Part 38 (2/2)

They put on a very unconcerned demeanour, and, as is always the case in such a conjuncture, behaved in the prettiest manner all that evening and night. ”We won't give them any handle anyhow,” was the general feeling.

The question with the authorities was whether some among us were not in complicity with those who had got away, so a careful watch was kept over our doings, and a careful ear for our conversations; but nothing came of it.

”Not such fools, those fellows, as to leave anybody behind who was in the secret!”

”When you go at that sort of thing you lie low and play low!”

”Koulikoff and A--v know enough to have covered up their tracks. They've done the trick in first-rate style, keeping things to themselves; they've mizzled, the rascals; clever chaps, those, they could get through shut doors!”

The glory of Koulikoff and A--v had grown a hundred cubits higher than it was. Everybody was proud of them. Their exploit, it was felt, would be handed down to the most distant posterity, and outlive the jail itself.

”Rattling fellows, those!” said one.

”Can't get away from here, eh? _That's_ their notion, is it? Just look at those chaps!”

”Yes,” said a third, looking very superior, ”but who _is_ it that has got away? Tip-top fellows. _You_ can't hold a candle to them.”

At any other time the man to whom anything of that sort was said would have replied angrily enough, and defended himself; now the observation was met with modest silence.

”True enough,” was said. ”Everybody's not a Koulikoff or an A--v, you've got to show what you're made of before you've a right to speak.”

”I say, pals, after all, why do we remain in the place?” struck in a prisoner seated by the kitchen window; he spoke drawlingly, but the man, you could see, enjoyed it all; he slowly rubbed his cheek with the palm of his hand. ”Why do we stop? It's no life at all, we've been buried, though we're alive and kicking. Now _isn't_ it so?”

”Oh, curse it, you can't get out of prison as easy as shaking off an old boot. I tell you it sticks to your calves. What's the good of pulling a long face over it?”

”But, look here; there is Koulikoff now,” began one of the most eager, a mere lad.

”Koulikoff!” exclaimed another, looking askance at the young fellow.

”Koulikoff! They don't turn out Koulikoffs by the dozen.”

”And A--v, pals, there's a lad for you!”

”Aye, aye, he'll get Koulikoff just where he wants him, as often as he wants him. He's up to everything, he is.”

”I wonder how far they've got; that's what _I_ want to know,” said one.

Then the talk went off into details: Had they got far from the town?

What direction did they go off in? _Which_ gave them the best chance?

Then they discussed distances, and as there were convicts who knew the neighbourhood well, these were attentively listened to.

Next, they talked over the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages, of whom they seemed to think as badly as possible. There was n.o.body in the neighbourhood, the convicts believed, who would hesitate at all as to the course to be pursued; nothing would induce them to help the runaways; quite the other way, these people would hunt them down.

”If you only knew what bad fellows these peasants are! Rascally brutes!”

”Peasants, indeed! Worthless scamps!”

”These Siberians are as bad as bad can be. They think nothing of killing a man.”

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