understand; take care!"

The sounds of firing died away in the damp and heavy atmosphere. Slowly
the night fell, gradually blotting out from view the field of battle,
and the corpses still lying on the snow. Everything was silent; only a
groan from a wounded man or the death-rattle of a horse was audible from
time to time. But that was all, and the soldiers, exhausted by marching
during the day and fighting in the evening, had not sufficient energy
left to think of carrying away the bodies of their comrades. They wished
for nothing but a night of rest and sleep.

"Not very cheerful for us, the night of the New Year, eh, Major?" said
the Colonel, a short stout man addressing a tall thin one, who had his
arm in a sling. The two were sitting on the balcony of a Turkish house.

"No, it isn't! And no letters from home either."

"That is the least of my anxieties; I know our military post too well."

"Ah, how gladly one would see those one loves, were it only for a single
moment! But to spend Christmas in the Shipka Pass and the New Year here,
sapristi! there is no fun in that. In our house the Christmas tree is
lighted and the children are running round it. Your wife and children
are sure to be with mine, and they will be talking of us. Probably they
are anxious because of our silence. As if we could write--we who only
rush on, like madmen, at the risk of breaking our heads! By the way, how
is your arm?"

"Not very grand, you know."

"Well, make use of it!"

"To do what?"

"To go away. Apply for leave for health's sake."

"_You_ ought not to say so to me."

"Why?"

"Because we are already short of officers as you know very well. In my
battalion there are sub-lieutenants commanding whole companies.
Moreover, you and I are not in the habit of separating. We will return
home together, that is all. Don't let us talk any more about it."

It was now quite dark, and the horizon was hidden. Here and there the
darkness was pierced by the luminous points of some windows in the
village which were still lit up. Suddenly there appeared in the street
the red moving flame of torch and in the circle of light formed by it a
red face wearing a pair of moustaches. At moments there also came to
view in the same luminous circle a horse's head with its ears erect.

"Panteleieff!" cried the Colonel in the direction of the torch. The
torch entered into the courtyard, and soon the horse stood before the
officers, snorting and scra