distance--that was all.
He went back towards his bed.
'Knock ... knock ... knock!'
Tyeglev instantly turned round and sat down.
'Knock ... knock ... knock!'
He rapidly put on his boots, threw his overcoat over his shoulders and
unhooking his sword from the wall, went out of the hut. I heard him
walk round it twice, asking all the time, 'Who is there? Who goes
there? Who is knocking?' Then he was suddenly silent, stood still
outside near the corner where I was lying and without uttering another
word, came back into the hut and lay down without taking off his boots
and overcoat.
'Knock ... knock ... knock!' I began again. 'Knock ... knock ...
knock!'
But Tyeglev did not stir, did not ask who was knocking, and merely
propped his head on his hand.
Seeing that this no longer acted, after an interval I pretended to
wake up and, looking at Tyeglev, assumed an air of astonishment.
'Have you been out?' I asked.
'Yes,' he answered unconcernedly.
'Did you still hear the knocking?'
'Yes.'
'And you met no one?'
'No.'
'And did the knocking stop?'
'I don't know. I don't care now.'
'Now? Why now?'
Tyeglev did not answer.
I felt a little ashamed and a little vexed with him. I could not bring
myself to acknowledge my prank, however.
'Do you know what?' I began, 'I am convinced that it was all your
imagination.'
Tyeglev frowned. 'Ah, you think so!'
'You say you heard a knocking?'
'It was not only knocking I heard.'
'Why, what else?'
Tyeglev bent forward and bit his lips. He was evidently hesitating.
'I was called!' he brought out at last in a low voice and turned away
his face.
'You were called? Who called you?'
'Someone....' Tyeglev still looked away. 'A woman whom I had hitherto
only believed to be dead ... but now I know it for certain.'
'I swear, Ilya Stepanitch,' I cried, 'this is all your imagination!'
'Imagination?' he repeated. 'Would you like to hear it for yourself?'
'Yes.'
'Then come outside.'
VIII
I hurriedly dressed and went out of the hut with Tyeglev. On the side
opposite to it there were no houses, nothing but a low hurdle fence
broken down in places, beyond which there was a rather sharp slope
down to the plain. Everything was still shrouded in mist and one could
scarcely see anything twenty paces away. Tyeglev and I went up to the
hurdle and stood still.
'Here,' he said and bowed his head. 'Stand still, keep quiet and
listen!'
Like him I strained my ears, and I heard nothing except the ordinary,
extremely faint but universal murmur, the breathing of the night.
Looking at each other in silence from time to time we stood motionless
for several minutes and were just on the point of going on.
'Ilyusha...' I fancied I heard a whisper from behind the hurdle.
I glanced at Tyeglev but he seemed to have heard nothing--and still
held his head bowed.
'Ilyusha ... ah, Ilyusha,' sounded more distinctly than before--so
distinctly that one could tell that the words were uttered by a woman.
We both started and stared at each other.
'Well?' Tyeglev asked me in a whisper. 'You won't doubt it now, will
you?'
'Wait a minute,' I answered as quietly. 'It proves nothing. We must
look whether there isn't anyone. Some practical joker....'
I jumped over the fence--and went in the direction from which, as far
as I could judge, the voice came.
I felt the earth soft and crumbling under my feet; long ridges
