to die!" + +"I am dying," the wounded man groaned. + +Adler, in utter bewilderment, pulled his fingers till the joints +cracked. + +"He is mad! Good Lord! he is out of his mind! Tell him he is silly, +doctor--he speaks of dying.... As if we should allow him to die! You +have been promised ten thousand roubles: that is not enough," +feverishly continued the old man. "I will give a hundred thousand for +my son, if there is the slightest danger. But mind you, I am not going +to pay if he is merely silly. What is his condition?" + +"It is not exactly dangerous," replied the doctor; "yet we must be +careful." + +"Of course! Do you hear him, Ferdinand? Now, don't bother yourself and +me.... Johann! Send a wire to Warsaw for all the best doctors. Send to +Vienna and Berlin--to Paris, if necessary. Let the doctor give you the +addresses of the most famous men. I will pay ... I have enough +money...." + +"Oh, I feel so terribly ill," Ferdinand groaned, tossing about on the +couch. His father hurried to his side. + +"Compose yourself," said the doctor. + +"Father!" cried the dying man; "my father, I cannot see you any more!" + +Blood appeared on his lips. His eyes were dilated with despair. + +"Air!" he cried. + +He jumped up, and with hands outstretched like a blind man he turned +towards the window. Suddenly his arms dropped; he staggered and fell +upon the couch, striking his head against the wall. Once more he +turned towards his father, and opened his eyes with difficulty. Large +tears stood in them. Adler, utterly overcome and trembling all over, +sat down near him, and wiped the tears from his eyes and the froth +from his lips with his large hands. + +"Ferdinand ... Ferdinand," he whispered, "be quiet.... You shall +live.... You shall have all I possess." + +Suddenly he felt his son getting heavy on his arms and dropping. + +"Doctor! Bring him round! He is fainting!" + +"Pan Adler, you had better go out of the room," said the doctor. + +"Why should I go out of the room when my son is in need of my help?" + +"He is no longer in need of it!" + +Adler looked at his son, gripped him tightly, shook him. A large patch +of blood had appeared on the bandage which covered his chest. + +Ferdinand was dead. + +Frenzy seized the old man. He jumped up from the couch, kicked over +the chair, knocked against the doctor, and ran out into the courtyard +and from there into the road. On the road he met one of the +van-drivers bringing in the cotton. He seized him by the shoulders. + +"Do you know my son is dead?" he shouted. + +He flung the man on the ground and ran on to the porter's lodge. + +"Hallo, there! Call up all the men! Let them all come in front of my +house!" + +He ran back to his dead son's room as fast as he had run out of it, +sat down, and looked and looked at him in silence for half an hour. +Then he suddenly started up. + +"What does this silence mean?" he asked. "Has the machinery broken +down?" + +"You ordered all the hands to be called up, sir," answered Johann, "so +they stopped the machinery, and are now waiting in the yard." + +"What for? There is no reason for them to wait! Let them go back to +work, and weave and spin and make a noise...." + +He clasped his head with both hands. + +"My son!... My son!... My son!..." + +Someone had sent for the pastor, and he now came hurrying into the +room, weeping. + +"Gottlieb!" he cried, "God has greatly afflicted you; but let us trust +His mercy." + +Adler gave him a lingering glance, then pointed to his son's dead body +and said: + +"Look, Martin! that is myself; it is not his corpse, it is my own. +There lies my factory, my fortune, my hope. But no! ... he is +alive!... Tell me that, and I shall be calm. How my heart aches!..." + +The pastor led him away into the garden, the doctor and the seconds +left, the servants dispersed. + +"Do you know what is the worst of it?" continued Adler. "In a year's +time, or perhaps sooner, the doctors will discover a way of curing +such wounds; but what will be the good of that to me? I would have +given everything now for such a discovery." + +The pastor took his hand. + +"Gottlieb, how long is it since you have prayed?" + +"I don't know ... thirty--forty years." + +"Do you remember your prayers?" + +"I remember that I had a son." + +"Your son is with the Lord." + +Adler's head dropped. + +"How greedy he is, this Lord!" + +"Do not blaspheme. The time will come when you will meet Him." + +"When?" + +"When your hour strikes." + +The old man looked thoughtful. Then he took his watch from his +pocket, wound it up, listened to the ticking and said: + +"My hour has struck already.... Now you go home, Martin; your wife and +daughter and your church are waiting for you. Go and enjoy yourself, +look after your services, drink your hock, and leave me alone. I am +waiting for the collapse of the whole world, and I shall perish with +it. I have no need of friends, and still less of a pastor. Your +frightened face bores me." + +"Gottlieb, be calm! Pray!" + +"Go to the devil!" + +Adler jumped up, slipped through the garden gate and ran into the +fields. The pastor did not know what to do. He returned to the villa, +feeling that Adler ought to be watched; but the servants were afraid +of their master. He sent for the old book-keeper, and told him he +feared the mill-owner had gone out of his mind and run away. + +"Oh, that doesn't mean anything," said the book-keeper; "he will tire +himself out and come back in a better frame of mind. He often does +that when he is