Part 13 (1/2)

”Yatsek!”

”I am listening.”

”Since thou hast come to this conflict, remember the Knights of Tachevo.”

”They will not be ashamed of me, father, they will not.”

And the priest remarked that Yatsek's face had grown pitiless, his eyes had their usual sadness, but the maiden mildness had gone from them.

”That is well. Kneel down now,” said he. ”I will bless thee, and make thou the sign of the cross on thyself before opening the struggle.”

Then he made the sign of the cross on Yatsek's head as he knelt on the snow there.

The young man tied the horse behind the sleigh at the side of the poor little nag of the peasant, kissed the priest's hand, and walked off toward that crucifix at the place of the duel.

”Come back to me in health!” cried the priest after Yatsek.

At the cross there was no one. Yatsek pa.s.sed around the figure repeatedly, then sat on a stone at the foot of the crucifix and waited.

Round about immense silence was brooding; only great tear-like drops, formed of dense haze, and falling from the arms of the crucifix, struck with low sound the soft snow bank. That quiet, filled with a certain sadness, and that hazy desert, filled with a new wave of sorrow the heart of the young man. He felt lonely to a point never known to him earlier. ”Indeed I am as much alone in the world as that stick there,”

said he to himself, ”and thus shall I be till death comes to me.” And he waved his hand. ”Well, let it end some time!”

With growing bitterness he thought that his opponents were not in a hurry, because they were joyous. They were sitting at Pan Gideon's conversing with ”her,” and they could look at ”her” as much as might please them.

But he was mistaken, for they too were hastening. After a while the sound of loud talking came up to him, and in the white haze quivered the four immense forms of the Bukoyemskis, and a fifth one,--that of Pan Stanislav, somewhat smaller.

They talked in loud voices, for they were quarrelling about this: who should fight first with Tachevski. For that matter the Bukoyemskis were always disputing among themselves about something, but this time their dispute struck Stanislav, who was trying to show them that he, as the most deeply offended, should in that fight be the first man. All grew silent, however, in view of the cross, and of Yatsek standing under it.

They removed their caps, whether out of respect for the Pa.s.sion of Christ, or in greeting to their enemy, may be left undecided.

Yatsek inclined to them in silence, and drew his weapon, but the heart in his breast beat unquietly at the first moment, for they were in every case five against one, and besides, the Bukoyemskis had simply a terrible aspect,--big fellows, broad shouldered, with broomlike mustaches, on which the fog had settled down in blue dewdrops; their brows were forbidding, and in their faces was a kind of brooding and murderous enjoyment, as if this chance to spill blood caused them gladness.

”Why do I place this sound head of mine under the Evangelists?” thought Yatsek. But at that moment of alarm, indignation at those roysterers seized him,--those men whom he hardly knew, whom he had never injured, but who, G.o.d knew for what reason, had fastened to him, and had come now to destroy him if possible.

So in spirit he said to them: ”Wait a while, O ye road-blockers! Ye have brought your lives. .h.i.ther!”

His cheeks took on color, and his teeth gritted fiercely. They, meanwhile, stripped their coats off and rolled up the sleeves of their jupans. This they did without need all together, but they did it since each thought that he was to open the duel.

At last they all stood in a row with drawn sabres, and Yatsek, stepping towards them, halted, and they looked at one another in silence.

Pan Stanislav interrupted them,--

”I will serve you first.”

”No! I first, I first!” repeated all the Bukoyemskis in a chorus.

And when Stanislav pushed forward they seized him by the elbows.

Again a quarrel began, in which Stanislav reviled them as outlaws. They jeered at him as a dandy, among themselves the term ”dogbrother” was frequent. Yatsek was shocked at this, and added,--

”I have never seen cavaliers of this kind.” And he put his sabre into the scabbard.