"What sort of cavern?"
"The devil only knows! They say that once it was a coiners" den. As usual they were all caught. Rather hard lines, wasn"t it?" said Ivanoff.
"Perhaps you"d like to start a business of that sort yourself and manufacture sham twenty-copeck pieces?" asked Novikoff.
"Copecks? Not I! Roubles, my friend, roubles!"
"H--m!" muttered Sarudine, shrugging his shoulders. He did not like Ivanoff, whose jokes to him were unintelligible.
"Yes, they were all caught, and the cave was filled up; it gradually collapsed, and no one ever goes into it now. As a child I often used to creep in there. It is a most interesting place."
"Interesting? I should rather think so!" exclaimed Lida.
"Victor Sergejevitsch, suppose you go in? You"re one of the brave ones."
"Why?" asked Sarudine, somewhat perplexed.
"I"ll go!" exclaimed Yourii, blushing to think that the others would accuse him of showing off.
"It"s a wonderful place!" said Ivanoff by way of encouragement.
"Aren"t you going too?" asked Novikoff.
"No, I"d rather stop here!"
At this they all laughed.
The boat drew near the bank and a wave of cold air from the cavern pa.s.sed over their heads.
"For heaven"s sake, Yourii, don"t do such a silly thing!" said Lialia, trying to dissuade her brother. "It really is silly of you!"
"Silly? Of course it is." Yourii, smiling, a.s.sented. "s.e.m.e.noff, just give me that candle, will you?"
"Where shall I find it?"
"There is one behind you, in the hamper."
s.e.m.e.noff coolly produced the candle.
"Are you really going?" asked a tall girl, magnificently proportioned.
Lialia called her Sina, her surname being Karsavina.
"Of course I am. Why not?" replied Yourii, striving to show utter indifference. He recollected having done this when engaged in some of his political adventures. The thought for some reason or other was not an agreeable one.
The entrance to the cavern was damp and dark. "Brrr!" exclaimed Sanine, as he looked in. To him it seemed absurd that Yourii should explore a disagreeable, dangerous place simply because others watched him doing it. Yourii, as self-conscious as ever, lighted the candle, thinking inwardly, "I am making myself rather ridiculous, am I not?" But so far from seeming ridiculous, he won admiration, especially from the ladies, who were in an agreeable state of curiosity bordering on alarm. He waited till the candle burnt more brightly and then, laughing to avoid being laughed at, disappeared in the darkness. The light seemed to have vanished, also. They all suddenly felt concern for his safety and intense curiosity as to what would happen.
"Look out for wolves!" cried Riasantzeff.
"It"s all right. I"ve got a revolver!" came the answer. It sounded faint and weird.
Yourii advanced slowly and with caution. The sides of the cavern were low, uneven, and damp as the walls of a large cellar. The ground was so irregular that twice Yourii just missed falling into a hole. He thought it would be best to turn back, or to sit down and wait a while so that he could say that he had gone a good way in.
Suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps behind him slipping on the wet clay, and of some one breathing hard. He held the light aloft.
"Sinaida Karsavina!" he exclaimed in amazement.
"Her very self!" replied Sina gaily, as she caught up her dress and jumped lightly over a hole. Yourii was glad that she, this merry, handsome girl, had come, and he greeted her with laughing eyes.
"Let us go on," said Sina shyly.
Yourii obediently advanced. No thoughts of danger troubled him now, and he was specially careful to light the way for his companion. He perceived several exits, but all were blocked. In one corner lay a few rotten planks, that looked like the remains of some old coffin.
"Not very interesting, eh?" said Yourii, unconsciously lowering his voice. The ma.s.s of earth oppressed him.
"Oh! yes it is!" whispered Sina, and as she looked round her wide eyes gleamed in the candle-light. She was nervous, and instinctively kept close to Yourii for protection. This Yourii noticed. He felt a strange sympathy for his fair, frail companion.
"It is like being buried alive," she continued. "We might scream, but n.o.body would hear us."
"Of course not," laughed Yourii.
Then a sudden thought caused his brain to reel. This beautiful girl, so fresh, so desirable, was at his mercy. No one could see or hear them.... To Yourii such a thought seemed unutterably base. He quickly banished it, and said:
"Suppose we try?"
His voice trembled. Could Sina have read his thoughts?
"Try what?" she asked. "Suppose I fire?" said Yourii, producing his revolver.
"Will the earth fall in on us?"
"I don"t know," he replied, though he felt certain that nothing would happen. "Are you afraid?"
"Oh no! Fire away!" said Sina, as she retreated a step or so. Holding out the revolver, he fired. There was a flash, and a dense cloud of smoke enveloped them, as the echo of the report slowly died away.
"There! That"s all," said Yourii.
"Let us go back."
They retraced their steps, but as Sina walked on in front of Yourii the sight of her round, firm hips again brought sensuous thoughts to his mind that he found it hard to ignore.
"I say, Sina Karsavina!" His voice faltered. "I am going to ask you an interesting psychological question. How was it that you did not feel afraid to come here with me? You said yourself that if we screamed no one would hear us.... You don"t know me in the least!"
Sina blushed in the darkness and was silent. At last she murmured.
"Because I thought that you were to be trusted."
"And suppose that you had been mistaken?"
"Then, I should ... have drowned myself," said Sina almost inaudibly.