ible at the same time.
The curtain which through eternity has hidden the mystery of life and
the mystery of death was pushed aside by a sacrilegious hand, and the
mysteries ceased to be mysteries--yet they remained incomprehensible,
like the Truth written in a foreign tongue. There were no conceptions in
his human mind, no words in his human language that could define what he
saw. And the words "I am afraid" were uttered by him only because there
were no other words, because no other conceptions existed, nor could
other conceptions exist which would grasp this new, un-human condition.
Thus would it be with a man if, while remaining within the bounds of
human reason, experience and feelings, he were suddenly to see God
Himself. He would see Him but would not understand, even though he knew
that it was God, and he would tremble with inconceivable sufferings of
incomprehension.

"There is Mueller for you!" he suddenly uttered loudly, with extreme
conviction, and shook his head. And with that unexpected break in his
feelings, of which the human soul is so capable, he laughed heartily and
cheerfully.

"Oh, Mueller! My dear Mueller! Oh, you splendid German! After all you
are right, Mueller, and I am an ass!"

He paced the cell quickly several times and to the great astonishment
of the soldier who was watching him through the peephole, he quickly
undressed himself and cheerfully went through all the eighteen exercises
with the greatest care. He stretched and expanded his young, somewhat
emaciated body, sat down for a moment, drew deep breaths of air and
exhaled it, stood up on tip-toe, stretched his arms and his feet. And
after each exercise he announced, with satisfaction:

"That's it! That's the real way, Mueller!" His cheeks flushed; drops
of warm, pleasant perspiration came from the pores of his body, and his
heart beat soundly and evenly.

"The fact is, Mueller," philosophized Sergey, expanding his chest so
that the ribs under his thin, tight skin were outlined clearly,--"the
fact is, that there is a nineteenth exercise--to hang by the neck
motionless. That is called execution. Do you understand, Mueller? They
take a live man, let us say Sergey Golovin, they swaddle him as a
doll and they hang him by the neck until he is dead. It is a foolish
exercise, Mueller, but it can't be helped,--we have to do it."

He bent over on the right side and repeated:

"We have to do it, Mueller."

CHAPTER IX DREADFUL SOLITUDE