The White Guard Part 16

'I knew it,' mumbled Lariosik, 'I knew I'd be unlucky . . .'

'Ssh. Stop . . .'

There was instant, total silence. Far away, through many closed doors, a bell trembled in the kitchen. Pause. Then came the click of footsteps, doors were opened, and Anyuta came into the room. Elena pa.s.sed quickly through the lobby. Myshlaevsky drummed on the green baize cloth and said: 'A bit early, isn't it?'

'Yes, it is', said Nikolka, who regarded himself as the expert on house-searches.

'Shall I open the door?' Anyuta asked uneasily.

'No, Anna Timofeyevna,' replied Myshlaevsky, 'wait a moment.' He rose groaning from his chair. 'Let me go to the door, don't you bother 'We'll both go', said Karas.

'Right', said Myshlaevsky, suddenly looking exactly as if he were standing in front of a platoon of troops. 'I a.s.sume everything is all right in the bedroom . . . Doctor Turbin has typhus. Elena, you're his sister . . . Karas - you pretend to be a doctor . . . no, a medical student. Go into the bedroom, make it look convincing. Fiddle about with a hypodermic or something . . . There are quite a lot of us ... we should be all right . . .'

The bell rang again impatiently, Anyuta gave a start; they all looked anxious.

'No hurry', said Myshlaevsky as he took a small toy-like black revolver from his hip-pocket.

'That's too risky', said Shervinsky, frowning. 'I'm surprised at you. You of all people ought to be more careful. D'you mean to say you walked through the streets carrying it?'

'Don't worry,' Myshlaevsky replied calmly and politely, 'we'll take care of it. Take it, Nikolka, and if necessary throw it out of a window or out of the back door. If it's Petlyura's men at the door, I'll cough. Then throw it out - only throw it so that we can find it again afterwards. I'm fond of this little thing, it went with me all the way to Warsaw . . . Everyone ready?'

'Ready', said Nikolka grimly and proudly as he took the revolver.

'Right.' Myshlaevsky poked Shervinsky in the chest with his finger, and said: 'You're a singer, invited to give a recital.' To Karas: 'You're a doctor, come to see Alexei.' To Nikolka: 'You're the brother.' To Lariosik: 'You're a student and you're a lodger here. Got an ident.i.ty card?'

'I have a tsarist pa.s.sport,' said Lariosik turning pale, 'and a student ident.i.ty card from Kharkov University.'

'Hide the tsarist one and show your student card.'

Lariosik clutched at the portiere, pushed it aside and went out.

'The women don't matter', Myshlaevsky went on. 'Right - has everybody got ident.i.ty cards? Nothing suspicious in your pockets? Hey, Larion! Somebody ask him if he's carrying a weapon.'

'Larion!' Nikolka called out from the dining-room. 'Do you have a gun?'

'No, G.o.d forbid', answered Larion from somewhere in the depths of the apartment.

Again there came a long, desperate, impatient ring at the doorbell.

'Well, here goes', said Myshlaevsky and made for the door. Karas disappeared into Alexei's bedroom.

'I'll make it look as if someone's playing patience', said Sher-vinsky and blew out the candles.

There were three doors to pa.s.s through to get into the Turbins' apartment. The first was from the lobby on to the staircase, the second was a gla.s.s door which marked off the limit of the Turbins' property. Beyond the gla.s.s door and downstairs was a cold, dark hallway, on one side of which was the Lisovichs' front door; at the end of the hallway was the third door giving on to the street.

Doors slammed, and Myshlaevsky could be heard downstairs shouting: 'Who's there?'

Behind him at the top of the stairs he sensed the shadowy figures of his friends, listening. Outside a m.u.f.fled voice said imploringly: 'How many more times do I have to ring? Does Mrs Talberg-Turbin live here? Telegram for her. Open up.'

'This is an old trick', Myshlaevsky thought to himself, and he began coughing hard. One of the figures on the staircase dis- appeared indoors. Cautiously Myshlaevsky opened the bolt, turned the key and opened the door, leaving the chain in position.

