"Give it to me," said Serge with eagerness.
"Not all of it," said Liddoff gently. "Here is part of it," and he tore off a piece and gave it to the boy.
"Defend us!" said Yump, the cook. "It is not a wise thing," and she shook her head as she put a new lump of clay in the wooden stove to make it burn more brightly.
Then everybody knew that Serge was learning the alphabet, and that when he had learned it he was to go to Moscow, to the Teknik, and learn what else there was.
So the days pa.s.sed and the months. Presently Ivan Ivanovitch said, "Now he is ready," and he took down a bag of rubles that was concealed on a shelf beside the wooden stove in the kitchen and counted them out after the Russian fashion, "Ten, ten, and yet ten, and still ten, and ten," till he could count no further.
"Protect us!" said Yump. "Now he is rich!" and she poured oil and fat mixed with sand into the bread and beat it with a stick.
"He must get ready," they said. "He must buy clothes.
Soon he will go to Moscow to the Teknik and become a wise man."
Now it so happened that there came one day to the door a drosky, or one-horse carriage, and in it was a man and beside him a girl. The man stopped to ask the way from Itch, who pointed down the post road over the plain. But his hand trembled and his knees shook as he showed the way. For the eyes of the man who asked the way were dark with hate and cruel with power. And he wore a uniform and there was bra.s.s upon his cap. But Serge looked only at the girl. And there was no hate in her eyes, but only a great burning, and a look that went far beyond the plain, Serge knew not where. And as Serge looked, the girl turned her face and their eyes met, and he knew that he would never forget her. And he saw in her face that she would never forget him. For that is love.
"Who is that?" he asked, as he went back again with Itch into the house.
"It is Kwartz, chief of police," said Itch, and his knees still trembled as he spoke.
"Where is he taking her?" said Serge.
"To Moscow, to the prison," answered Itch. "There they will hang her and she will die."
"Who is she?" asked Serge. "What has she done?" and as he spoke he could still see the girl"s face, and the look upon it, and a great fire went sweeping through his veins.
"She is Olga Ileyitch," answered Itch, "She made the bomb that killed Popoff, the inspector, and now they will hang her and she will die."
"Defend us!" murmured Yump, as she heaped more clay upon the stove.
CHAPTER II
Serge went to Moscow. He entered the Teknik. He became a student. He learned geography from Stoj, the professor, astrography from Fudj, the a.s.sistant, together with giliodesy, orgastrophy and other native Russian studies.
All day he worked. His industry was unflagging. His instructors were enthusiastic. "If he goes on like this,"
they said, "he will some day know something."
"It is marvellous," said one. "If he continues thus, he will be a professor."
"He is too young," said Stoj, shaking his head. "He has too much hair."
"He sees too well," said Fudj. "Let him wait till his eyes are weaker."
But all day as Serge worked he thought. And his thoughts were of Olga Ileyitch, the girl that he had seen with Kwartz, inspector of police. He wondered why she had killed Popoff, the inspector. He wondered if she was dead. There seemed no justice in it.
One day he questioned his professor.
"Is the law just?" he said. "Is it right to kill?"
But Stoj shook his head, and would not answer.
"Let us go on with our orgastrophy," he said. And he trembled so that the chalk shook in his hand.
So Serge questioned no further, but he thought more deeply still. All the way from the Teknik to the house where he lodged he was thinking. As he climbed the stair to his attic room he was still thinking.
The house in which Serge lived was the house of Madame Va.s.selitch. It was a tall dark house in a sombre street.
There were no trees upon the street and no children played there. And opposite to the house of Madame Va.s.selitch was a building of stone, with windows barred, that was always silent. In it were no lights, and no one went in or out.
"What is it?" Serge asked.
"It is the house of the dead," answered Madame Va.s.selitch, and she shook her head and would say no more.
The husband of Madame Va.s.selitch was dead. No one spoke of him. In the house were only students, Most of them were wild fellows, as students are. At night they would sit about the table in the great room drinking Kwas made from sawdust fermented in syrup, or golgol, the Russian absinth, made by dipping a gooseberry in a bucket of soda water. Then they would play cards, laying matches on the table and betting, "Ten, ten, and yet ten," till all the matches were gone. Then they would say, "There are no more matches; let us dance," and they would dance upon the floor, till Madame Va.s.selitch would come to the room, a candle in her hand, and say, "Little brothers, it is ten o"clock. Go to bed." Then they went to bed. They were wild fellows, as all students are.
But there were two students in the house of Madame Va.s.selitch who were not wild. They were brothers. They lived in a long room in the bas.e.m.e.nt. It was so low that it was below the street.
The brothers were pale, with long hair. They had deep-set eyes. They had but little money. Madame Va.s.selitch gave them food. "Eat, little sons," she would say. "You must not die."
The brothers worked all day. They were real students.
One brother was Halfoff. He was taller than the other and stronger. The other brother was Kwitoff. He was not so tall as Halfoff and not so strong.
One day Serge went to the room of the brothers. The brothers were at work. Halfoff sat at a table. There was a book in front of him.
"What is it?" asked Serge.
"It is solid geometry," said Halfoff, and there was a gleam in his eyes.
"Why do you study it?" said Serge.
"To free Russia," said Halfoff.
"And what book have you?" said Serge to Kwitoff.
"Hamblin Smith"s _Elementary Trigonometry_," said Kwitoff, and he quivered like a leaf.
"What does it teach?" asked Serge.
"Freedom!" said Kwitoff.
The two brothers looked at one another.
"Shall we tell him everything?" said Halfoff.
"Not yet," said Kwitoff. "Let him learn first. Later he shall know."
After that Serge often came to the room of the two brothers.