upset." + +The hours passed and evening came, but the old cotton-spinner did not +appear. Never had there been anything like the present excitement in +the factory. Goslawski's death had shaken them, brought home to them +the wrongs they were suffering, and set them against their merciless +employer. But now their feelings were of a different kind. + +The first impression that Ferdinand's sudden death made upon the mill +hands was dismay and fright. They felt as if a thunderbolt had struck +the factory and it were trembling in its foundations, as if the sun +had stood still in the sky. Ferdinand dead? He--so young and strong, a +man who had never had to work, never attended to a machine--the son of +their almighty employer? Quicker than a miserable workman like +Goslawski, he had perished, shot like a hare! To these poor, simple, +dependent people Adler was a severe deity, and more powerful than the +State. They were seized with fear. It seemed to them that this small +landowner and country judge, Zapora, had committed a sacrilege in +shooting Ferdinand. How dared he shoot him, before whom even the +boldest of them had to give way? + +And a strange thing happened. These same people who had daily cursed +the mill-owner and his son now cursed his destroyer. Some of them +shouted that this fiend ought to be shot like a dog. But had the +"fiend" suddenly appeared in their midst, they would certainly have +run away. + +As the discussions went on, some of the foremen explained that Zapora +had not murdered Ferdinand, but that there had been a fight, and +Ferdinand had been the first to shoot. It even transpired that the +cause had been a quarrel about the workpeople--that Ferdinand had +been killed because he spent the money which had been got by wronging +the people. God had punished Adler; their curses had been heard. + +Thus within a few hours a legend was formed round the incident. The +voice of human blood had gone up to the throne of the Almighty, and a +miracle had been worked. They were filled with awe. + +What would happen now? Would their employer cease to wrong them? +Someone suggested that the machinery should be stopped under these +unusual circumstances, but the old book-keeper fell upon him. Stop the +machinery and irritate the boss even more, when he is not quite in his +right mind? He himself had felt quite odd when the machinery had been +stopped before, and they had all gone up to the house. When there is +the clatter it makes one feel easier, and one thinks nothing has +happened. + +The others agreed. + +In the evening Adler returned, and entered the office like a ghost. +Nobody knew when he had come. He was covered with mud, as if he had +been rolling on the ground. His eyes were bloodshot, and his short +flaxen hair stood on end: he was gasping for breath. Hurriedly he ran +through the offices, snapping his fingers. The frightened clerks +pretended to go on with their work. A young man was reading a wire. +Adler went up to him, and asked in a quiet though changed voice: + +"What is that?" + +"Cotton is still going up," the clerk replied. "To-day we have made +six thousand----" + +He did not finish. Adler had torn the message from his hands and +thrown it in his face. + +"You low vermin!" he shouted. "How dare you tell me such a thing! The +very dogs run away from my grief with their tails between their legs, +and you talk to me of six thousand roubles!... Can you bring back a +day--even half a day--to me?" + +Boehme came running into the office. + +"Gottlieb," he cried, "the carriage is waiting; come to my house with +me." + +The mill-owner drew himself up to his full height and put both his +hands in his pockets. + +"Oh, you are there, St. Martin!" he said ironically. "No, I will not +go with you to your house! I will say even more. Not a single farthing +shall I leave to you or your Jozio! Do you hear? I dare say you are a +servant of the Lord, and His wisdom speaks through your tongue, but +not a farthing will you get from me. My fortune belongs to my son." + +"What are you talking about, Gottlieb?" the pastor said, shocked. + +"I am talking plainly. This is a plot to put your son in here to order +the factory people about.... You have killed my son, and you would +like to kill me; but I am not one of those fools who want to spend +their money on the salvation of their souls...." + +"Gottlieb, you suspect me--_me_?" + +Adler seized his hands and looked into his eyes with hatred. + +"Do you remember, Boehme, that you threatened me with God's +punishment? Formerly the Jesuits used to do the same to trick people's +fortune out of them. But I was too clever!... I would not be tricked; +therefore God has punished me. It is not long ago since you threw +corks and sticks on the water, and said the wave would return. But my +poor son will not return." + +Adler had never been so eloquent as at the moment when his reason was +leaving him. He seized the pastor by the shoulders and pushed him out +of the door. Restlessly he began to walk up and down again, and at +last left the office. The gloom of dusk swallowed him up, and the +noise of the machinery drowned his footfalls. + +The clerks were panic-stricken. No one thought of watching him--they +had all lost their heads. They knew how to attend mechanically to +their duties, but no one would have dared to take any responsibility. + +Pastor Boehme dared not give orders either. To whom should he have +given them? Who would have listened to him? + +Events meanwhile took their course. One