“Well, did they believe you, Chikin? “ said Maksimov, with a slight smile, while the others were rolling in laughter.
“They are such strange people, Fedor ‘ Maksimych. They believe everything, upon my word, they do. But when I began to tell them about Mount Kazbek, telling them that the snow did not melt all summer there, they ridiculed me. ‘ Don’t tell such fibs, good fellow,’ they said. ‘ Who has ever heard such a thing: a big moun- tain, and the snow not melting on it! Wliy, even with us the snow melts on the mounds long before it has melted in the hollows.’ So, go and explain matters to them,” concluded Chikin, winking.
V.
The bright disk of the sun, shining through the milk- white mist, had risen quite high; the grayish-violet horizon was widening all the time, and though it was farther away, it was also sharply closed in by the decep- tive white mist wall.
In front of us, beyond the forest which had been cut down, there was opened up a fairly large clearing. Over the clearing there spread on all sides the smoke from the fires, now black, now milk-white, now violet, and the white layers of the mist were forming themselves into fantastic shapes. Far in the distance, occasionally appeared groups of Tartar horsemen, and were heard the infrequent re- ports of our carbines, and their guns and cannon.
“This was not yet an engagement, but mere child’s play,” as the good Captain Khlopov used to say.
The commander of the ninth company of sharpshooters, who were to flank us, walked up to the guns, pointed to three Tartar horsemen, who were at that time riding near the forest, at a distance of more than six hundred fathoms from us; he asked me, with that eagerness to see an artillery fire wliich is characteristic of all infantry officers in general, to give them a shot or a shell.
“Do you see,” he said, with a kindly and convincing smile extending his hand from behind my shoulder, “ there where the two high trees are? One of them, in front, is on a white horse, and dressed in a white mantle, and there, behind him, are two more. Do you see them? Couldn’t you just—”
“And there are three others, riding near the forest,” added Antonov, who had remarkably sharp eyes, ap- proaching us, and conceahng behind his back the pipe which he had been smoking. “ The one in front has just taken out the gun from its case. You can see him plainly, your Honour!”
“I say, he has fired it off, brothers! There is the white puff of the smoke,” said Velenchuk, in a group of soldiers who were standing a short distance behind us.
“He must have aimed at our cordon, the rascal! “ remarked another.
“See what a lot of them the forest is pouring out. I suppose they are trying to find a place to station their cannon,” added a third. “ If we could just burst a shell in the midst of them, — that would make them spit—”
“What is your opinion? will it reach so far, dear man? “ asked Chikin.
“Five hundred or five hundred and twenty fathoms, not more,” Maksimov said, coolly, as though speaking to himself, though it was evident that he was anxious to fire off the cannon, as the rest were. “ If we were to give forty-five lines to the howitzer, we might hit it, — hit it square in the middle.”
“Do you know, if you were to aim straight at this group, you would certainly hit somebody. See how they have all gathered in a mass! Now, quickly, give the order to fire,” the commander of the company continued his entreaties.
“Do you order the gun to be aimed? “ Antonov sud- denly asked, in a jerky bass voice, with gloomy malice in his eyes.
I must confess that I myself was anxious for it, and so I ordered that the second cannon be brought into posi- tion.
No sooner had I given the order than the shell was powdered, and rammed in, and Antonov, clinging to the gun-cheek, and placing his two fat fingers on the carriage- plate, was ordering the block-trail to the right and left.
“A trifle more to the left — a wee bit to the right — now, the least Httle bit more — now it’s all right,” he said, walking away from the gun with a proud face.
The infantry officer, I, and Maksimov, one after an- other put our eyes to the sight, and each expressed his Particular opinion.
“Upon my word, it will carry across,” remarked Velen- chuk, clicking with his tongue, although he had only been looking over Antonov’s shoulder, and therefore did not have the least reason for such a supposition. “ Upon my word, it wiU carry across, and will strike that tree, brothers!”
“Second! “ I commanded.
The crew stepped aside. Antonov ran to one side, in order to see the flight of the projectile; the fuse flashed, and the brass rang out. At the same time we were en- veloped in powder-smoke, and through the deafening boom of the report was heard the metallic, whizzing sound of the projectile, flying with the rapidity of light- ning, dying away in the distance amid a universal silence. A little behind the group of the horsemen ap- peared white smoke, the Tartars galloped away in both directions, and we heard the sound of the explosion.
“That was fine! How they are scampering! See, the devils don’t like it! “ were heard the approvals and jests in the ranks of the artillery and infantry.
“If we had aimed a little lower, we should have hit Mm straight,” remarked Velenchuk. “ I told you it would strike the tree, and so it did, — it went to the right.”
VI.
Leaving the soldiers to discuss the flight of the Tar- tars when they saw the shell, and why they were riding there, and how many of them still might be in the woods, I walked away with the commander of the company a few steps to one side, and seated myself under a tree, waiting for the warmed forcemeat cutlets which he had offered me. The commander of the company, Bolkhdv, was one of those officers who, in the regiment, are called “ bonjours.”
He had means, had served in the guards, and spoke French. Yet, notwithstanding this, his com- rades liked him. He was quite clever, and had enough tact to wear a St. Petersburg coat, to eat a good dinner, and to speak French, without unduly offending the society of his fellow officers.
After speaking of the weather, of military engagements, of our common acquaintances among the officers, and convincing ourselves, by our questions and answers, and by our view of things, that there was a satisfactory understanding between us, we involuntarily passed to a more intimate conversation. Besides, in the Caucasus, among people of the same circle naturally arises the question, though not always expressed, “ Why are you here? “ To this silent question my companion, so it seemed to me, was trying to give a reply.
“When will this frontier work end? “ he said, lazily. « It is dull!”
“Not to me,” said I. “ It is more tiresome on the staff.”
“Oh, on the staff it is ten thousand times worse,” he said, angrily. “ No, when will all this end?”
“What is it you want to end?”
“Everything, altogether! — Are the cutlets ready, Nikolaev? “ he asked.
“Why did you go to the Caucasus to serve, if the Cau- casus is so displeasing to you?”
“Do you know why? “ he replied, with absolute frank- ness. “ By tradition. In Russia, you know, there exists an exceedingly strange tradition about the Caucasus, аз though it were a promised land for all kinds of unhappy people.”
“Yes, that is almost true,” I said, “ the greater Part of us—”
“But what is best of all,” he interrupted me, “ is, that all of us who come to the Caucasus make dreadful mistakes in our calculations. Really, I can’t see why, on account of an unfortunate love-afifair or disorder in money matters, one should hasten to serve in the Caucasus rather than in Kazan or Kaluga. In Russia they im- agine the Caucasus as something majestic, with eternal virgin snows, torrents, daggers, cloaks, Circassian maidens, — all this is terrifying, but, really, there is nothing jolly in it. If they only knew that you never are in the vir- gin snows, and that there is no special pleasure in being there, and that the Caucasus is divided into Governments, Stavropol, Tiflis, and so forth—”
“Yes,” I said, laughing, “ in Russia we take an entirely different view of the Caucasus from what we do here. Have you not experienced this? when you read poetry in a language that you do not know very well, you imagine it to be much better than
