tub. In the middle of the cellar were
about a dozen men in red shirts with their sleeves turned up,
sharpening long knives. . . . Ugh! So we had fallen into a nest of
robbers. . . . What's to be done? I ran to the merchant, waked him
up quietly, and said: 'Don't be frightened, merchant,' said I, 'but
we are in a bad way. We have fallen into a nest of robbers,' I said.
He turned pale and asked: 'What are we to do now, Panteley? I have
a lot of money that belongs to orphans. As for my life,' he said,
'that's in God's hands. I am not afraid to die, but it's dreadful
to lose the orphans' money,' said he. . . . What were we to do? The
gates were locked; there was no getting out. If there had been a
fence one could have climbed over it, but with the yard shut up!
. . . 'Come, don't be frightened, merchant,' said I; 'but pray to
God. Maybe the Lord will not let the orphans suffer. Stay still.'
said I, 'and make no sign, and meanwhile, maybe, I shall think of
something. . . .' Right! . . . I prayed to God and the Lord put the
thought into my mind. . . . I clambered up on my chaise and softly,
. . . softly so that no one should hear, began pulling out the straw
in the thatch, made a hole and crept out, crept out. . . . Then I
jumped off the roof and ran along the road as fast as I could. I
ran and ran till I was nearly dead. . . . I ran maybe four miles
without taking breath, if not more. Thank God I saw a village. I
ran up to a hut and began tapping at a window. 'Good Christian
people,' I said, and told them all about it, 'do not let a Christian
soul perish. . . .' I waked them all up. . . . The peasants gathered
together and went with me, . . one with a cord, one with an oakstick,
others with pitchforks. . . . We broke in the gates of the inn-yard
and went straight to the cellar. . . . And the robbers had just
finished sharpening their knives and were going to kill the merchant.
The peasants took them, every one of them, bound them and carried
them to the police. The merchant gave them three hundred roubles
in his joy, and gave me five gold pieces and put my name down. They
said that they found human bones in the cellar afterwards, heaps
and heaps of them. . . . Bones! . . . So they robbed people and
then buried them, so that there should be no traces. . . . Well,
afterwards they were punished at Morshansk."

Panteley had finished his story, and he looked round at his listeners.
They were gazing at him in silence. The water