"Well, with G.o.d's aid!" They made the sign of the cross, and started.

They crossed the yard and went down-hill to the brook; they crossed the brook and walked down the ravine. The mist was dense and low on the ground, and overhead the stars were, oh, so visible. Zhilin saw by the stars in what direction they had to go. In the mist it felt fresh, and it was easy to walk, only the boots were awkward, they had worn down so much. Zhilin took off his boots and threw them away, and marched on barefoot. He leaped from stone to stone, and kept watching the stars.

Kostylin began to fall behind.

"Walk slower," he said. "The accursed boots,--they have chafed my feet."

"Take them off! You will find it easier without them."

Kostylin walked barefoot after that; but it was only worse: he cut his feet on the rocks, and kept falling behind. Zhilin said to him:

"If you bruise your feet, they will heal up; but if they catch you; they will kill you,--so it will be worse."

Kostylin said nothing, but he groaned as he walked. They walked for a long time through a ravine. Suddenly they heard dogs barking. Zhilin stopped and looked around; he groped with his hands and climbed a hill.

"Oh," he said, "we have made a mistake,--we have borne too much to the right. Here is a village,--I saw it from the mountain; we must go back and to the left, and up the mountain. There must be a forest here."

But Kostylin said:

"Wait at least awhile! Let me rest: my feet are all blood-stained."

"Never mind, friend, they will heal up! Jump more lightly,--like this!"

And Zhilin ran back, and to the left, up the mountain into the forest.

Kostylin kept falling behind and groaning. Zhilin hushed him, and walked on.

They got up the mountain, and there, indeed, was a forest. They went into the forest, and tore all the clothes they had against the thorns.

They struck a path in the forest, and followed it.

"Stop!" Hoofs were heard tramping on the path. They stopped to listen.

It was the sound of a horse's hoofs. They started, and again it began to thud. They stopped, and it, too, stopped. Zhilin crawled up to it, and saw something standing in the light on the road. It was not exactly a horse, and again it was like a horse with something strange above it, and certainly not a man. He heard it snort. "What in the world is it?"

Zhilin gave a light whistle, and it bolted away from the path, so that he could hear it crash through the woods: the branches broke off, as though a storm went through them.

Kostylin fell down in fright. But Zhilin laughed and said:

"That is a stag. Do you hear him break the branches with his horns? We are afraid of him, and he is afraid of us."

They walked on. The Pleiades were beginning to settle,--it was not far from morning. They did not know whether they were going right, or not.

Zhilin thought that that was the path over which they had taken him, and that he was about ten versts from his own people; still there were no certain signs, and, besides, in the night nothing could be made out.

They came out on a clearing. Kostylin sat down, and said:

"Do as you please, but I will not go any farther! My feet refuse to move."

Zhilin begged him to go on.

"No," he said, "I cannot walk on."

Zhilin got angry, spit out in disgust, and scolded him.

"Then I will go by myself,--good-bye!"

Kostylin got up and walked on. They walked about four versts. The mist grew denser in the forest, and nothing could be seen in front of them, and the stars were quite dim.

Suddenly they heard a horse tramping in front of them. They could hear the horse catch with its hoofs in the stones. Zhilin lay down on his belly, and put his ear to the ground to listen.

"So it is, a rider is coming this way!"

They ran off the road, sat down in the bushes, and waited. Zhilin crept up to the road, and saw a Tartar on horseback, driving a cow before him, and mumbling something to himself. The Tartar pa.s.sed by them. Zhilin went back to Kostylin.

"Well, with G.o.d's help, he is gone. Get up, and let us go!"

Kostylin tried to get up, but fell down.

"I cannot, upon my word, I cannot. I have no strength."

The heavy, puffed-up man was in a perspiration, and as the cold mist in the forest went through him and his feet were all torn, he went all to pieces. Zhilin tried to get him up, but Kostylin cried:

"Oh, it hurts!"

Zhilin was frightened.

"Don't shout so! You know that the Tartar is not far off,--he will hear you." But he thought: "He is, indeed, weak, so what shall I do with him?

It will not do to abandon my companion."

"Well," he said, "get up, get on my back, and I will carry you, if you cannot walk."

He took Kostylin on his back, put his hands on Kostylin's legs, walked out on the road, and walked on.

"Only be sure," he said, "and do not choke me with your hands, for Christ's sake. Hold on to my shoulders!"

It was hard for Zhilin: his feet, too, were blood-stained, and he was worn out. He kept bending down, straightening up Kostylin, and throwing him up, so that he might sit higher, and dragged him along the road.

Evidently the Tartar had heard Kostylin's shout. Zhilin heard some one riding from behind and calling in his language. Zhilin made for the brush. The Tartar pulled out his gun and fired; he screeched in his fashion, and rode back along the road.

"Well," said Zhilin, "we are lost, my friend! That dog will collect the Tartars and they will start after us. If we cannot make another three versts, we are lost." But he thought about Kostylin: "The devil has tempted me to take this log along. If I had been alone, I should have escaped long ago."

Kostylin said:

"Go yourself! Why should you perish for my sake?"

"No, I will not go,--it will not do to leave a comrade."

He took him once more on his shoulders, and held on to him. Thus they walked another verst. The woods extended everywhere, and no end was to be seen. The mist was beginning to lift, and rose in the air like little clouds, and the stars could not be seen. Zhilin was worn out.

They came to a little spring by the road; it was lined with stones.

Zhilin stopped and put down Kostylin.

"Let me rest," he said, "and get a drink! We will eat our cakes. It cannot be far now."

He had just got down to drink, when he heard the tramping of horses behind them. Again they rushed to the right, into the bushes, down an incline, and lay down.