The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories Part 30

"Certainly, certainly,"--retorted Naum;--"as though one could trust thee!"

"But thou canst, by G.o.d, thou canst!"--said Efrem; "really, thou canst.

I 'm ready to go bail for Akim Semyonitch with my head--come now, really!"

"Nonsense!"--exclaimed Naum.--"Let 's be off!"

Akim looked at him.

"As thou wilt, Naum Ivanitch. Thou hast the power. Only, thou art taking a great deal on thy soul. All right, if thou art impatient,--let us start...."

Naum, in his turn, darted a keen glance at Akim. "But it really would be better,"--he thought to himself, "to let him go to the devil! Otherwise, folks will devour me alive. There 'll be no living for Avdotya."....

While Naum was reasoning with himself no one uttered a single word. The labourer on the cart, who could see everything through the gate, merely shook his head and slapped the reins on the horse's back. The other two labourers stood on the porch and also maintained silence.

"Come, listen to me, old man,"--began Naum;--"if I let thee go,--and I forbid these fine fellows" (he nodded his head in the direction of the labourers) "to blab; shall we be quits, thou and I--thou understandest me--quits .... hey?"

"Possess everything, I say."

"Thou wilt not consider me in thy debt?"

"Thou wilt not be in debt to me, neither shall I be in debt to thee."

Again Naum was silent for a s.p.a.ce.

"Well, take thy oath on that!"

"I do, as G.o.d is holy,"--replied Akim.

"Here goes then, although I know beforehand that I shall repent of it,"--remarked Naum.--"But so be it! Give me your hands."

Akim turned his back toward him; Naum began to unbind him.

"Look out, old man,"--he added, as he slipped the rope over his wrists:--"remember, I have spared thee; be careful!"

"You 're a dear, Naum Ivanitch,"--stammered the deeply-moved Efrem.--"The Lord will be merciful to you!"

Akim stretched out his chilled and swollen arms, and was starting for the gate....

All of a sudden Naum "turned Jewish," as the expression is--evidently, he was sorry that he had released Akim....

"Thou hast taken an oath, look out,"--he shouted after him.

Akim turned round, and surveying the house with an embracing glance, said sadly:--"Possess thou everything, forever, undisturbed ....

farewell."

And he stepped quietly into the street, accompanied by Efrem. Naum waved his hand, ordered the cart to be unharnessed, and went back into the house.

"Whither away, Akim Semyonitch? Art not thou coming to my house?"--exclaimed Efrem,--perceiving that Akim turned to the right from the highway.

"No, Efremushka, thanks,"--replied Akim.... "I will go and see what my wife is doing."

"Thou canst see later on.... But now thou must for joy .. thou knowest ...."

"No, thanks, Efrem.... I 've had enough as it is. Farewell."--And Akim walked away without looking behind him.

"Eka! He has had enough as it is!"--e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the astounded chanter;--"and I have taken my oath on his behalf! Well, I did n't expect this,"--he added with vexation,--"after I had vouched for him.

Phew!"

He remembered that he had forgotten to take his knife and pot, and returned to the inn.... Naum gave orders that his things should be delivered to him, but it never entered his head to entertain him.

Thoroughly enraged and completely sober he presented himself at home.

"Well, what?"--his wife asked him;--"didst thou find him?"

"Did I find him?"--retorted Efrem;--"certainly I found him; there are thy utensils for thee."

"Akim?"--inquired his wife, with special emphasis.

Efrem nodded his head.

"Yes, Akim. But what a goose he is! I went bail for him; without me he would have been put in prison, and he never even treated me to a gla.s.s of liquor. Ulyana Feodorovna, do you, at least, show me consideration; give me just one little gla.s.s."

But Ulyana Feodorovna showed him no consideration and drove him out of her sight.

