Terek, opposite
a pro-Russian Tartar village on the other side of the river. He
accosted the Cossacks, but not finding as yet any excuse for doing
anyone a kindness, he entered the hut; nor in the hut did he find any
such opportunity. The Cossacks received him coldly. On entering the mud
hut he lit a cigarette. The Cossacks paid little attention to him,
first because he was smoking a cigarette, and secondly because they had
something else to divert them that evening. Some hostile Chechens,
relatives of the abrek who had been killed, had come from the hills
with a scout to ransom the body; and the Cossacks were waiting for
their Commanding Officer's arrival from the village. The dead man's
brother, tall and well shaped with a short cropped beard which was dyed
red, despite his very tattered coat and cap was calm and majestic as a
king. His face was very like that of the dead abrek. He did not deign
to look at anyone, and never once glanced at the dead body, but sitting
on his heels in the shade he spat as he smoked his short pipe, and
occasionally uttered some few guttural sounds of command, which were
respectfully listened to by his companion. He was evidently a brave who
had met Russians more than once before in quite other circumstances,
and nothing about them could astonish or even interest him. Olenin was
about to approach the dead body and had begun to look at it when the
brother, looking up at him from under his brows with calm contempt,
said something sharply and angrily. The scout hastened to cover the
dead man's face with his coat. Olenin was struck by the dignified and
stem expression of the brave's face. He began to speak to him, asking
from what village he came, but the Chechen, scarcely giving him a
glance, spat contemptuously and turned away. Olenin was so surprised at
the Chechen not being interested in him that he could only put it down
to the man's stupidity or ignorance of Russian; so he turned to the
scout, who also acted as interpreter. The scout was as ragged as the
other, but instead of being red-haired he was black-haired, restless,
with extremely white gleaming teeth and sparkling black eyes. The scout
willingly entered into conversation and asked for a cigarette.

'There were five brothers,' began the scout in his broken Russian.
'This is the third brother the Russians have killed, only two are left.
He is a brave, a great brave!' he said, pointing to the Chechen. 'When
they killed Ahmet Khan (