ree with particular
attention and almost with terror, expecting every moment to be called
to account for his life. After having wandered about for a considerable
time he came upon a ditch down which was flowing cold sandy water from
the Terek, and, not to go astray any longer, he decided to follow it.
He went on without knowing where the ditch would lead him. Suddenly the
reeds behind him crackled. He shuddered and seized his gun, and then
felt ashamed of himself: the over-excited dog, panting hard, had thrown
itself into the cold water of the ditch and was lapping it!

He too had a drink, and then followed the dog in the direction it
wished to go, thinking it would lead him to the village. But despite
the dog's company everything around him seemed still more dreary. The
forest grew darker and the wind grew stronger and stronger in the tops
of the broken old trees. Some large birds circled screeching round
their nests in those trees. The vegetation grew poorer and he came
oftener and oftener upon rustling reeds and bare sandy spaces covered
with animal footprints. To the howling of the wind was added another
kind of cheerless monotonous roar. Altogether his spirits became
gloomy. Putting his hand behind him he felt his pheasants, and found
one missing. It had broken off and was lost, and only the bleeding head
and beak remained sticking in his belt. He felt more frightened than he
had ever done before. He began to pray to God, and feared above all
that he might die without having done anything good or kind; and he so
wanted to live, and to live so as to perform a feat of self-sacrifice.

Chapter XXI

Suddenly it was as though the sun had shone into his soul. He heard
Russian being spoken, and also heard the rapid smooth flow of the
Terek, and a few steps farther in front of him saw the brown moving
surface of the river, with the dim-coloured wet sand of its banks and
shallows, the distant steppe, the cordon watch-tower outlined above the
water, a saddled and hobbled horse among the brambles, and then the
mountains opening out before him. The red sun appeared for an instant
from under a cloud and its last rays glittered brightly along the river
over the reeds, on the watch-tower, and on a group of Cossacks, among
whom Lukashka's vigorous figure attracted Olenin's involuntary
attention.

Olenin felt that he was again, without any apparent cause, perfectly
happy. He had come upon the Nizhni-Prototsk post on the