Chapter 21
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18631863

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Author : Leo Tolstoy

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Suddenly it was as though the sun had shone into his soul. He heard Russian
being spoken, and also heard the rapid smooth flow of the Terek, and a few
steps farther in front of him saw the brown moving surface of the river,
with the dim-colored wet sand of its banks and shallows, the distant
steppe, the cordon watch-tower outlined above the water, a saddled and
hobbled horse among the brambles, and then the mountains opening out before
him. The red sun appeared for an instant from under a cloud and its last
rays glittered brightly along the river over the reeds, on the watch-tower,
and on a group of Cossacks, among whom Lukashka's vigorous figure attracted
Olenin's involuntary attention.

Olenin felt that he was again, without any apparent cause, perfectly happy.
He had come upon the Nizhni-Prototsk post on the Terek, opposite a
pro-Russian Tartar village on the other side of the river. He accosted the
Cossacks, but not finding as yet any excuse for doing anyone a kindness, he
entered the hut; nor in the hut did he find any such opportunity. The
Cossacks received him coldly. On entering the mud hut he lit a cigarette.
The Cossacks paid little attention to him, first because he was smoking a
cigarette, and secondly because they had something else to divert them that
evening. Some hostile Chechens, relatives of the abrek who had been killed,
had come from the hills with a scout to ransom the body; and the Cossacks
were waiting for their Commanding Officer's arrival from the village. The
dead man's brother, tall and well shaped with a short cropped beard which
was dyed red, despite his very tattered coat and cap was calm and majestic
as a king. His face was very like that of the dead abrek. He did not deign
to look at anyone, and never once glanced at the dead body, but sitting on
his heels in the shade he spat as he smoked his short pipe, and
occasionally uttered some few guttural sounds of command, which were
respectfully listened to by his companion. He was evidently a brave who had
met Russians more than once before in quite other circumstances, and
nothing about them could astonish or even interest him. Olenin was about to
approach the dead body and had begun to look at it when the brother,
looking up at him from under his brows with calm contempt, said something
sharply and angrily. The scout hastened to cover the dead man's face with
his coat. Olenin was struck by the dignified and stem expression of the
brave's face. He began to speak to him, asking from what village he came,
but the Chechen, scarcely giving him a glance, spat contemptuously and
turned away. Olenin was so surprised at the Chechen not being interested in
him that he could only put it down to the man's stupidity or ignorance of
Russian; so he turned to the scout, who also acted as interpreter. The
scout was as ragged as the other, but instead of being red-haired he was
black-haired, restless, with extremely white gleaming teeth and sparkling
black eyes. The scout willingly entered into conversation and asked for a
cigarette.

'There were five brothers,' began the scout in his broken Russian. 'This is
the third brother the Russians have killed, only two are left. He is a
brave, a great brave!' he said, pointing to the Chechen. 'When they killed
Ahmet Khan (the dead brave) this one was sitting on the opposite bank among
the reeds. He saw it all. Saw him laid in the skiff and brought to the
bank. He sat there till the night and wished to kill the old man, but the
others would not let him.'

Lukashka went up to the speaker, and sat down. 'Of what village?' asked he.

'From there in the hills,' replied the scout, pointing to the misty bluish
gorge beyond the Terek. 'Do you know Suuk-su? It is about eight miles
beyond that.'

'Do you know Girey Khan in Suuk-su?' asked Lukashka, evidently proud of the
acquaintance. 'He is my kunak.'

'He is my neighbor,' answered the scout.

'He's a trump!' and Lukashka, evidently much interested, began talking to
the scout in Tartar.

Presently a Cossack captain, with the head of the village, arrived on
horseback with a suite of two Cossacks. The captain—one of the new type
of Cossack officers—wished the Cossacks 'Good health,' but no one shouted
in reply, 'Hail! Good health to your honor,' as is customary in the Russian
Army, and only a few replied with a bow. Some, and among them Lukashka,
rose and stood erect. The corporal replied that all was well at the
outposts. All this seemed ridiculous: it was as if these Cossacks were
playing at being soldiers. But these formalities soon gave place to
ordinary ways of behavior, and the captain, who was a smart Cossack just
like the others, began speaking fluently in Tartar to the interpreter. They
filled in some document, gave it to the scout, and received from him some
money. Then they approached the body.

