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Page 39
"Ha! he's crept up to us. It was the fire here that he aimed at," said
he.
"We must rouse the captain," said I, and gazed at Guskof.
He stood cowering close to the ground, and stammered, trying to say,
"Th-that's th-the ene-my's . . . f-f-fire--th-that's--hidi--." Further he
could not say a word, and I did not see how and where he disappeared so
instantaneously.
In the captain's tent a candle gleamed; his cough, which always troubled
him when he was awake, was heard; and he himself soon appeared, asking
for a linstock to light his little pipe.
"What does this mean, old man?" [Footnote: Batiushka] he asked with a
smile. "Aren't they willing to give me a little sleep to-night? First
it's you with your cashiered friend, and then it's Shamyl. What shall we
do, answer him or not? There was nothing about this in the instructions,
was there?"
"Nothing at all. There he goes again," said I. "Two of them!"
Indeed, in the darkness, directly in front of us, flashed two fires,
like two eyes; and quickly over our heads flew one cannon-ball and one
heavy shell. It must have been meant for us, coming with a loud and
penetrating hum. From the neighboring tents the soldiers hastened. You
could hear them hawking and talking and stretching themselves.
"Hist! the fuse sings like a nightingale," was the remark of the
artillerist.
"Send for Nikita," said the captain with his perpetually benevolent
smile. "Nikita, don't hide yourself, but listen to the mountain
nightingales."
"Well, your honor," [Footnote: VASHE VUISOKOBLAGORODIE. German,
HOCHWOHLGEBORENER, high, well-born; regulation title of officers from
major to general] said Nikita, who was standing near the captain, "I
have seen them--these nightingales. I am not afraid of 'em; but here was
that stranger who was here, he was drinking up your red wine. When he
heard how that shot dashed by our tents, and the shell rolled by, he
cowered down like some wild beast."
"However, we must send to the commander of the artillery," said the
captain to me, in a serious tone of authority, "and ask whether we shall
reply to the fire or not. It will probably be nothing at all, but still
it may. Have the goodness to go and ask him. Have a horse saddled. Do it
as quickly as possible, even if you take my Polkan."
In five minutes they brought me a horse, and I galloped off to the
commander of the artillery. "Look you, return on foot," whispered the
punctilious captain, "else they won't let you through the lines."
It was half a verst to the artillery commander's, the whole road ran
between the tents. As soon as I rode away from our fire, it became so
black that I could not see even the horse's ears, but only the watch-
fires, now seeming very near, now very far off, as they gleamed into my
eyes. After I had ridden some distance, trusting to the intelligence of
the horse whom I allowed free rein, I began to distinguish the white
four-cornered tents and then the black tracks of the road. After a half-
hour, having asked my way three times, and twice stumbled over the tent-
stakes, causing each time a volley of curses from the tents, and twice
been detained by the sentinels, I reached the artillery commander's.
While I was on the way, I heard two more cannon shot in the direction of
our camp; but the projectiles did not reach to the place where the
headquarters were. The artillery commander ordered not to reply to the
firing, the more as the enemy did not remain in the same place; and I
went back, leading the horse by the bridle, making my way on foot
between the infantry tents. More than once I delayed my steps, as I went
by some soldier's tent where a light was shining, and some merry-andrew
was telling a story; or I listened to some educated soldier reading from
some book while the whole division overflowed the tent, or hung around
it, sometimes interrupting the reading with various remarks; or I simply
listened to the talk about the expedition, about the fatherland, or
about their chiefs.
As I came around one of the tents of the third battalion, I heard
Guskof's rough voice: he was speaking hilariously and rapidly. Young
voices replied to him, not those of soldiers, but of gay gentlemen. It
was evidently the tent of some yunker or sergeant-major. I stopped
short.
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