Foma jumped to his feet and said threateningly, in a loud voice:

"Eh, you! Don't touch him!"

"Wha-a-at?" Zvantzev turned around toward him.

"Stepan, come over here," called Foma.

"Peasant!" Zvantzev hurled with contempt, looking at Foma.

Foma shrugged his shoulders and made a step toward him; but suddenly
a thought flashed vividly through his mind! He smiled maliciously and
inquired of Stepan, softly:

"The string of rafts is moored in three places, isn't it?

"In three, of course!"

"Cut the connections!"

"And they?"

"Keep quiet! Cut!"

"But--"

"Cut! Quietly, so they don't notice it!"

The peasant took the axe in his hands, slowly walked up to the place
where one link was well fastened to another link, struck a few times
with his axe, and returned to Foma.

"I'm not responsible, your Honour," he said.

"Don't be afraid."

"They've started off," whispered the peasant with fright, and hastily
made the sign of the cross. And Foma gazed, laughing softly, and
experienced a painful sensation that keenly and sharply stung his heart
with a certain strange, pleasant and sweet fear.

The people on the raft were still pacing to and fro, moving about
slowly, jostling one another, assisting the ladies with their wraps,
laughing and talking, and the raft was meanwhile turning slowly and
irresolutely in the water.

"If the current carries them against the fleet," whispered the
peasant, "they'll strike against the bows--and they'll be smashed into
splinters."

"Keep quiet!"

"They'll drown!"

"You'll get a boat, and overtake them."

"That's it! Thank you. What then? They're after all human beings.
And we'll be held responsible for them." Satisfied now, laughing with
delight, the peasant dashed in bounds across the rafts to the shore. And
Foma stood by the water and felt a passionate desire to shout something,
but he controlled himself, in order to give time for the raft to float
off farther, so that those drunken people would not be able to jump
across to the moored links. He experienced a pleasant caressing
sensation as he saw the raft softly rocking upon the water and floating
off farther and farther from him every moment. The heavy and dark
feeling, with which his heart had been filled during this time, now
seemed to float away together with the people on the raft. Calmly he
inhaled the fresh air and with it something sound that cleared his
brain. At the very edge of the floating raft stood Sa