The Cossacks

ie in ambush. Nazarka did not want to go at all, but Lukashka shouted at him and they soon started. After they had gone a few steps in silence the Cossacks turned aside from the dit

ie here?' a

own here and I'll be back in a minut

ce; here we can see a

ere we'll lie. It's

oaks and settled down behind the log, wh

ing softly in front of the old man; 'I'll show you wh

, a regular Snatcher!' replied

le, and whistled. 'That's where they come to drink, d'you see?' He

The boar will be in the hollow beyond the d

an. Suddenly a loud rustling and a splash in the water made him start and seize his musket. From under the bank a boar leapt up-his dark outline showing for a moment against the glassy surface of the water and then disappearing among the reeds. Lukashka pull

p. Ergushov sat with his legs crossed and

It's really a good place,' sai

k. 'But what a big boar I roused just now close to the water!

st,"' Ergushov said, wrapping himself up in his cloak. 'Now I'll go to sleep,' he added. 'Wake me when the cocks cro

want to sleep,' a

his very feet was the bank, and at its base the rushing torrent. A little farther on was the moving mass of glassy brown water which eddied rhythmically along the bank and round the shallows. Farther still, water, banks, and cloud all merged together in impenetrable gloom. Along the surface of the water floated black shadows, in which the experienced eyes of the Cossack detected trees carried down by the current. Only very rarely sheet-lightning, mirrored in the water as in a black glass, disclosed the sloping bank opposite. The rhythmic sounds of night-the rustling of the reeds, the snoring of the Cossacks, the hum of mosquitoes, and the rushing water, were every now and then broken by a shot fired in

re in the mountains, and of how their brave lads came across and were not afraid of the Cossacks, and might even now be crossing the river at some other spot. He thrust himself out of his hiding-place and looked along the river but could see nothing. And as he continued looking out at intervals upon the river and at the opposite bank, now dimly distinguishable from the water in the faint moonlight, he no longer thought about the Chechens but only of when it would be time to wake

ppeared not to be floating altogether with the current, but to be crossing it in the direction of the shallows. Lukashka stretching out his neck watched it intently. The tree floated to the shallows, stopped, and shifted in a peculiar manner. Lukashka thought he saw an arm stretched out from beneath the tree. 'Supposing I killed an abrek all by myself!' he thought, and seized his gun with a swift, unhurried movement, putting up his gun-rest, placing the gun upon it, and holding it noiselessly in position. Cocking the trigger, with bated breath he took aim, still peering out intently. 'I won't wake them,' he thought. But his heart began beating so fast that he remained motionless, listening. Suddenly the trunk gave a plunge and again began to float across the stream towards our bank. 'Only not to miss ...' th

izing his musket and raising himself

hispered Lukashka, grin

' asked Nazarka. 'Wh

floating wood. A little way off it stopped on a sand-bank, and from

Why don't you speak?'

ell you!' sa

! Did the gun

voice choked by emotion, as he jumped to his feet. 'A man was swimming.

bugging!' said Ergushov

shka, seizing him by the shoulders and pulli

Lukashka pointed, and discerning a

sket. 'That was a scout swimming across: either the others are here already or are not far off on the

you true! If you've killed him he won't escape. Let me have a little powder for my musket-pan-you have some? Na

ne! Go yourself!' s

s coat, Lukashka we

ook, he's not moving. I can see. It's nearly morning; wait till they come fr

ka! Tell us how you

uick to the cordon and I will watch. Tell the Cossacks to send out th

et off,' said Ergushov, risin

d off for the cordon-not along the riverbank but breaking

you down here, so you'd best ke

shka; and having examined his gun

BREKS who were with the one he had killed would escape. He was vexed with the ABREKS who were going to escape just as he had been with the boar that had escaped the evening before. He glanc