'Which of you is Luke Gavrilov?' asked the captain.

Lukishka took off his cap and came forward.

'I have reported your exploit to the Commander. I don't know what will come
of it. I have recommended you for a cross; you're too young to be made a
sergeant. Can you read?'

'I can't.'

'But what a fine fellow to look at!' said the captain, again playing the
commander. 'Put on your cap. Which of the Gavrilovs does he come of? …
the Broad, eh?'

'His nephew,' replied the corporal.

'I know, I know. Well, lend a hand, help them,' he said, turning to the
 Cossacks.

Lukashka's face shone with joy and seemed handsomer than usual. He moved
away from the corporal, and having put on his cap sat down beside Olenin.

When the body had been carried to the skiff the brother Chechen descended
to the bank. The Cossacks involuntarily stepped aside to let him pass. He
jumped into the boat and pushed off from the bank with his powerful leg,
and now, as Olenin noticed, for the first time threw a rapid glance at all
the Cossacks and then abruptly asked his companion a question. The latter
answered something and pointed to Lukashka. The Chechen looked at him and,
turning slowly away, gazed at the opposite bank. That look expressed not
hatred but cold contempt. He again made some remark.

'What is he saying?' Olenin asked of the fidgety scout.

'Yours kill ours, ours slay yours. It's always the same,' replied the
scout, evidently inventing, and he smiled, showing his white teeth, as he
jumped into the skiff.

The dead man's brother sat motionless, gazing at the opposite bank. He was
so full of hatred and contempt that there was nothing on this side of the
river that moved his curiosity. The scout, standing up at one end of the
skiff and dipping his paddle now on one side now on the other, steered
skillfully while talking incessantly. The skiff became smaller and smaller
as it moved obliquely across the stream, the voices became scarcely
audible, and at last, still within sight, they landed on the opposite bank
where their horses stood waiting. There they lifted out the corpse and
(though the horse shied) laid it across one of the saddles, mounted, and
rode at a foot-pace along the road past a Tartar village from which a crowd
came out to look at them. The Cossacks on the Russian side of the river
were highly satisfied and jovial. Laughter and jokes were heard on all
sides. The captain and the head of the village entered the mud hut to
regale themselves. Lukashka, vainly striving to impart a sedate expression
to his merry face, sat down with his elbows on his knees beside Olenin and
whittled away at a stick.

'Why do you smoke?' he said with assumed curiosity. 'Is it good?'

He evidently spoke because he noticed Olenin felt ill at ease and isolated
among the Cossacks.

'It's just a habit,' answered Olenin. 'Why?'

'H'm, if one of us were to smoke there would be a row! Look there now, the
mountains are not far off,' continued Lukashka, 'yet you can't get there!
How will you get back alone? It's getting dark. I'll take you, if you like.
You ask the corporal to give me leave.'

'What a fine fellow!' thought Olenin, looking at the Cossack's bright face.
He remembered Maryanka and the kiss he had heard by the gate, and he was
sorry for Lukashka and his want of culture. 'What confusion it is,' he
thought. 'A man kills another and is happy and satisfied with himself as if
he had done something excellent. Can it be that nothing tells him that it
is not a reason for any rejoicing, and that happiness lies not in killing,
but in sacrificing oneself?'

'Well, you had better not meet him again now, mate!' said one of the
Cossacks who had seen the skiff off, addressing Lukashka. 'Did you hear him
asking about you?'

Lukashka raised his head.

'My godson?' said Lukashka, meaning by that word the dead Chechen.

'Your godson won't rise, but the red one is the godson's brother!'

'Let him thank God that he got off whole himself,' replied Lukashka.

'What are you glad about?' asked Olenin. 'Supposing your brother had been
killed; would you be glad?'

The Cossack looked at Olenin with laughing eyes. He seemed to have
understood all that Olenin wished to say to him, but to be above such
considerations.

'Well, that happens too! Don't our fellows get killed sometimes?'

(Source: The Cossacks: A Tale of 1852, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Louise
and Aylmer Maude, published 1863.)


     From : Gutenberg.org

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     Chapter 21 -- Publication : November 30, 1862

     Chapter 21 -- Added : May 13, 2021

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