of the workmen noticed that +the small door leading to the cotton warehouse was open. Before he +could give notice to the foreman, it had been shut again. The +workpeople whispered to one another about thieves and Ferdinand's +repentant ghost. But the clerks rushed to the office to see what had +become of the master-key, and found it gone. + +No doubt Adler himself had taken it. But where was he? The porter had +seen him pass through the gateway, but had not noticed him go out +again, though he said he had been watching closely for him. Who would +undertake to find him in the huge building? + +This time the old book-keeper guessed the danger which threatened the +factory. He called up the foremen, ordered that watchmen should be set +outside the main doors, that the engines should be stopped and the +hands withdrawn from the workshop. But before these orders could be +carried out the sound of the alarm bell was heard from the warehouses. +Smoke and flames were issuing from the openings. The hands, already +demoralized, were seized with panic and left the workrooms in a crowd. +So precipitate was their flight that they forgot to turn out the +lights, left all the doors open, and did not stop the engines. But +they had only just saved themselves when the fire began to break out +in the warehouses containing the manufactured goods. + +"What is this? Someone is setting fire to the mill!" they cried. + +"It is the boss himself! He is setting fire to it!" + +"Where is he?" + +"Nobody knows." + +The fire was breaking out in the spinning and weaving departments. + +"Surely it is Adler himself who is setting the mill alight!" + +"Why should we save it, when he is destroying it?" + +"Who tells you to save it?" + +"But what are we going to eat to-morrow?" + +The shouts of men and the weeping of women and children rose from the +dense crowd of hundreds of human beings, powerless in the face of this +calamity. Rescue was, indeed, impossible. The people looked on +stupefied while the fire spread rapidly. + +The gloomy background of a dark autumn night threw into relief the +burning buildings, lit by fierce, red flames, which burst from all the +openings like torches and played over the crowd gathered in the +courtyard below. Of the main building in the shape of a horseshoe, the +left wing was on fire in the fourth story, and the right on the ground +floor. The workrooms in the middle part of the building were brightly +lighted by gas-lamps, so that the power-looms could be seen moving +quickly to and fro. The walls of the warehouses had almost disappeared +behind a thick veil of smoke and flames. Now the roof of the left wing +was ablaze; on the right the fire had reached the first floor, and the +flames were bursting from the windows. A continuous murmur, scarcely +human, rose from the crowd below. + +Suddenly it stopped. All eyes were turned towards the middle building, +which was still untouched. On the second floor the shadow of a man was +moving backwards and forwards among the looms. Wherever it stopped the +room became lighter. The yarn, the wooden frames of the looms, the +floors soaked with grease, caught fire with incredible rapidity. +Within a few minutes the second floor was alight, and the shadow moved +to the third floor, disappeared, and was seen again on the fourth. + +"Look! It is he!" A shout burst from the terrified crowd. + +Window-panes were blown out, and the glass fell clinking on to the +pavement; floors collapsed under the heavy machinery. In the midst of +the hellish noise, the rain of sparks and the clouds of smoke, the +shadow of the man on the fourth floor was moving about like an +inspector watching workmen. Sometimes it stopped at one of the many +windows, and seemed to look out towards the house and the people. + +The roof of the left wing broke down with a terrific crash. Sheaves +of sparks rose to the sky. Two stories of the cotton warehouse fell +in. The air became unbearably hot. Some of the machines began to move +with a grinding noise, and finally rolled over. The big wheel of the +power-engine, encountering no more resistance, turned with a crazy +rapidity, uttering a weird kind of howl. Walls collapsed; the chimney +fell, and bits of masonry rolled towards the receding crowd. + +From the direction of the gasometer came the dull sound of an +explosion. The gas went out; the middle part of the building was fully +ablaze; the fire reigned supreme. + +Prosperous and full of life an hour ago, the mill was now a raging +furnace, in which its owner sought and found his grave.... + +The wave had returned.... + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] "Eagle." + + + + +BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND + + + * * * * * + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + +Fixed all missing or incorrect punctuation. + +Unusual spellings and hyphenations in original preserved. + + P. viii, dittos changed to "English" or "French" + P. 69, "thoroughtly" to "thoroughly" (at last he thoroughly) + P. 83, "wihch" to "which" (but to which the whole nation) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of More Tales by Polish Authors, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORE TALES BY POLISH AUTHORS *** + +***** This file should be named 35457.txt or 35457.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/4/5/35457/ + +Produced by David Clarke, JoAnn Greenwood and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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