The Man Who Was Afraid Part 72

Yozhov, raising his shoulders, walked up to the table, poured out a half a tea-gla.s.s full of vodka, emptied it and sat down by the table, bowing his head low. There was silence for about a minute. Then Foma said, timidly and softly:

"How it all happened! We had no time even to wink an eye, and, suddenly, such an outcome. Ah!"

"You!" said Yozhov in an undertone, tossing up his head, and staring at Foma angrily and wildly. "Keep quiet! You, the devil take you. Lie down and sleep! You monster. Nightmare. Oh!"

And he threatened Foma with his fist. Then he filled the gla.s.s with more brandy, and emptied it again.

A few minutes later Foma lay undressed on the lounge, and, with half-shut eyes, followed Yozhov who sat by the table in an awkward pose. He stared at the floor, and his lips were quietly moving. Foma was astonished, he could not make out why Yozhov had become angry at him.

It could not be because he had been ordered to move out. For it was he himself who had been shouting.

"Oh devil!" whispered Yozhov, and gnashed his teeth.

Foma quietly lifted his head from the pillow. Yozhov deeply and noisily sighing, again stretched out his hand toward the bottle. Then Foma said to him softly:

"Let's go to some hotel. It isn't late yet."

Yozhov looked at him, and, rubbing his head with his hands, began to laugh strangely. Then he rose from his chair and said to Foma curtly:

"Dress yourself!"

And seeing how clumsily and slowly he turned on the lounge, Yozhov shouted with anger and impatience:

"Well, be quicker! You personification of stupidity. You symbolical cart-shaft."

"Don't curse!" said Foma, with a peaceable smile. "Is it worthwhile to be angry because a woman has cackled?"

Yozhov glanced at him, spat and burst into harsh laughter.

CHAPTER XIII

"ARE all here?" asked Ilya Yefimovich Kononov, standing on the bow of his new steamer, and surveying the crowd of guests with beaming eyes.

"It seems to be all!"

And raising upward his stout, red, happy-looking face, he shouted to the captain, who was already standing on the bridge, beside the speaking-tube:

"Cast off, Petrukha!"

"Yes, sir!"

The captain bared his huge, bald head, made the sign of the cross, glancing up at the sky, pa.s.sed his hand over his wide, black beard, cleared his throat, and gave the command:

"Back!"

The guests watched the movements of the captain silently and attentively, and, emulating his example, they also began to cross themselves, at which performance their caps and high hats flashed through the air like a flock of black birds.

"Give us Thy blessing, Oh Lord!" exclaimed Kononov with emotion.

"Let go astern! Forward!" ordered the captain. The ma.s.sive "Ilya Murometz," heaving a mighty sigh, emitted a thick column of white steam toward the side of the landing-bridge, and started upstream easily, like a swan.

"How it started off," enthusiastically exclaimed commercial counsellor Lup Grigoryev Reznikov, a tall, thin, good-looking man. "Without a quiver! Like a lady in the dance!"

"Half speed!"

"It's not a ship, it's a Leviathan!" remarked with a devout sigh the pock-marked and stooping Trofim Zubov, cathedral-warden and princ.i.p.al usurer in town.

It was a gray day. The sky, overcast with autumn clouds, was reflected in the water of the river, thus giving it a cold leaden colouring.

Flashing in the freshness of its paint the steamer sailed along the monotonous background of the river like a huge bright spot, and the black smoke of its breath hung in the air like a heavy cloud. All white, with pink paddle-boxes and bright red blades, the steamer easily cut through the cold water with its bow and drove it apart toward the sh.o.r.es, and the round window-panes on the sides of the steamer and the cabin glittered brilliantly, as though smiling a self-satisfied, triumphant smile.

"Gentlemen of this honourable company!" exclaimed Kononov, removing his hat, and making a low bow to the guests. "As we have now rendered unto G.o.d, so to say, what is due to G.o.d, would you permit that the musicians render now unto the Emperor what is due to the Emperor?"

And, without waiting for an answer from his guests, he placed his fist to his mouth, and shouted:

"Musicians! Play 'Be Glorious!'"

The military orchestra, behind the engine, thundered out the march.

And Makar Bobrov, the director and founder of the local commercial bank, began to hum in a pleasant ba.s.so, beating time with his fingers on his enormous paunch:

"Be glorious, be glorious, our Russian Czar--tra-rata! Boom!"

"I invite you to the table, gentlemen! Please! Take pot-luck, he, he!

I entreat you humbly," said Kononov, pushing himself through the dense group of guests.

There were about thirty of them, all sedate men, the cream of the local merchants. The older men among them, bald-headed and gray, wore old-fashioned frock-coats, caps and tall boots. But there were only few of these; high silk hats, shoes and stylish coats reigned supreme.

They were all crowded on the bow of the steamer, and little by little, yielding to Kononov's requests, moved towards the stern covered with sailcloth, where stood tables spread with lunch. Lup Reznikov walked arm in arm with Yakov Mayakin, and, bending over to his ear, whispered something to him, while the latter listened and smiled. Foma, who had been brought to the festival by his G.o.dfather, after long admonitions, found no companion for himself among these people who were repulsive to him, and, pale and gloomy, held himself apart from them. During the past two days he had been drinking heavily with Yozhov, and now he had a terrible headache. He felt ill at ease in the sedate and yet jolly company; the humming of the voices, the thundering of the music and the clamour of the steamer, all these irritated him.

He felt a pressing need to doze off, and he could find no rest from the thought as to why his G.o.dfather was so kind to him today, and why he brought him hither into the company of the foremost merchants of the town. Why had he urged so persuasively, and even entreated him to attend Kononov's ma.s.s and banquet?

"Don't be foolish, come!" Foma recalled his G.o.dfather's admonitions.

"Why do you fight shy of people? Man gets his character from nature, and in riches you are lower than very few. You must keep yourself on an equal footing with the others. Come!"

"But when are you going to speak seriously with me, papa?" Foma had asked, watching the play of his G.o.dfather's face and green eyes.

"You mean about setting you free from the business? Ha, ha! We'll talk it over, we'll talk it over, my friend! What a queer fellow you are.

Well? Will you enter a monastery when you have thrown away your wealth?

After the example of the saints? Eh?"

"I'll see then!" Foma had answered.

"So. Well, and meanwhile, before you go to the monastery, come along with me! Get ready quickly. Rub your phiz with something wet, for it is very much swollen. Sprinkle yourself with cologne, get it from Lubov, to drive away the smell of the kabak. Go ahead!"

Arriving on the steamer while the ma.s.s was in progress, Foma took up a place on the side and watched the merchants during the whole service.

They stood in solemn silence; their faces had an expression of devout concentration; they prayed with fervour, deeply sighing, bowing low, devoutly lifting their eyes heavenward. And Foma looked now at one, now at another, and recalled what he knew about them.

There was Lup Reznikov; he had begun his career as a brothel-keeper, and had become rich all of a sudden. They said he had strangled one of his guests, a rich Siberian. Zubov's business in his youth had been to purchase thread from the peasants. He had failed twice. Kononov had been tried twenty years ago for arson, and even now he was indicted for the seduction of a minor. Together with him, for the second time already, on a similar charge, Zakhar Kirillov Robustov had been dragged to court.