acks, and went up to
Gurka. Olenin also dismounted and, bending down, followed Lukashka.
They had hardly reached Gurka when two bullets whistled above them.

Lukashka looked around laughing at Olenin and stooped a little.

'Look out or they will kill you, Dmitri Andreich,' he said. 'You'd
better go away--you have no business here.' But Olenin wanted
absolutely to see the ABREKS.

From behind the mound he saw caps and muskets some two hundred paces
off. Suddenly a little cloud of smoke appeared from thence, and again a
bullet whistled past. The ABREKS were hiding in a marsh at the foot of
the hill. Olenin was much impressed by the place in which they sat. In
reality it was very much like the rest of the steppe, but because the
ABREKS sat there it seemed to detach itself from all the rest and to
have become distinguished. Indeed it appeared to Olenin that it was the
very spot for ABREKS to occupy. Lukashka went back to his horse and
Olenin followed him.

'We must get a hay-cart,' said Lukashka, 'or they will be killing some
of us. There behind that mound is a Nogay cart with a load of hay.'

The cornet listened to him and the corporal agreed. The cart of hay was
fetched, and the Cossacks, hiding behind it, pushed it forward. Olenin
rode up a hillock from whence he could see everything. The hay-cart
moved on and the Cossacks crowded together behind it. The Cossacks
advanced, but the Chechens, of whom there were nine, sat with their
knees in a row and did not fire.

All was quiet. Suddenly from the Chechens arose the sound of a mournful
song, something like Daddy Eroshka's 'Ay day, dalalay.' The Chechens
knew that they could not escape, and to prevent themselves from being
tempted to take to flight they had strapped themselves together, knee
to knee, had got their guns ready, and were singing their death-song.

The Cossacks with their hay-cart drew closer and closer, and Olenin
expected the firing to begin at any moment, but the silence was only
broken by the abreks' mournful song. Suddenly the song ceased; there
was a sharp report, a bullet struck the front of the cart, and Chechen
curses and yells broke the silence and shot followed on shot and one
bullet after another struck the cart. The Cossacks did not fire and
were now only five paces distant.

Another moment passed and the Cossacks with a whoop rushed out on both
sides from behind the cart--Lukashka in front of them. Olenin heard
only a few shots, then shou