XVI
One day I came home by a side lane which I usually avoided as the house in which my enemy Trankvillitatin lodged was in it; but on this occasion Fate itself led me that way. Pa.s.sing the open window of an eating-house, I suddenly heard the voice of our servant, Va.s.sily, a young man of free and easy manners, "a lazy fellow and a scamp," as my father called him, but also a great conqueror of female hearts which he charmed by his wit, his dancing and his playing on the tambourine.
"And what do you suppose they"ve been up to?" said Va.s.sily, whom I could not see but heard distinctly; he was, most likely, sitting close by, near the window with a companion over the steaming tea--and as often happens with people in a closed room, spoke in a loud voice without suspecting that anyone pa.s.sing in the street could hear every word: "They buried it in the ground!"
"Nonsense!" muttered another voice.
"I tell you they did, our young gentlemen are extraordinary!
Especially that Davidka, he"s a regular Aesop! I got up at daybreak and went to the window.... I looked out and, what do you think! Our two little dears were coming along the orchard bringing that same watch and they dug a hole under the apple-tree and there they buried it, as though it had been a baby! And they smoothed the earth over afterwards, upon my soul they did, the young rakes!"
"Ah! plague take them," Va.s.sily"s companion commented. "Too well off, I suppose. Well, did you dig up the watch?"
"To be sure I did. I have got it now. Only it won"t do to show it for a time. There"s been no end of a fuss over it. Davidka stole it that very night from under our old lady"s back."
"Oh--oh!"
"I tell you, he did. He"s a desperate fellow. So it won"t do to show it. But when the officers come down I shall sell it or stake it at cards."
I didn"t stay to hear more: I rushed headlong home and straight to David.
"Brother!" I began, "brother, forgive me! I have wronged you! I suspected you! I blamed you! You see how agitated I am! Forgive me!"
"What"s the matter with you?" asked David. "Explain!"
"I suspected that you had dug up our watch under the apple-tree."
"The watch again! Why, isn"t it there?"
"It"s not there; I thought you had taken it, to help your friends. And it was all Va.s.sily."
I repeated to David all that I had overheard under the window of the eating-house.
But how to describe my amazement! I had, of course, expected David to be indignant, but I had not for a moment antic.i.p.ated the effect it produced on him! I had hardly finished my story when he flew into an indescribable fury! David, who had always taken up a scornful att.i.tude to the whole "vulgar," as he called it, business of the watch; David, who had more than once declared that it wasn"t worth a rotten egg, jumped up from his seat, got hot all over, ground his teeth and clenched his fists. "We can"t let this pa.s.s!" he said at last; "how dare he take someone else"s property? Wait a bit, I"ll show him. I won"t let thieves off so easily!"
I confess I don"t understand to this day what can have so infuriated David. Whether he had been irritated before and Va.s.sily"s action had simply poured oil on the flames, or whether my suspicions had wounded him, I cannot say, but I had never seen him in such excitement. I stood before him with my mouth open merely wondering how it was that his breathing was so hard and laboured.
"What do you intend to do?" I asked at last.
"You shall see after dinner, when your father lies down. I"ll find this scoffer, I"ll talk to him."
"Well," thought I, "I should not care to be in that scoffer"s shoes!
What will happen? Merciful heavens?"
XVII.
This is what did happen:
As soon as that drowsy, stifling stillness prevailed, which to this day lies like a feather bed on the Russian household and the Russian people in the middle of the day after dinner is eaten, David went to the servants" rooms (I followed on his heels with a sinking heart) and called Va.s.sily out. The latter was at first unwilling to come, but ended by obeying and following us into the garden.
David stood close in front of him. Va.s.sily was a whole head taller.
"Va.s.sily Terentyev," my comrade began in a firm voice, "six weeks ago you took from under this very apple-tree the watch we hid there. You had no right to do so; it does not belong to you. Give it back at once!"
Va.s.sily was taken aback, but at once recovered himself.
"What watch? What are you talking about? G.o.d bless you! I have no watch!"
"I know what I am saying and don"t tell lies. You"ve got the watch, give it back."
"I"ve not got your watch."
"Then how was it that in the eating-house, you ..." I began, but David stopped me.
"Va.s.sily Terentyev!" he p.r.o.nounced in a hollow, threatening voice, "we know for a fact that you have the watch. You are told honourably to give it back and if you don"t ..."
Va.s.sily sn.i.g.g.e.red insolently.
"Then what will you do with me then? Eh?"
"What will we do? We will both fight with you till you beat us or we beat you."
Va.s.sily laughed.
"Fight? That"s not for a gentleman! To fight with a servant!"
David suddenly caught hold of Va.s.sily"s waistcoat.
"But we are not going to fight you with our fists," he articulated, grinding his teeth. "Understand that! I"ll give you a knife and take one myself.... And then we shall see who does for which? Alexey!" he began commanding me, "run for my big knife, you know the one with the bone handle--it"s lying on the table and the other"s in my pocket."
Va.s.sily positively collapsed. David stood holding him by the waistcoat.
"Mercy on us! ... Mercy on us, David Yegoritch!" he muttered; tears actually came into his eyes. "What do you mean, what are you saying?
Let me go."
"I won"t let you go. And we shall have no mercy on you! If you get away from us today, we shall begin again to-morrow. Alyoshka, where"s the knife?"
"David Yegoritch," wailed Va.s.sily, "don"t commit murder.... What are you doing! The watch ... I certainly ... I was joking. I"ll give it to you this minute. What a thing, to be sure! First you are going to slit Hrisanf Lukitch"s belly, then mine. Let me go, David Yegoritch....
Kindly take the watch. Only don"t tell your papa."
David let go his hold of Va.s.sily"s waistcoat. I looked into his face: certainly not only Va.s.sily might have been frightened by it. It looked so weary ... and cold ... and angry....
Va.s.sily dashed into the house and promptly returned with the watch in his hand. He gave it to David without a word and only on going back into the house exclaimed aloud in the doorway:
"Tfoo! here"s a go."
He still looked panic-stricken. David tossed his head and walked into our room. Again I followed on his heels. "A Suvorov! He"s a regular Suvorov!" I thought to myself. In those days, in 1801, Suvorov was our great national hero.
XVIII