g to live with such workmen!"

And this same Ivan Yanson, who distrusted a gun, one winter evening,
when the other workmen had been sent away to the station, committed a
very complicated attempt at robbery, murder and rape. He did it in a
surprisingly simple manner. He locked the cook in the kitchen, lazily,
with the air of a man who is longing to sleep, walked over to his master
from behind and swiftly stabbed him several times in the back with his
knife. The master fell unconscious, and the mistress began to run about,
screaming, while Yanson, showing his teeth and brandishing his knife,
began to ransack the trunks and the chests of drawers. He found the
money he sought, and then, as if noticing the mistress for the first
time, and as though unexpectedly even to himself, he rushed upon her in
order to violate her. But as he had let his knife drop to the floor, the
mistress proved stronger than he, and not only did not allow him to harm
her, but almost choked him into unconsciousness. Then the master on
the floor turned, the cook thundered upon the door with the oven-fork,
breaking it open, and Yanson ran away into the fields. He was caught an
hour later, kneeling down behind the corner of the barn, striking one
match after another, which would not ignite, in an attempt to set the
place on fire.

A few days later the master died of blood poisoning, and Yanson, when
his turn among other robbers and murderers came, was tried and condemned
to death. In court he was the same as always; a little man, freckled,
with sleepy, glassy eyes. It seemed as if he did not understand in the
least the meaning of what was going on about him; he appeared to be
entirely indifferent. He blinked his white eyelashes, stupidly, without
curiosity; examined the sombre, unfamiliar courtroom, and picked his
nose with his hard, shriveled, unbending finger. Only those who had seen
him on Sundays at church would have known that he had made an attempt
to adorn himself. He wore on his neck a knitted, muddy-red shawl, and in
places had dampened the hair of his head. Where the hair was wet it lay
dark and smooth, while on the other side it stuck up in light and sparse
tufts, like straws upon a hail-beaten, wasted meadow.

When the sentence was pronounced--death by hanging--Yanson suddenly
became agitated. He reddened deeply and began to tie and untie the shawl
about his neck as though it were choking him. Then he waved his arms
stupidly and said, turn