Valek smiled in his habitual sad way and did not answer.
We avoided the steep landslides, for Valek knew a better path. Pushing
through the reeds of a dry marsh and crossing a couple of little
streams on narrow planks, we found ourselves on a flat at the foot of
the hill.
Here we were forced to take leave of one another. I pressed my new
friend’s hand and then held out mine to the little girl. She gave me
her tiny paw affectionately and, looking up at me with her blue eyes,
asked:
“Will you come again?”
“Oh, yes,” I answered. “I’ll surely come!”
“All right,” said Valek thoughtfully. “You might as well come, but only
when our people are in town.”
“Who are your people?”
“Why our people: all of them, Tiburtsi and Lavrovski and Turkevich and
the Professor--but perhaps he wouldn’t matter.”
“All right, I’ll watch for them, and when they’re in town, I’ll come.
Good-bye!”
“Hi! Listen!” Valek called after me when I had gone a few steps. “You
won’t tell any one you’ve been here with us, will you?”
“No, not a soul!” I answered firmly.
“That’s good. And when those idiots of yours ask you what you saw say
the Devil.”
“All right. I’ll say that.”
“Good-bye, then!”
“Good-bye!”
The thick shades of night were descending on Kniazh Gorodok as I
approached our garden wall. A slender crescent moon was hanging over
the castle and the sky was bright with stars. I was about to climb the
wall when some one seized my arm.
“Vasia!” my runaway friend burst out in an excited whisper. “Is that
you?”
“You know it is. And so you all ran away!”
He hung his head, but curiosity got the better of his confusion and he
asked again:
“What did you see there?”
“What do you think I saw?” I answered in a voice that would not admit
of a doubt; “devils, of course. And you are all cowards!”
Pushing my abashed companion aside, I climbed over the wall.
Fifteen minutes later I had sunk into a profound slumber, and was
dreaming that I was watching real little devils merrily hopping up out
of the hole in the chapel floor. Valek was chasing them about with a
birch twig, and Marusia, her eyes sparkling with pleasure, was laughing
and clapping her hands.
V