KONDRATY

It's interesting. But men are sly creatures. Something of the old will be left over. They'll hide it, or try some other trick, and then behold! back they slide to the old again, everything just as it was, just as of old. What then?

SAVVA

Just as of old? _(Gloomily)_ Then they will have to be wiped clean off the face of the earth. Let there be no living human being on earth.

Enough of it!

KONDRATY _(shaking his head)_

But--

SAVVA _(putting his hand on his shoulder)_

Believe me, monk, I have been in many cities and in many lands, Nowhere did I see a free man. I saw only slaves. I saw the cages in which they live, the beds on which they are born and die; I saw their hatreds and their loves, their sins and their good works. And I saw also their amus.e.m.e.nts, their pitiful attempts to bring dead joy back to life again. And everything that I saw bore the stamp of stupidity and unreason. He that is born wise turns stupid in their midst; he that is born cheerful hangs himself from boredom and sticks out his tongue at them. Amidst the flowers of the beautiful earth--you have no idea how beautiful the earth is, monk--they have erected insane asylums. And what are they doing with their children? I have never yet seen parents that do not deserve capital punishment; first because they begot children, and secondly because, having begot them, they did not immediately commit suicide.

KONDRATY

Good heavens, how you talk! Hearing you, one hardly knows what to think.

SAVVA

And how they lie, how they lie, monk! They don't kill the truth--no, they kick her and bruise her daily, and smear her clean face with their dirt and filth so that no one may recognize her, so that the children may not love her, and so that she may have no refuge. In all the world--yes, monk, in all the world--there is no place for truth.

_(Sinks into meditation. Pause)_

KONDRATY

Is there no other way--without fire? It's terrible, Savva Yegorovich.

Consider what it means! It's the end of the world.

SAVVA

No, it can't be helped, partner. It must be. The end of the world must come too. They were treated with medicine, and it did no good. They were treated with iron, and it did no good. Now they must be treated with fire--fire!

_[Pause. Lightning flashes. The thunder has ceased. Somewhere outside a watchman can be heard striking his iron rod._

KONDRATY

And there'll be no drinkshops either?

SAVVA _(pensively)_

No, nothing.

KONDRATY

They'll start drinkshops again all right. Can't get along without them, you know. _(A prolonged pause)_ Ye-es. What are you thinking about, Savva Yegorovich?

SAVVA

Nothing. _(Draws a light breath, cheerfully)_ Well, Kondraty, shall we begin?

KONDRATY _(swaying his head to and fro)_

It's a mighty hard problem you have put up to me. It's a poser.

SAVVA

Never mind, don't get shaky now. You are a sensible man; you know it can't be helped; there is nothing else to do. Would I be doing it myself, if it were not necessary? You can see that, can't you?

KONDRATY _(heaving a sigh)_

Ye-es, hm! Why, Mr. Tropinin--why, my dear fellow--don't I know, don't I understand it all? It's a rotten, cursed life! Ah, Mr. Savva, Mr.

Savva--look here. If I were to tell anyone that I am a good man, they'd laugh and say: "What are you lying for, you drunkard?" Kondraty a good man! It sounds like a joke even to myself. And yet I swear to you, by G.o.d, I am a good man! I don't know how it happened the way it did, why I am what I am now. I lived and lived, and suddenly! How it came about, what the reason of it is, I don't know.

SAVVA

And you are still afraid?

KONDRATY

What am I now? I am neither a candle for G.o.d nor a poker for the devil. Sometimes when I think matters over--ah, Mr. Savva, do you think I have no conscience? Don't I understand? I understand everything but--I am not really afraid of the devil either. I am just playing the fool. The devil--nonsense! If you were in the place of us in there, you would understand. Not long ago, when I was drunk, I cried: "Get out, devil--out of my way--am a desperate man!" I don't care for anything. I don't care if I die. I am ready. You have worked at me, Mr. Savva, until I have grown quite soft. _(Wipes his eyes with his sleeves)_

SAVVA

Why should you die? I don't want to die either. We are going to live for some time to come, we are. How old are you?

KONDRATY

Forty-two.

SAVVA

Just the right age.

KONDRATY

I am sorry for the ikon. They say it appeared miraculously in the river, and that's how it came to be here.

SAVVA

Nonsense. Don't waste your feelings. It's supposed to be a wonder-working ikon and hasn't one miracle to its credit. Why, it makes one feel like a fool just to say it.

KONDRATY

They say it has been replaced by the devil, so that it isn't the real one.

SAVVA