The Cossacks: A Tale of 1852 Read online

  Chapter IX

  It was growing light. The Chechen's body which was gently rocking inthe shallow water was now clearly visible. Suddenly the reeds rustlednot far from Luke and he heard steps and saw the feathery tops of thereeds moving. He set his gun at full cock and muttered: 'In the name ofthe Father and of the Son,' but when the cock clicked the sound ofsteps ceased.

  'Hallo, Cossacks! Don't kill your Daddy!' said a deep bass voicecalmly; and moving the reeds apart Daddy Eroshka came up close to Luke.

  'I very nearly killed you, by God I did!' said Lukashka.

  'What have you shot?' asked the old man.

  His sonorous voice resounded through the wood and downward along theriver, suddenly dispelling the mysterious quiet of night around theCossack. It was as if everything had suddenly become lighter and moredistinct.

  'There now. Uncle, you have not seen anything, but I've killed abeast,' said Lukashka, uncocking his gun and getting up with unnaturalcalmness.

  The old man was staring intently at the white back, now clearlyvisible, against which the Terek rippled.

  'He was swimming with a log on his back. I spied him out! ... Lookthere. There! He's got blue trousers, and a gun I think.... Do yousee?' inquired Luke.

  'How can one help seeing?' said the old man angrily, and aserious and stern expression appeared on his face. 'You've killed abrave,' he said, apparently with regret.

  'Well, I sat here and suddenly saw something dark on the other side. Ispied him when he was still over there. It was as if a man had comethere and fallen in. Strange! And a piece of driftwood, a good-sizedpiece, comes floating, not with the stream but across it; and what do Isee but a head appearing from under it! Strange! I stretched out of thereeds but could see nothing; then I rose and he must have heard, thebeast, and crept out into the shallow and looked about. "No, youdon't!" I said, as soon as he landed and looked round, "you won't getaway!" Oh, there was something choking me! I got my gun ready but didnot stir, and looked out. He waited a little and then swam out again;and when he came into the moonlight I could see his whole back. "In thename of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost"... and throughthe smoke I see him struggling. He moaned, or so it seemed to me. "Ah,"I thought, "the Lord be thanked, I've killed him!" And when he driftedonto the sand-bank I could see him distinctly: he tried to get up butcouldn't. He struggled a bit and then lay down. Everything could beseen. Look, he does not move--he must be dead! The Cossacks have goneback to the cordon in case there should be any more of them.'

  'And so you got him!' said the old man. 'He is far away now, my lad!...' And again he shook his head sadly.

  Just then the sound reached them of breaking bushes and the loud voicesof Cossacks approaching along the bank on horseback and on foot. 'Areyou bringing the skiff?' shouted Lukashka.

  'You're a trump, Luke! Lug it to the bank!' shouted one of the Cossacks.

  Without waiting for the skiff Lukashka began to undress, keeping an eyeall the while on his prey.

  'Wait a bit, Nazarka is bringing the skiff,' shouted the corporal.

  'You fool! Maybe he is alive and only pretending! Take your dagger withyou!' shouted another Cossack.

  'Get along,' cried Luke, pulling off his trousers. He quickly undressedand, crossing himself, jumped, plunging with a splash into the river.Then with long strokes of his white arms, lifting his back high out ofthe water and breathing deeply, he swam across the current of the Terektowards the shallows. A crowd of Cossacks stood on the bank talkingloudly. Three horsemen rode off to patrol. The skiff appeared round abend. Lukashka stood up on the sandbank, leaned over the body, and gaveit a couple of shakes.

  'Quite dead!' he shouted in a shrill voice.

  The Chechen had been shot in the head. He had on a pair of bluetrousers, a shirt, and a Circassian coat, and a gun and dagger weretied to his back. Above all these a large branch was tied, and it wasthis which at first had misled Lukashka.

  'What a carp you've landed!' cried one of the Cossacks who hadassembled in a circle, as the body, lifted out of the skiff, was laidon the bank, pressing down the grass.

  'How yellow he is!' said another.

  'Where have our fellows gone to search? I expect the rest of them areon the other bank. If this one had not been a scout he would not haveswum that way. Why else should he swim alone?' said a third.

  'Must have been a smart one to offer himself before the others; aregular brave!' said Lukashka mockingly, shivering as he wrung out hisclothes that had got wet on the bank.

  'His beard is dyed and cropped.'

  'And he has tied a bag with a coat in it to his back.'

  'That would make it easier for him to swim,' said some one.