'Give me the telegram', he said, standing sideways to the door so that he was invisible to the person outside. A hand in a gray sleeve pushed itself through and handed him a little envelope. To his astonishment Myshlaevsky realised that it really was a telegram.

'Sign please', said the voice behind the door angrily.

With a quick glance Myshlaevsky saw that there was only one person standing outside.

'Anyuta, Anyuta', he shouted cheerfully, his bronchitis miraculously cured. 'Give me a pencil.'

Instead of Anyuta, Karas ran down and handed him a pencil. On a sc.r.a.p of paper torn from the flap of the envelope Myshlaevsky scribbled 'Tur', whispering to Karas: 'Give me twenty-five . . .'

The door was slammed shut and locked.

In utter amazement Myshlaevsky and Karas climbed up the staircase. All the others had gathered in the lobby. Elena tore open the envelope and began mechanically reading aloud: 'Lariosik suffered terrible misfortune stop. Operetta singer called Lipsky . . .'

'My G.o.d!' shouted Lariosik, scarlet in the face. 'It's the telegram from my mother!'

'Sixty-three words', groaned Nikolka. 'Look, they've had to write all round the sides and on the back!'

'Oh lord!' Elena exclaimed. 'What have I done? Lariosik, please forgive me for starting to read it out aloud. I'd completely forgotten about it . . .'

'What's it all about?' asked Myshlaevsky.

'His wife's left him', Nikolka whispered in his ear. 'Terrible scandal . . .'

The apartment was suddenly invaded by a deafening noise of hammering on the gla.s.s door as if it had been hit by a landslide. Anyuta screamed. Elena turned pale, and started to collapse against the wall. The noise was so monstrous, so horrifying and absurd that even Myshlaevsky's expression changed. Shervinsky, pale himself, caught Elena ... A groan came from Alexei's bedroom.

'The door', shrieked Elena.

Completely forgetting their strategic plan Myshlaevsky ran down the staircase, followed by Karas, Shervinsky and the mortally frightened Lariosik.

'Sounds bad', muttered Myshlaevsky.

A single black silhouette could be seen beyond the frosted-gla.s.s door. The noise stopped.

'Who's there?' roared Myshlaevsky in his parade-ground voice.

'For G.o.d's sake, open up. It's me, Lisovich . . . Lisovich!' screamed the black silhouette. 'It's me - Lisovich . . .'

Vasilisa was a terrible sight. His hair, with pink bald patches showing through, was wildly dishevelled. His necktie was pulled sideways and the tails of his jacket flapped like the doors of a broken closet. His eyes had the blurred, unfocused look of someone who has been poisoned. He reached the first step, then suddenly swayed and collapsed into Myshlaevsky's arms. Myshlaevsky caught him, but he was off-balance. He sat back heavily on to the stairs and shouted hoa.r.s.ely: 'Karas! Water . . .'

Fifteen.

It was evening, almost eleven o'clock. Because of events the street, never very busy, was empty and deserted rather earlier than usual.

There was a thin fall of snow, the flakes floating evenly and steadily past the window, and the branches of the acacia tree, which in summer gave shade to the Turbins' window, bent lower and lower under their coating of snow.

The snowfall had begun at lunchtime and from then on the day had turned into a dull, lowering evening full of ill-omen. The electric current was reduced to half strength, and Wanda served brains for supper. Brains are a horrible form of food anyway, and when cooked by Wanda they were disgusting. Before the brains there was soup, which Wanda had cooked with vegetable oil, and Vasilisa had risen from table in a bad temper with the unpleasant feeling of having eaten nothing at all. That evening he had innumerable things to do, all of them difficult and unpleasant. The dining-room table had been turned upside down and a bundle of Lebid-Yurchik's money was lying on the floor.

'You're a fool', Vasilisa said to his wife.

Wanda turned on him and she answered: 'I've always known you were a despicable beast, but lately you've been outdoing yourself.'

