'What else? Do you know they have had the police searching for you?'
'Ivan Pavlovich... Well, that was wrong of me, perhaps. I did tell
Valya, but I suppose that doesn't count. All right. But do you mean to
say they're going to expel me because I went off on holiday-where do
you think?-to my hometown where I haven't been for eight years?'
I knew there was going to be ructions when Korablev mentioned the
police, and I wasn't mistaken. He went for me baldheaded, shouting at
the top of his voice, and I could only slip in an occasional timid: 'Ivan
Pavlovich!' 'Hold your tongue!'
And he would pause himself for a moment, but only to draw breath
for a renewed attack.
121
It slowly dawned on me that I really had a lot to answer for. But
would they really expel me? If they did, then all was lost. It was goodbye
to flying school. Goodbye to life! Korablev stopped at last.
'Your behaviour has been outrageous!' he said.
'Ivan Pavlovich,' I began in a voice that was croaky, rather than
tremulous. 'I'm not going to argue with you, though on many points you
are not right. But never mind. You don't want them to expel me, do
you?'
Korablev was silent, then he said: 'And if I don't?'
'Then tell me what I have to do?'
'You must apologise to Likho.'
'All right. But first let him-'
'I've spoken to him!' Korablev interrupted with annoyance. 'He's
crossed out the 'idealism'. But the mark remains the same. Secondly,
you must apologise to Romashka too.'
'Never!'
'But you admitted yourself that it wasn't right.'
'All the same. You can expel me, but I won't apologise to him.'
'Look here, Sanya,' Korablev said gravely, 'I had great difficulty in
persuading them to call you before a meeting of the Teachers' Council.
But now I'm beginning to regret taking all that trouble. If you come
there and start saying your 'Never! You can expel me!' they'll expel you
for certain. You may be sure of that.'
He laid special emphasis on these words and I understood from his
expression whom he had in mind. Nikolai Antonich immediately
appeared before me, suave, smooth-spoken and verbose. That one
would do everything to get me expelled.
'I don't think you have the right to risk your whole future through
petty vanity.'
'It isn't petty vanity, it's a point of honour!' I said warmly. 'Would you
have me hush up this Romashka affair just because it affects Nikolai
Antonich, who has the power to decide whether I'm to be expelled or
not? Would you have me act so meanly? Never! I know why he'll insist
on having me expelled. He wants to get rid of me, wants me to go away
somewhere so's not to meet Katya. Not likely! I'll tell them everything at
the Teachers' Council. I'll tell them that Romashka is a cad and only a
cad would apologise to him.' Korablev became thoughtful.
'Wait a minute,' he said. 'You say Romashov eavesdrops on the boys
and then reports to Nikolai Antonich what they say about him. But how
can you prove it?' 'I have a witness—Valya.' 'Valya whom?' 'Zhukov.'
'H'm that's interesting,' Korablev said. 'Why has Valya kept quiet
about this? He's your chum, isn't he?'
'Romashka has some influence over him. He looks at him at night,
and Valya can't stand it. Besides, he made Valya give his word of honour
he would not babble about what Romashka had told him. Valya's a fool,
of course, to have given his word of honour, but once he's given it he
must keep his mouth shut. Isn't that so?'
Korablev stood up. He paced the room, took out a comb and tidied his
moustache, then his eyebrows, and then his moustache again. He was
thinking. My heart hammered, but I did not say another word. I let him
think. I even breathed more quietly so's not to distract him.
122
'Very well, Sanya. You're not schooled in cunning, anyway,' Korablev
said at last. 'Put the thing to the Teachers' Council exactly the way you
have told me. But on one condition—'
'What's that, Ivan Pavlovich?'
'That you keep cool. You just said, for instance, that Nikolai Antonich
wants to get you expelled because of Katya. You shouldn't say that at the
Council meeting.'
'Ivan Pavlovich, what do you take me for? Don't I understand?'
'You understand, all right, but you get too excited. I tell you what,
Sanya, let's make this arrangement. I'll keep my hand on the table like
this, palm downwards, and you'll keep your eye on it as you speak. If I
start drumming the table, that means you're getting excited. If I don't,
you aren't.'
'All right, Ivan Pavlovich. Thank you. When's the meeting?'
'Today at three. But they'll call you in a bit later.'
He asked me to send Valya to him and we parted.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I BURN MY BOATS
It was an ordinary meeting in our small teachers' room, at a table
covered with a blue cloth with ragged tassels. But it seemed to me that
they were all looking at me with a sort of enigmatic, meaningful
expression. Korablev gave a laugh when I came in, and I thought:
'That's on purpose.'
'Well, Grigoriev,' Nikolai Antonich began in a mild tone, 'you know,
of course, why we have called you to this meeting. You have distressed
us, and not only us, but, I may say, the whole school. Distress us by your
wanton behaviour, which is unworthy of the human society in which we
live, and to whose development we must contribute to the best of our
ability and powers.'
I said:
