will destroy the dosshouse even," he reflected. "It will be
necessary to look out for another, but such a cheap one is not to be
found. It seems a great pity to have to leave a place to which one is
accustomed, though it will be necessary to go, simply because some
merchant or other thinks of manufacturing candles and soap." And the
Captain felt that if he could only make the life of such an enemy
miserable, even temporarily, oh! with what pleasure he would do it!

Yesterday, Ivan Andreyevitch Petunikoff was in the dosshouse yard with
his son and an architect. They measured the yard and put small wooden
sticks in various places, which, after the exit of Petunikoff and at
the order of the Captain, Meteor took out and threw away. To the eyes
of the Captain this merchant appeared small and thin. He wore a long
garment like a frock-coat, a velvet cap, and high, well-cleaned boots.
He had a thin face with prominent cheekbones, a wedge-shaped greyish
beard, and a high forehead seamed with wrinkles from beneath which
shone two narrow, blinking, and observant grey eyes ... a sharp,
gristly nose, a small mouth with thin lips ... altogether his
appearance was pious, rapacious, and respectably wicked. "Cursed
cross-bred fox and pig!" swore the Captain under his breath, recalling
his first meeting with Petunikoff. The merchant came with one of the
town councillors to buy the house, and seeing the Captain asked his
companion:

"Is this your lodger?"

And from that day, a year and a half ago, there has been keen
competition among the inhabitants of the dosshouse as to which can
swear the hardest at the merchant. And last night there was a "slight
skirmish with hot words," as the Captain called it, between Petunikoff
and himself. Having dismissed the architect the merchant approached
the Captain.

"What are you hatching?" asked he, putting his hand to his cap, perhaps
to adjust it, perhaps as a salutation.

"What are you plotting?" answered the Captain in the same tone. He
moved his chin so that his beard trembled a little; a non-exacting
person might have taken it for a bow; otherwise it only expressed the
desire of the Captain to move his pipe from one corner of his mouth to
the other. "You see, having plenty of money, I can afford to sit
hatching it. Money is a good thing, and I possess it," the Captain
chaffed the merchant, casting cunning glances at him. "It means that
you serve money, and not money you," went o