Vasilisa felt an agonising desire to fetch her a swinging blow across the face that would knock her over and make her hit her head on the edge of the sideboard. And then again and again until that d.a.m.ned, bony creature shut up and admitted she was beaten. He, Vasilisa, was worn out, he worked like a slave, and he felt he had a right to demand that she obey him at home. Vasilisa gritted his teeth and restrained himself. Attacking Wanda was a rather more dangerous undertaking than one might think.

'Just do as I say', said Vasilisa through clenched teeth. 'Don't you see - they may move the sideboard and what then? But they'd never think of looking under the table. Everybody in town does it.'

Wanda gave in to him and they set to work together, pinning banknotes to the underside of the table with thumb-tacks. Soon the whole underside of the table was covered with a multicolored pattern like a well-designed silk carpet.

Grunting, his face covered in sweat, Vasilisa stood up and glanced over the expanse of paper money.

'It's going to be so inconvenient', said Wanda. 'Every time I want some money I shall have to turn the dining-room table over.'

'So what, it won't kill you', replied Vasilisa hoa.r.s.ely. 'Better to have to turn the table over than lose everything. Have you heard what's going on in the City? They're worse than the Bolsheviks.

They're searching houses indiscriminately, looking for officers who fought against them.'

At eleven o'clock Wanda carried the samovar from the kitchen into the dining-room and put out the lights everywhere else in the apartment. She produced a bag of stale bread and a lump of green cheese from the sideboard. The single lamp hanging over the table from one socket of a triple chandelier shed a dim reddish light from its semi-incandescent filament.

Vasilisa chewed a piece of bread roll and green cheese, which was so unpleasant that it made his eyes water as if he had a raging toothache. At every bite fine crumbs of the sickening stuff spattered his jacket and his tie. Uneasy, though not knowing quite why, Vasilisa glared at Wanda as she chewed.

'I'm amazed how easily they get away with it', said Wanda, glancing upwards towards the Turbins. 'I was certain that one of them had been killed. But no, they're all back, and now the apartment is full of officers again . . .'

At any other time Wanda's remarks would not have made the slightest impression on Vasilisa, but now, when he was tortured by fear and unease, he found them intolerably spiteful.

'I'm surprised at you', he replied, glancing away to avoid the irritation of looking at her, 'you know perfectly well that really they were doing the right thing. Somebody had to defend the City against those (Vasilisa lowered his voice) swine . . . Besides you're wrong if you think they got off lightly ... I think he's been . . .'

Wanda looked thoughtful and nodded.

'Yes, I thought so too when I went up there . . . You're right, he's been wounded . . .'

'Well, then, it's nothing to be pleased about - got away with it, indeed . . .'

Wanda licked her lips.

'I'm not pleased, I only say they seem to have "got away with it" because what I want to know is, when Petlyura's men come to you - which G.o.d forbid - and ask you, as chairman of the house committee, who are the people upstairs - what are you going to say? Were they in the Hetman's army, or what?'

Vasilisa scowled.

'I can say with absolute truth that he's a doctor. After all, there's no reason why I should know anything else about him. How could I?'

'That's the point. In your position you're supposed supposed to know.' to know.'

At that moment the door-bell rang. Vasilisa turned pale, and Wanda turned her scrawny neck.

His nose twitching, Vasilisa stood up and said: 'D'you know what? Maybe I'd better run straight up to the Turbins and call them.'

Before Wanda had time to reply the bell rang again.

'Oh my G.o.d', said Vasilisa anxiously. 'Nothing for it - I shall have to go.'

Terrified, Wanda followed him. They opened their front door into the communal hallway, which smelled of the cold. Wanda's angular face, eyes wide with fear, peeped out. Above her head the electric bell gave another importunate ring.

For a moment the idea crossed Vasilisa's mind of knocking on the Turbins' gla.s.s door - someone would be bound to come down and things might not be so terrible. But he was afraid to do it. Suppose the intruders were to ask him: 'Why did you knock? Afraid of something? Guilty conscience?' Then came the hopeful thought, though a faint one, that it might not be a search-party but perhaps someone else . . .

'Who's there?' Vasilisa asked weakly at the door.

Immediately a hoa.r.s.e voice barked through the keyhole at the level of Vasilisa's stomach and the bell over Wanda's head rang again.

'Open up', rasped the keyhole in Ukrainian. 'We're from headquarters. And don't try running away, or we'll shoot through the door.'

'Oh, G.o.d ., .' sighed Wanda.

With lifeless hands Vasilisa slid open the bolt and then lifted the heavy latch, after fumbling with the chain for what seemed like hours.

'Hurry up . . .' said the keyhole harshly.

Vasilisa looked outside to see a patch of gray sky, an acacia branch, snowflakes. Three men entered, although to Vasilisa they seemed to be many more.

'Kindly tell me why . . .'

'Search', said the first man in a wolfish voice, marching straight up to Vasilisa. The corridor revolved and Wanda's face in the lighted doorway seemed to have been powdered with chalk.

'In that case, if you don't mind', Vasilisa's voice sounded pale and colorless, 'please show me your warrant. I'm a peaceful citizen - I don't know why you want to search my house. There's nothing here', said Vasilisa, painfully aware that his Ukrainian had suddenly deserted him.

'Well, we've come to have a look', said the first man.

Edging backwards as the men pushed their way in, Vasilisa felt he was seeing them in a dream. Everything about the first man struck Vasilisa as wolf-like. Narrow face, small deep-set eyes, gray skin, long straggling whiskers, unshaven cheeks furrowed by deep grooves, he had a curious shifty look and even here, in a confined s.p.a.ce, he managed to convey the impression of walking with the inhuman, loping gait of a creature at home in snow and gra.s.sland. He spoke a horrible mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, a language familiar to those inhabitants of the City who know the riverside district of Podol, where in summertime the quayside is alive with groaning, rattling winches and where ragged men unload watermelons from barges . . . On the wolf's head was a fur hat, a sc.r.a.p of blue material with tinsel piping dangling loosely from one side.

The second man, a giant, almost touched the ceiling of Vasilisa's lobby. His complexion was as ruddy as a jolly, rosy-cheeked peasant woman's, and so young that there was no hair on his face. He wore a coa.r.s.e sheepskin cap with moth-eaten earflaps, a gray overcoat, and his unnaturally small feet were clad in filthy, tattered rags.

The third man had a broken nose, one side of which was covered in a suppurating scab, and his upper lip was disfigured by a crudely st.i.tched scar. On his head was an officer's old peaked cap with a red band and a pale mark where the badge had once been. He wore an old-fashioned double-breasted army tunic with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons covered in verdigris, a pair of black trousers, and bast foot-cloths round his instep over a pair of thick gray army-issue socks. His face in the lamplight was compounded of two colors - a waxy yellow and a dull violet, whilst his eyes stared with a look of malice and self-pity.

'We've come to have a look,' the wolf repeated, 'and here's our warrant.'

With this he dived into his trouser pocket, pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and thrust it at Vasilisa. While one of his eyes kept Vasilisa in a state of palsied fear, his other eye, the left, made a cursory inspection of the furniture in the lobby.

The crumpled sheet was folded into four, and was embossed: 'Headquarters 1st Cossack Corps.' Beneath that, written with indelible pencil in large sloping characters, was an order in Ukrainian: You are instructed to to carry out a search of the premises of citizen Vasily Lisovich, No. 13 St Alexei's Hill. Resistance to this order is punishable by summary execution. carry out a search of the premises of citizen Vasily Lisovich, No. 13 St Alexei's Hill. Resistance to this order is punishable by summary execution.

signed: Protsenko, Protsenko, Chief of Staff Chief of Staff Miklun Miklun Adjutant Adjutant In the lower left-hand corner was the indecipherable impression of a blue rubber stamp.

The sprays of flowers on the lobby wallpaper swam slightly in front of Vasilisa's eyes and he said as the wolf regained possession of the piece of paper: 'Come in, please, but there's nothing here . . .'