Ivan the Runaway wandered farther through dark forests over waste silent
stretches of land and wide moors where his step left behind it little
cold pools in the spongy ground, and where the wildfowl gathered on the
mossy hillocks and chattered cheerfully in the sunshine. At last he came
across traces of human existence. It was true that from the pine-tree
which he climbed up he could perceive in the grey plain enclosed by
woods neither cottage roofs nor smoke, though it was such a clear day
that the streamlets which ran between the hillocks shone brightly and
dazzled his eyes which were accustomed to the darkness of the forest.
But yet the district seemed to be inhabited. A firm yellow road wound in
a broad semicircle round the moor. The ruts left by the cart-wheels of
the previous year crossed each other distinctly, but no new wheels had
ground the dry clods of earth into dust. Probably the road was seldom
used; at any rate the fugitive sat for hours in his tree, without
hearing in the distance the creaking of the ungreased axle of a
peasant's cart.
From the road there branched off a path which seemed to lead to a
distant village. Ivan was heartily tired of his diet of wood-game, and
began to consider whether he could venture into a village to buy bread.
In the pocket of the murdered huntsman he had found a rouble-note and
some silver coins. It was true that his hair had not grown again the
normal length, but he could tie a piece of cloth round his half-shorn
skull; and need not take it off when he entered a shop. "One buys what
one wants, and goes one's way, that is all," he said to re-assure
himself, for he felt a nervous antipathy to meeting any one, just as a
wolf fears every yelping cur as soon as he wanders by mistake into a
village.
At last he determined to go on quite slowly so as to reach the village
under cover of the approaching darkness. With this idea he turned into
the path which wound in an eccentric fashion through the moor, sometimes
diving into ravines, and sometimes emerging into clear sunshine. Here
and there stumps of trees bearing the fresh marks of an axe, and black
abandoned fire-places whose ashes had not yet been quite blown away,
showed that men had worked and rested here. The wanderer also thought he
often heard human voices, but when he held his breath to listen, he
always found it had been the deceptive cry of a bird.
The day came to an end, the golden radiance of the sun setting behind
the distant hills grew pale, and the first stars glimmered in the dusky
sky. Ivan strode valiantly forwards through the white rising mists out
of which single branches of trees projecting, beckoned to him like long
lean arms, till he reached a copse with dry mossy ground which seemed
admirably adapted to furnish him with a sleeping-place for the night. He
collected a bundle of twigs together and struck a light.
But in the act of raising his hand he stopped. What was that? Was there
not a sound from the wood like a child's crying? For a moment a cold
thrill passed through him; half-forgotten ghost-stories occurred to him,
but he was too intimately familiar with the life of the forest to be
seriously alarmed. After a short pause the crying began again.
"Hullo! Who is there? Is there any one?" Ivan shouted as loud as he
could. His voice aroused the sleeping wood; squirrels rustled among the
branches, and startled birds flapped their wings. Then everything was
again perfectly silent, nor could the sound of crying be heard any more.
Ivan again turned into the path.
"It must be a woman or a child," he thought, "and quite close too."
He peered with keen eyes through the darkness and moved noiselessly
forward, in order not to frighten the weeper. Now he heard the sound of
sobbing more distinctly; it was a child. But how had a child got here?
The moon had risen and threw an uncertain light on the path; in a ditch
by the side of it lay something white--it was the skeleton of a horse
which had been devoured by wolves. Near it was rustling some creature
which moved off at the convict's approach, first crawling and then at
full speed.