“Here!” I heard suddenly in answer.
Holy saints, how relieved I was! How I rushed
in the direction from which the voice came....
A human figure loomed dark before me.... I made
for it. At last!
But instead of Tyeglev I saw another officer of the
same battery, whose name was Tyelepnev.
“Was it you answered me?” I asked him.
“Was it you calling me?” he asked in his
turn.
“No; I was calling Tyeglev.”
“Tyeglev? Why, I met him a minute ago.
What a fool of a night! One can’t find
the way home.”
“You saw Tyeglev? Which way did he go?”
“That way, I fancy,” said the officer,
waving his hand in the air. “But one can’t
be sure of anything now. Do you know, for instance,
where the village is? The only hope is the dogs
barking. It is a fool of a night! Let me
light a cigarette ... it will seem like a light on
the way.”
The officer was, so I fancied, a little exhilarated.
“Did Tyeglev say anything to you?” I asked.
“To be sure he did! I said to him, ‘good
evening, brother,’ and he said, ‘good-bye.’
‘How good-bye? Why good-bye.’
’I mean to shoot myself directly with a pistol.’
He is a queer fish!”
My heart stood still. “You say he told
you ...”
“He is a queer fish!” repeated the officer,
and sauntered off.
I hardly had time to recover from what the officer
had told me, when my own name, shouted several times
as it seemed with effort, caught my ear. I recognised
Semyon’s voice.
I called back ... he came to me.
“Well?” I asked him. “Have
you found Ilya Stepanitch?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where?”
“Here, not far away.”
“How ... have you found him? Is he alive?”
“To be sure. I have been talking to him.”
(A load was lifted from my heart.) “His honour
was sitting in his great-coat under a birch tree ...
and he was all right. I put it to him, ’Won’t
you come home, Ilya Stepanitch; Alexandr Vassilitch
is very much worried about you.’ And he
said to me, ’What does he want to worry for!
I want to be in the fresh air. My head aches.
Go home,’ he said, ‘and I will come later.’”
“And you left him?” I cried, clasping
my hands.
“What else could I do? He told me to go
... how could I stay?”
All my fears came back to me at once.
“Take me to him this minute—do you
hear? This minute! O Semyon, Semyon, I did
not expect this of you! You say he is not far
off?”
“He is quite close, here, where the copse begins—he
is sitting there. It is not more than five yards
from the river bank. I found him as I came alongside
the river.”
“Well, take me to him, take me to him.”
Semyon set off ahead of me. “This way,
sir.... We have only to get down to the river
and it is close there.”
