________________________________________________
_ XIII
MEANWHILE the yard-porter Vassily was marching on the open road
down to the south.
He walked in daytime, and when night came some policeman would get
him shelter in a peasant's cottage. He was given bread everywhere,
and sometimes he was asked to sit down to the evening meal.
In a village in the Orel district, where he had stayed for the night,
he heard that a merchant who had hired the landowner's orchard
for the season, was looking out for strong and able men to serve
as watchmen for the fruit-crops. Vassily was tired of tramping,
and as he had also no desire whatever to go back to his native village,
he went to the man who owned the orchard, and got engaged as watchman
for five roubles a month.
Vassily found it very agreeable to live in his orchard shed,
and all the more so when the apples and pears began to grow ripe,
and when the men from the barn supplied him every day with
large bundles of fresh straw from the threshing machine.
He used to lie the whole day long on the fragrant straw, with fresh,
delicately smelling apples in heaps at his side, looking out in
every direction to prevent the village boys from stealing fruit;
and he used to whistle and sing meanwhile, to amuse himself.
He knew no end of songs, and had a fine voice. When peasant
women and young girls came to ask for apples, and to have a chat
with him, Vassily gave them larger or smaller apples according
as he liked their looks, and received eggs or money in return.
The rest of the time he had nothing to do, but to lie on his
back and get up for his meals in the kitchen. He had only
one shirt left, one of pink cotton, and that was in holes.
But he was strongly built and enjoyed excellent health.
When the kettle with black gruel was taken from the stove and
served to the working men, Vassily used to eat enough for three,
and filled the old watchman on the estate with unceasing wonder.
At nights Vassily never slept. He whistled or shouted
from time to time to keep off thieves, and his piercing,
cat-like eyes saw clearly in the darkness.
One night a company of young lads from the village made their way
stealthily to the orchard to shake down apples from the trees.
Vassily, coming noiselessly from behind, attacked them; they tried
to escape, but he took one of them prisoner to his master.
Vassily's first shed stood at the farthest end of the orchard, but after
the pears had been picked he had to remove to another shed only forty paces
away from the house of his master. He liked this new place very much.
The whole day long he could see the young ladies and gentlemen
enjoying themselves; going out for drives in the evenings and quite late
at nights, playing the piano or the violin, and singing and dancing.
He saw the ladies sitting with the young students on the window sills,
engaged in animated conversation, and then going in pairs to walk
the dark avenue of lime trees, lit up only by streaks of moonlight.
He saw the servants running about with food and drink, he saw the cooks,
the stewards, the laundresses, the gardeners, the coachmen, hard at work
to supply their masters with food and drink and constant amusement.
Sometimes the young people from the master's house came to the shed,
and Vassily offered them the choicest apples, juicy and red.
The young ladies used to take large bites out of the apples on the spot,
praising their taste, and spoke French to one another--Vassily quite
understood it was all about him--and asked Vassily to sing for them.
Vassily felt the greatest admiration for his master's mode of living,
which reminded him of what he had seen in Moscow; and he became more
and more convinced that the only thing that mattered in life was money.
He thought and thought how to get hold of a large sum of money.
He remembered his former ways of making small profits whenever
he could, and came to the conclusion that that was altogether wrong.
Occasional stealing is of no use, he thought. He must arrange
a well-prepared plan, and after getting all the information he wanted,
carry out his purpose so as to avoid detection.
After the feast of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the last crop of autumn apples was gathered; the master
was content with the results, paid off Vassily, and gave him
an extra sum as reward for his faithful service.
Vassily put on his new jacket, and a new hat--both were presents
from his master's son--but did not make his way homewards.
He hated the very thought of the vulgar peasants' life.
He went back to Moscow in company of some drunken soldiers,
who had been watchmen in the orchard together with him.
On his arrival there he at once resolved, under cover of night,
to break into the shop where he had been employed, and beaten,
and then turned out by the proprietor without being paid.
He knew the place well, and knew where the money was locked up.
So he bade the soldiers, who helped him, keep watch outside,
and forcing the courtyard door entered the shop and took
all the money he could lay his hands on. All this was done
very cleverly, and no trace was left of the burglary.
The money Vassily had found in the shop amounted to 370 roubles.
He gave a hundred roubles to his assistants, and with the rest
left for another town where he gave way to dissipation in company
of friends of both sexes. The police traced his movements,
and when at last he was arrested and put into prison he had
hardly anything left out of the money which he had stolen. _
Read next: PART FIRST: Chapter XIV
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