big balk of timber across the track, maybe I could smash up a train.… But just an ordinary nut, pfui!…”
“Can you get it into your head that the nut holds the rail to the tie?”
“Of course, Your Honor. We understand that. That’s why we don’t unscrew all of them. We leave some of them. We’ve got heads on our shoulders.… We know what’s what.…”
Denis yawned and made the sign of the cross over his mouth.
“Last year a train went off the rails here,” the magistrate said. “Now we know how it happened.”
“Beg pardon?”
“I said, now we know why the train went off the rails last year. It’s all clear now.”
“Good kind gentlemen, God gave you understanding, and He gives it to whom He pleases. You know about things, how it happened, what happened, and all, but the linesman, he was a peasant, too, not a man with an education, and he took me by the collar and carted me off! He ought to know about things before dragging people off! A peasant has the brains of a peasant—that’s what they say. And write down, too, Your Honor, that he hit me twice—once in the jaw and once in the chest.”
“Listen, when they searched your place, they found another nut.… Now, where and when was that one unscrewed?”
“You mean the one they found under the little red chest?”
“I don’t know anything about where it was. I only know they found it. When did you unscrew that one?”
“I didn’t unscrew it. It was given to me by Ignashka, the son of one-eyed Semyon. I’m talking about the one under the chest. The one they found in the yard, on the sleigh—that one was unscrewed by Mitrofan and me.”
“Which Mitrofan?”
“Mitrofan Petrov. Do you mean to say you’ve never heard of him? He’s the one who makes nets in our village and sells them to the gentry. He needs a lot of nuts. Every net, I reckon, must have about ten nuts.”
“Listen. According to Article 1081 of the Penal Code, every willful act leading to the damage of a railroad and calculated to jeopardize the passage of trains, shall, if the perpetrator knows the act will cause an accident—
“Oh, well, you know best. We ignorant people, we don’t know anything.…”
“You do know! You’re lying and shamming ignorance!”
“Why should I lie? Ask in the village if you don’t believe me! Only the bleak fish can be caught without a sinker, that’s true! There’s no fish worse than a gudgeon, and even he won’t bite without a sinker.”
“You’ll be talking about snappers next,” the magistrate smiled.
“I told you, we don’t have snappers in our part of the country.… Now, if we cast our lines on the surface without a sinker, with a butterfly for bait, we might maybe catch a mullet, but it don’t happen often.”
“Shut up!”
Then there was silence, while Denis shifted from one foot to the other, stared at the table covered with a green cloth, and violently blinked his eyes. He was like someone gazing, not at the green cloth, but at the sun. The magistrate was writing rapidly.
“May I be getting along now?” Denis asked a moment later.
“No, you’ll be kept in custody and sent to prison.”
Denis stopped blinking. Raising his thick eyebrows, he looked inquiringly in the direction of the magistrate.
“What do you mean, prison? Your Honor, I haven’t the time for prison! I’ve got to go to the fair—there’s Yegor, who owes me three rubles for the lard he …”
“Keep your mouth shut, and don’t disturb me!”
“Prison, eh? Now, listen. If I’d done anything wrong, then I’d go … but there’s neither rhyme nor reason in sending me … What for should I go to prison? I haven’t stolen anything so far as I know. I haven’t been fighting.… If there’s any question in your mind about the arrears, well, Your Honor, you shouldn’t believe the village elder.… Ask the permanent member of the board.… The elder, he hasn’t been baptized.…”
“Silence!”
“All right, I’ll be silent,” Denis murmured. “But I’ll take my oath the elder lied about the assessment. There are three of us brothers—Kuzma Grigoryev, then Yegor Grigoryev, and then Denis Grigoryev …”
“You’re a nuisance,” the magistrate shouted. “Hey, Semyon! Take him away!”
“We’re three brothers,” Denis went on muttering, while two husky soldiers took hold of him and led him out of the room. “A brother doesn’t have to answer for a brother, does he? Kuzma won’t pay. So it’s up to you, Denis.… Judges, indeed! Our late master, the general, is dead, may God rest his soul, or he would have shown you what’s what.… You ought to judge sensibly, not in a cockeyed way.… Flog a man, you understand, but only when he deserves it.… Understand?…”
A D
A CALM August night. The mist rose slowly from the fields, covering everything within view with a dull-colored winding sheet. When lit by the moon, the mist gave the impression of a quiet and limitless expanse of ocean, and at another time it resembled an immense white wall. The air was damp and chilly, and the morning still far away. There was a fire blazing a step or two beyond the pathway running along the edge of the forest. Near the small fire, under a young oak, lay a dead body covered from head to foot with a clean white linen sheet, and there was a small wooden icon lying on the dead man’s chest. Beside the dead body, almost sitting in the pathway, were “the watchers,” two peasants who were performing one of the most disagreeable and uninviting tasks ever given to
