nied him to the station without a word, then went home
again and harnessed the horse to take Matvey to Limarovo. He had
decided to take him to the forest of Limarovo, and to leave him
there on the road, and then he would tell everyone that Matvey had
gone off to Vedenyapino and had not come back, and then everyone
would think that he had been killed by someone on the road. He knew
there was no deceiving anyone by this, but to move, to do something,
to be active, was not as agonizing as to sit still and wait. He
called Dashutka, and with her carried Matvey out. Aglaia stayed
behind to clean up the kitchen.

When Yakov and Dashutka turned back they were detained at the railway
crossing by the barrier being let down. A long goods train was
passing, dragged by two engines, breathing heavily, and flinging
puffs of crimson fire out of their funnels.

The foremost engine uttered a piercing whistle at the crossing in
sight of the station.

"It's whistling, . . ." said Dashutka.

The train had passed at last, and the signalman lifted the barrier
without haste.

"Is that you, Yakov Ivanitch? I didn't know you, so you'll be rich."

And then when they had reached home they had to go to bed.

Aglaia and Dashutka made themselves a bed in the tea-room and lay
down side by side, while Yakov stretched himself on the counter.
They neither said their prayers nor lighted the ikon lamp before
lying down to sleep. All three lay awake till morning, but did not
utter a single word, and it seemed to them that all night someone
was walking about in the empty storey overhead.

Two days later a police inspector and the examining magistrate came
from the town and made a search, first in Matvey's room and then
in the whole tavern. They questioned Yakov first of all, and he
testified that on the Monday Matvey had gone to Vedenyapino to
confess, and that he must have been killed by the sawyers who were
working on the line.

And when the examining magistrate had asked him how it had happened
that Matvey was found on the road, while his cap had turned up at
home--surely he had not gone to Vedenyapino without his cap?--
and why they had not found a single drop of blood beside him in the
snow on the road, though his head was smashed in and his face and
chest were black with blood, Yakov was confused, lost his head and
answered:

"I cannot tell."

And just what Yakov had so feared happened: the policeman came, the
district police officer sm