’Master! look here; this wasn’t like this
to-day. And see the ends of the uprights sticking
out of the ground; that means someone has pulled them
out.’
Tchertop-hanov ran up with the lantern, moved it about
over the ground....
‘Hoofs, hoofs, prints of horse-shoes, fresh
prints!’ he muttered, speaking hurriedly.’
They took him through here, through here!’
He instantly leaped over the fence, and with a shout,
’Malek-Adel! Malek-Adel!’ he ran
straight into the open country.
Perfishka remained standing bewildered at the fence.
The ring of light from the lantern was soon lost to
his eyes, swallowed up in the dense darkness of a
starless, moonless night.
Fainter and fainter came the sound of the despairing
cries of Tchertop-hanov....
It was daylight when he came home again. He hardly
looked like a human being. His clothes were covered
with mud, his face had a wild and ferocious expression,
his eyes looked dull and sullen. In a hoarse
whisper he drove Perfishka away, and locked himself
in his room. He could hardly stand with fatigue,
but he did not lie on his bed, but sat down on a chair
by the door and clutched at his head.
‘Stolen!... stolen!...’
But in what way had the thief contrived by night,
when the stable was locked, to steal Malek-Adel?
Malek-Adel, who would never let a stranger come near
him even by day—steal him, too, without
noise, without a sound? And how explain that
not a yard-dog had barked? It was true there
were only two left—two young puppies—and
those two probably burrowing in rubbish from cold
and hunger—but still!
‘And what am I to do now without Malek-Adel?’
Tchertop-hanov brooded. ’I’ve lost
my last pleasure now; it’s time to die.
Buy another horse, seeing the money has come?
But where find another horse like that?’
‘Panteley Eremyitch! Panteley Eremyitch!’
he heard a timid call at the door.
Tchertop-hanov jumped on to his feet.
‘Who is it?’ he shouted in a voice not
his own.
‘It’s I, your groom, Perfishka.’
‘What do you want? Is he found? has he
run home?’
’No, Panteley Eremyitch; but that Jew chap who
sold him.’...
‘Well?’
‘He’s come.’
‘Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!’ yelled Tchertop-hanov,
and he at once flung open the door. ‘Drag
him here! drag him along!’
On seeing the sudden apparition of his ‘benefactor’s’
dishevelled, wild-looking figure, the Jew, who was
standing behind Perfishka’s back, tried to give
them the slip; but Tchertop-hanov, in two bounds, was
upon him, and like a tiger flew at his throat.
‘Ah! he’s come for the money! for the
money!’ he cried as hoarsely as though he were
being strangled himself instead of strangling the Jew;
‘you stole him by night, and are come by day
for the money, eh? Eh? Eh?’
