“I shall give you the trick, grandfather,” he said, pondering over his cards; “I know you have got the queen of diamonds.”

“Well, well, little silly, you have thought enough!”

Alyoshka timidly played the knave of diamonds.  At that moment a ring was heard from the yard.

“Oh, hang you!” muttered the porter, getting up.  “Go and open the gate, O king!”

When he came back a little later, Alyoshka was already a prince, the fish-hawker a soldier, and the coachman a peasant.

“It’s a nasty business,” said the porter, sitting down to the cards again.  “I have just let the doctors out.  They have not extracted it.”

“How could they?  Just think, they would have to pick open the brains.  If there is a bullet in the head, of what use are doctors?”

“He is lying unconscious,” the porter went on.  “He is bound to die.  Alyoshka, don’t look at the cards, you little puppy, or I will pull your ears!  Yes, I let the doctors out, and the father and mother in...  They have only just arrived.  Such crying and wailing, Lord preserve us!  They say he is the only son....  It’s a grief!”

All except Alyoshka, who was absorbed in the game, looked round at the brightly lighted windows of the lodge.

“I have orders to go to the police station tomorrow,” said the porter.  “There will be an inquiry...  But what do I know about it?  I saw nothing of it.  He called me this morning, gave me a letter, and said:  ‘Put it in the letter-box for me.’  And his eyes were red with crying.  His wife and children were not at home.  They had gone out for a walk.  So when I had gone with the letter, he put a bullet into his forehead from a revolver.  When I came back his cook was wailing for the whole yard to hear.”

“It’s a great sin,” said the fish-hawker in a husky voice, and he shook his head, “a great sin!”

“From too much learning,” said the porter, taking a trick; “his wits outstripped his wisdom.  Sometimes he would sit writing papers all night....  Play, peasant!...  But he was a nice gentleman.  And so white skinned, black-haired and tall!...  He was a good lodger.”

“It seems the fair sex is at the bottom of it,” said the coachman, slapping the nine of trumps on the king of diamonds.  “It seems he was fond of another man’s wife and disliked his own; it does happen.”

“The king rebels,” said the porter.

At that moment there was again a ring from the yard.  The rebellious king spat with vexation and went out.  Shadows like dancing couples flitted across the windows of the lodge.  There was the sound of voices and hurried footsteps in the yard.

“I suppose the doctors have come again,” said the coachman.  “Our Mihailo is run off his legs....”

A strange wailing voice rang out for a moment in the air.  Alyoshka looked in alarm at his grandfather, the coachman; then at the windows, and said: 

“He stroked me on the head at the gate yesterday, and said, ’What district do you come from, boy?’ Grandfather, who was that howled just now?”