man at dinner-time, we killed him all right, but not a
farthing did we find."

So this fellow in the crimson shirt turned out to be the forester,
the woman's husband.

"The man's dead for nothing," said his ragged companions. "In vain
we have taken a sin on our souls."

The forester's wife looked at all three and laughed.

"What are you laughing at, silly?"

"I am laughing because I haven't murdered anyone, and I have not
taken any sin on my soul, but I have found the money."

"What money? What nonsense are you talking!"

"Here, look whether I am talking nonsense."

The forester's wife untied the parcel and, wicked woman, showed
them the money. Then she described how Anyutka had come, what she
had said, and so on. The murderers were delighted and began to
divide the money between them, they almost quarrelled, then they
sat down to the table, you know, to drink. And Anyutka lay there,
poor child, hearing every word and shaking like a Jew in a frying-pan.
What was she to do? And from their words she learned that father
was dead and lying across the road, and she fancied, in her
foolishness, that the wolves and the dogs would eat father, and
that our horse had gone far away into the forest, and would be eaten
by wolves too, and that she, Anyutka herself, would be put in prison
and beaten, because she had not taken care of the money. The robbers
got drunk and sent the woman for vodka. They gave her five roubles
for vodka and sweet wine. They set to singing and drinking on other
people's money. They drank and drank, the dogs, and sent the woman
off again that they might drink beyond all bounds.

"We will keep it up till morning," they cried. "We have plenty of
money now, there is no need to spare! Drink, and don't drink away
your wits."

And so at midnight, when they were all fairly fuddled, the woman
ran off for vodka the third time, and the forester strode twice up
and down the cottage, and he was staggering.

"Look here, lads," he said, "we must make away with the girl, too!
If we leave her, she will be the first to bear witness against us."

They talked it over and discussed it, and decided that Anyutka must
not be left alive, that she must be killed. Of course, to murder
an innocent child's a fearful thing, even a man drunken or crazy
would not take such a job on himself. They were quarrelling for
maybe an hour which was to kill her, one tried to put it on the
other, they almost fought again, and no one