recruited. Five were
captured, including Rybin."

He snuffled and said, smiling:

"And I was left over. I guess they're looking for me. Let them look.
I'm not going back there again, not for anything. There are other
people there yet, some seven young men and a girl. Never mind!
They're all reliable."

"How did you find this place?" The mother smiled.

The door from the room opened quietly.

"I?" Seating himself on a bench and looking around, Ignaty exclaimed:
"They crawled up at night, straight to the tar works. Well, a minute
before they came the forester ran up to us and knocked on the window.
'Look out, boys,' says he, 'they're coming on you.'"

He laughed softly, wiped his face with the flap of his coat, and
continued:

"Well, they can't stun Uncle Mikhail even with a hammer. At once he
says to me, 'Ignaty, run away to the city, quick! You remember the
elderly woman.' And he himself writes a note. 'There, go! Good-by,
brother.' He pushed me in the back. I flung out of the hut. I
scrambled along on all fours through the bushes, and I hear them
coming. There must have been a lot of them. You could hear the
rustling on all sides, the devils--like a moose around the tar works.
I lay in the bushes. They passed by me. Then I rose and off I went;
and for two nights and a whole day I walked without stopping. My
feet'll ache for a week."

He was evidently satisfied with himself. A smile shone in his hazel
eyes. His full red lips quivered.

"I'll set you up with some tea soon. You wash yourself while I get the
samovar ready."

"I'll give you the note." He raised his leg with difficulty, and
frowning and groaning put his foot on the bench and began to untie the
leg wrappings.

"I got frightened. 'Well,' thinks I, 'I'm a goner.'"

Nikolay appeared at the door. Ignaty in embarrassment dropped his foot
to the floor and wanted to rise, but staggered and fell heavily on the
bench, catching himself with his hands.

"You sit still!" exclaimed the mother.

"How do you do, comrade?" said Nikolay, screwing up his eyes
good-naturedly and nodding his head. "Allow me, I'll help you."

Kneeling on the floor in front of the peasant, he quickly unwound the
dirty, damp wrappings.

"Well!" the fellow exclaimed quietly, pulling back his foot and
blinking in astonishment. He regarded the mother, who said, without
paying attention to his look:

"His legs ought to be rubbed down with alcohol."