“Now, then, are you settled?” Kraut asked of Volodia. “But, pardon me,
what is your name--both your names? It’s our custom in the artillery.
Have you a saddle-horse?”
“No,” answered Volodia, “and I am much troubled about it. I have spoken
to the captain. I shall have neither horse nor money until I get my
forage-money and my travelling expenses. I would like to ask the
commander of the battery to lend me his horse, but I am afraid he will
refuse.”
“You would like to ask this of Apollo Serguéïtch?” said Kraut, looking
at the captain, while he made a sound with his lips which expressed
doubt.
“Well,” said the latter, “if he refuses, there is no great harm done. To
tell the truth, there is seldom need of a horse here. I will undertake
to ask him to-day even.”
“You don’t know him,” said Dedenko. “He would refuse anything else, but
he wouldn’t refuse his horse to this gentleman. Would you like to bet on
it?”
“Oh, I know you are ripe for contradiction, you--”
“I contradict when I know a thing! He isn’t generous usually, but he
will lend his horse, because he has no interest in refusing it.”
“How no interest? When oats cost eight rubles here it is evidently in
his interest. He will have one horse the less to keep.”
“Vladimir Semenovitch!” cried Vlang, coming back with Kraut’s pipe. “Ask
for the spotted one; it is a charming horse.”
“That’s the one you fell into the ditch with, eh, Vlang?” observed the
second-captain.
“But you are mistaken in saying that oats are eight rubles,” maintained
Dedenko, in the mean time, continuing the discussion. “According to the
latest news they are ten-fifty. It is evident that there is no profit
in--”
“You would like to leave him nothing, then? If you were in his place you
would not lend your horse to go into town either. When I am commander of
the battery my horses, brother, will have four full measures to eat
every day! I sha’n’t think of making an income, rest assured!”
“He who lives will see,” replied the second-captain. “You will do the
same when you have a battery, and he also,” pointing to Volodia.
“Why do you suppose, Frederic Christianovitch, that this gentleman would
also like to reserve for himself some small profit? If he has a certain
amount of money, what will he do it for?” Tchernovitzky asked in his
turn.
“No--I--excuse me, captain,” said Volodia, blushing up to his ears.
“That would be dishonest in my eyes.”
“Oh! oh! what milk porridge!” Kraut said to him.
“This is another question, captain, but it seems to me that I couldn’t
take money for myself which doesn’t belong to me.”
“And I will tell you something else,” said the second-captain, in a more
serious tone. “You must learn that, being battery commander, there is
every advantage in managing affairs well. You must know that the
soldier’s food doesn’t concern him. It has always been that way with us
in the artillery. If you don’t succeed in making both ends meet, you
will have nothing left. Let us count up your expenses. You have first
the forage”--and the captain bent one finger; “next the medicine”--he
bent a second one; “then the administration--that makes three; then the
draft-horses, which certainly cost five hundred rubles--that makes four;
then the refitting of the soldiers’ collars; then the charcoal, which is
used in great quantities, and at last the table of your officers;
lastly, as chief of the battery you must live comfortably, and you need
a carriage, a cloak, etc.”
“And the principal thing is this, Vladimir Semenovitch,” said the
captain, who had been silent up to this moment. “Look at a man like me,
for example, who has served twenty years, receiving at first two, then
three hundred rubles pay. Well, then, why shouldn’t the Government
reward him for his years of service by giving him a morsel of bread for
his old days.”
“It can’t be discussed,” rejoined the second-captain; “so don’t be in a
hurry to judge. Serve a little while and you will see.”
Volodia, quite ashamed of the remark which he had thrown out without
stopping to reflect, murmured a few words, and listened in silence how
Dedenko set about defending the opposite thesis. The discussion was
interrupted by the entrance of the colonel’s orderly announcing that
dinner was ready.
“You ought to tell Apollo Serguéïtch to give us wine to-day,” said
Captain Tchernovitzky, buttoning his coat. “Devil take his avarice! He
will be shot, and no one will get any.”
“Tell him yourself.”
“Oh no, you are my elder; the hierarchy before everything!”