  'I say, Lukashka,' said the corporal, who was holding the dagger andgun taken from the dead man. 'Keep the dagger for yourself and the coattoo; but I'll give you three rubles for the gun. You see it has a holein it,' said he, blowing into the muzzle. 'I want it just for asouvenir.'

  Lukashka did not answer. Evidently this sort of begging vexed him buthe knew it could not be avoided.

  'See, what a devil!' said he, frowning and throwing down the Chechen'scoat. 'If at least it were a good coat, but it's a mere rag.'

  'It'll do to fetch firewood in,' said one of the Cossacks.

  'Mosev, I'll go home,' said Lukashka, evidently forgetting his vexationand wishing to get some advantage out of having to give a present tohis superior.

  'All right, you may go!'

  'Take the body beyond the cordon, lads,' said the corporal, stillexamining the gun, 'and put a shelter over him from the sun. Perhapsthey'll send from the mountains to ransom it.'

  'It isn't hot yet,' said someone.

  'And supposing a jackal tears him? Would that be well?' remarkedanother Cossack.

  'We'll set a watch; if they should come to ransom him it won't do forhim to have been torn.'

  'Well, Lukashka, whatever you do you must stand a pail of vodka for thelads,' said the corporal gaily.

  'Of course! That's the custom,' chimed in the Cossacks. 'See what luckGod has sent you! Without ever having seen anything of the kind before,you've killed a brave!'

  'Buy the dagger and coat and don't be stingy, and I'll let you have thetrousers too,' said Lukashka. 'They're too tight for me; he was a thindevil.'

  One Cossack bought the coat for a ruble and another gave the price oftwo pails of vodka for the dagger.

  'Drink, lads! I'll stand you a pail!' said Luke. 'I'll bring it myselffrom the village.'

  'And cut up the trousers into kerchiefs for the girls!' said Nazarka.

  The Cossacks burst out laughing.

  'Have done laughing!' said the corporal. 'And take the body away. Whyhave you put the nasty thing by the hut?'

  'What are you standing there for? Haul him along, lads!' shoutedLukashka in a commanding voice to the Cossacks, who reluctantly tookhold of the body, obeying him as though he were their chief. Afterdragging the body along for a few steps the Cossacks let fall the legs,which dropped with a lifeless jerk, and stepping apart they then stoodsilent for a few moments. Nazarka came up and straightened the head,which was turned to one side so that the round wound above the templeand the whole of the dead man's face were visible. 'See what a mark hehas made right in the brain,' he said. 'He won't get lost. His ownerswill always know him!' No one answered, and again the Angel of Silenceflew over the Cossacks.

  The sun had risen high and its diverging beams were lighting up thedewy grass. Near by, the Terek murmured in the awakened wood and,greeting the morning, the pheasants called to one another. The Cossacksstood still and silent around the dead man, gazing at him. The brownbody, with nothing on but the wet blue trousers held by a girdle overthe sunken stomach, was well shaped and handsome. The muscular arms laystretched straight out by his sides; the blue, freshly shaven, roundhead with the clotted wound on one side of it was thrown back. Thesmooth tanned forehead contrasted sharply with the shaven part of thehead. The open glassy eyes with lowered pupils
stared upwards, seemingto gaze past everything. Under the red trimmed moustache the fine lips,drawn at the corners, seemed stiffened into a smile of good-naturedsubtle raillery. The fingers of the small hands covered with red hairswere bent inward, and the nails were dyed red.

  Lukashka had not yet dressed. He was wet. His neck was redder and hiseyes brighter than usual, his broad jaws twitched, and from his healthybody a hardly perceptible steam rose in the fresh morning air.

  'He too was a man!' he muttered, evidently admiring the corpse.

  'Yes, if you had fallen into his hands you would have had shortshrift,' said one of the Cossacks.

  The Angel of Silence had taken wing. The Cossacks began bustling aboutand talking. Two of them went to cut brushwood for a shelter, othersstrolled towards the cordon. Luke and Nazarka ran to get ready to go tothe village.

  Half an hour later they were both on their way homewards, talkingincessantly and almost running through the dense woods which separatedthe Terek from the village.

  'Mind, don't tell her I sent you, but just go and find out if herhusband is at home,' Luke was saying in his shrill voice.

  'And I'll go round to Yamka too,' said the devoted Nazarka. 'We'll havea spree, shall we?'

  'When should we have one if not to-day?' replied Luke.

  When they reached the village the two Cossacks drank, and lay down tosleep till evening.