In the meantime, Akim was proceeding with quiet strides along the road which led to Lizaveta Prokhorovna's village. He had not yet been able fully to recover himself; he was all quivering inside, like a man who has but just escaped imminent death. He seemed not to believe in his freedom. With dull amazement he stared at the fields, at the sky, at the larks which were fluttering their wings in the warm air. On the previous day, at Efrem's house, he had not slept at all since dinner, although he had lain motionless on the oven; at first he had tried to drown with liquor the intolerable pain of injury within him, the anguish of wrathful, impotent indignation .... but the liquor could not entirely overcome him; his heart waxed hot within him, and he began to meditate how he might pay off his malefactor.... He thought of Naum alone; Lizaveta Prokhorovna did not enter his head, and from Avdotya he mentally turned away. Toward evening, the thirst for revenge had blazed up in him to the point of crime, and he, the good-natured, weak man, with feverish impatience waited for the night, and like a wolf pouncing on its prey, he rushed forth with fire in his hand to annihilate his former home... But he had been captured .... locked up.... Night came.

What had not he turned over in his mind during that atrocious night! It is difficult to convey in words all the tortures which he had undergone; it is all the more difficult, because these torments even in the man himself were wordless and dumb.... Toward morning, before the arrival of Naum and Efrem, Akim had felt somewhat easier in mind... "Everything is lost!".... he thought .... "everything is scattered to the winds!"--and he waved his hand in despair over everything.... If he had been born with an evil soul, he might have turned into a criminal at that moment; but evil was not a characteristic of Akim. Beneath the shock of the unexpected and undeserved calamity, in the reek of despair, he had made up his mind to a felonious deed; it had shaken him to the very foundations, and, having miscarried, it had left behind in him a profound weariness.... Conscious of his guilt, he wrenched his heart free from all earthly things, and began to pray bitterly but zealously.

At first he prayed in a whisper, at last, accidentally, perhaps, he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed almost aloud: "O Lord!"--and the tears gushed from his eyes.... Long did he weep, then calmed down at last.... His thoughts probably would have undergone a change, had he been forced to smart for his attempt of the day before ... but now he had suddenly recovered his liberty ... and, half-alive, all shattered, but calm, he was on his way to an interview with his wife.

Lizaveta Prokhorovna's manor stood a verst and a half distant from her village, on the left-hand side of the country road along which Akim was walking. At the turn which led to the manor, he was on the point of pausing .... but he marched past. He had decided first to go to his former cottage, to his old uncle.

Akim's tiny and already rickety cottage was situated almost at the extreme end of the village; Akim traversed the entire length of the street without encountering a single soul. The whole population was in church. Only one ailing old woman lifted her window to gaze after him, and a little girl, who had run out to the well with an empty bucket, gaped in wonder at him and also followed him with her eyes. The first person whom he met was precisely the uncle whom he was seeking. The old man had been sitting since early morning on the earthen bank outside the cottage under the windows, taking snuff, and warming himself in the sun; he was not quite well, and for that reason had not gone to church; he was on his way to see another ailing old man, a neighbour, when he suddenly espied Akim.... He stopped short, let the latter come up to him, and looking him in the face, he said:

"Morning, Akimushka!"

"Morning,"--replied Akim, and stepping past the old man, he entered the gate to his cottage.... In the yard stood his horses, his cow, his cart; and his chickens were roaming about there also.... He entered the cottage in silence. The old man followed him. Akim seated himself on the bench, and rested his clenched fists on it. The old man gazed compa.s.sionately at him, from his stand at the door.

"And where is my housewife?"--inquired Akim.

"Why, at the manor-house,"--replied the old man, briskly. "She is there.

They have placed thy cattle here, and thy coffers, just as they were--but she is yonder. Shall I go for her?"

Akim did not reply immediately.

"Yes, go,"--he said at last.

"Ekh, uncle, uncle,"--he articulated with a sigh, while the latter was taking his cap from its nail:--"dost thou remember what thou saidst to me on the eve of my wedding?"

"G.o.d's will rules all things, Akimushka."

"Dost thou remember how thou saidst to me that I was no fit mate for you peasants--and now see what a pa.s.s things have come to.... I myself have become as poor as a church mouse."

"A man can't make calculations against bad people,"--replied the old man;--"and as for him, the dishonest scoundrel, if any one were to teach him a good lesson, some gentleman, for instance, or any other power,--what cause would there be to fear him? The wolf recognised his prey."--And the old man put on his cap and departed.