Part 17 (1/2)

They all began to laugh, the old man no less than the rest.

A general conversation was started, at first about different countries and customs, but soon reverting to burning local questions.

'What's wrong with Andshay? He's in trouble. There's no trace of his boy.'

'None?'

'A pity! He was a st.u.r.dy lad!'

'Have they found nothing?'

'No. All the neighbours have been out to search; they've searched the lakes, they've searched the wood, they've been searching for a whole week. But there's nothing,--nothing.'

'Ah!--sure to be a bear. They say one appeared in the valley; Kecherges saw him,' muttered the fisherman, who had arrived with me.

At the word, 'bear,' Chachak, who was standing by the fire, silently playing with his fingers, suddenly looked up. Everyone stopped talking, and involuntarily turned towards him. His old wife nervously tried to change the subject.

'A bear! Where was he seen?' Chachak asked quickly in a low tone, sitting down on the bench.

'Oh! Who can tell? Perhaps it wasn't one either,' the fisherman answered hesitatingly.

'A bear,--depend upon it!' Chachak said slowly. 'They have found neither flesh nor clothes:--”He” usually buries the remains of his prey in the ground,--”He” even sc.r.a.pes the blood off. That's just what ”He” does. You say Kecherges saw ”Him?”' he again asked the fisherman.

'Lies!' the latter answered evasively.

'Oh! ”He”'s clever, ”He”'s sly and revengeful! Andshay must have done something to ”Him” in order to be able to boast of it, or to have something to talk about. ”He” remembers insults a long time, that's why ”He” has carried the boy off. Although ”He” lives far away, ”He”

hears in the mountains and forest quite well what we are saying here, and understands like a man,--better than a man! Who knows what ”He”

is? Skin ”Him,” and you will see how like a woman ”He” is. But ”He”'s revengeful,--and terribly fierce,' Chachak added, looking down. '”He”

doesn't forgive!'

'You Russian,'--he turned to me suddenly,--'be ready for ”Him” on the road. Take care! Take care! Though a bear is big, ”He” can go as quietly as a shadow when ”He” wants to fall upon a man unawares. I advise you to stay the night with us; there's no joking with ”Him”!

Once I was not afraid either, but now;--there--look!' He undid his s.h.i.+rt sleeve. It was a terrible sight. The left shoulder, which, as I had previously noticed, the old man could make little use of, was shrunk and thin to the elbow, like a mere bone covered with skin, and those veins and muscles which were unscathed, wound round the bone close to the surface. There was a ma.s.s of white scars, crossing in different directions.

'I have killed many,--many!' he continued, 'and now I know that they will eat me for it,--eat me because I'm afraid. It happened like this.

It was rather later in the season than this; it was freezing. I got ready my spring-gun for elk-shooting, and G.o.d gave me one of these big beasts. To have carted its flesh, skin, and inside along a bad road would have needed seven or eight horses. So I decided to build a larder on the spot, and to lay the elk in it for a time, till the road became frozen. I and my boy set out early to work. The lad was lingering a little way behind me, and I was walking quite quietly along the road, and had just pa.s.sed the willow which grows on the hill not far from here, when ”He” came upon me. He ran towards me like a dog, and before I could look round ”He” was already standing on his hind-legs. I reached out for my knife, but tried in vain to drag it from the sheath. There was a night frost, and on coming out of the house I had not wiped my knife, as I should, after eating, so it had frozen to the sheath. It was G.o.d's hand!--So the ”Black One” knocked me down. Finding myself overpowered, I seized him by the throat with my right hand, and laid the left on his jaws, and called to the boy to run for help. The silly boy jumped on him, and--whack!--went his pocket knife into the bear;--he had a little knife that size,' and Chachak measured with his finger. '”You want to eat my father!” he shouted. The Black One was frightened, and jumped into the bushes. But the boy had hit me in the chest with his knife, and I should have been killed, had it been able to pierce the stag's hide. They could scarcely bring me round again.'

'And you see from that time, when ”He,” sitting on me, looked into my eyes, my mind has been troubled. I am afraid,' he added quietly, 'very much afraid.'

Not long after I took leave of my kind hosts, and went home. The moon was s.h.i.+ning brightly, the mist had disappeared, and the well-known foot-path shone white before me. I had gone along it a thousand times without fear or thought of evil, but this time when I neared the place where Chachak had been attacked I involuntarily fingered my knife-handle, and for a moment I seemed to see the monster lying in the shadow of the bushes, its s.h.a.ggy muzzle on its outstretched paws.

A few years later I heard that Chachak had disappeared without trace in the wood: the 'forest lords' had doubtless accomplished their revenge.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] 'Talaki,' Yakut for 'water-willow.'