The horses had brought their master to Drevno at a hand-gallop, and
required some little time for resting. It was half-past four before
the _troika_ drove up to the door, and quite dark. Olga sat huddled up
on the box-seat beside the driver and she was still crying, her body
heaving at regular intervals with deep-drawn sobs.
The Barin, having been obliged to wait for more than two hours in the
close, hot room which served as his agent's office, was sleepy; he
settled himself comfortably in the sledge, well wrapped in furs, and
presently dozed off. Soon he was snoring loudly.
"Olga," the driver whispered, "don't be startled and make a noise--I am
Ivan."
Olga did start, and that violently; she would have cried out, too, but
Ivan placed a great gloved hand upon her mouth and prevented her.
"Ivan, he will awake and recognise thee, and we shall be knouted as we
sit," she whispered presently, when he had removed his hand. "Why did
you come, and where is Gavril?"
"Gavril lies drunk in the Starost's stable; he has had more than his
share of the wedding _vodka_; I made him drunk in order to take his
place. And I have come because--do not be a fool and cry out--because
the devil behind us has lived long enough; as it has not been our
wedding-day it shall be his death-day."
"Ivan, you dare not--you must not. He is a devil, as you say, but to
murder him would do us no good. The Tsar's officers would come and take
you from me and carry you away to Siberia, and what should I do then?"
"Bah! they must catch us first. We have these horses. We will drive all
night by the roads, so as to leave no track, and we will come to the
village of Ostrof, where I have relatives; they will take us in."
"And then?" said Olga, trembling so that she could scarcely speak.
"Their Barin will not ask questions; he will have us registered as his
own and there is an end."
"But he must know why we have fled from our own Barin; he will ask and
require to be satisfied."
"We will say that he was a devil and beat us, and that we would bear
with him no longer."
"Do not shed blood, Ivan," said Olga. "I should fear you all my life
long."
"Bah! to slay such vermin is to do God's service; do not be a timid
fool, Olga; we cannot live without one another; is not that a certain
thing?"
"That is certain; but I would rather love you without fearing you----"
Olga's speech was interrupted at this moment by the sudden shying of the
shaft horse, a movement which caused her to grab the narrow board on
which she sat and Ivan to collide violently against her, so that both
nearly toppled out of the sledge. It caused the Barin to awake suddenly,
also, and to launch at Ivan's head a string of curses and abuse.
Ivan remained silent, rather than apologise in the cringing phraseology
of Gavril, for he did not wish to be recognised at present.
But the Barin's drowsiness was not yet slept off, and in a minute or two
he was fast asleep again, and snoring.
"Olga, do you know what the horse shied at?" whispered Ivan.
"No," said the girl; "unless it was a shadow in the moonlight."
"Keep a guard upon your lips and I will tell you; it was a wolf. At this
moment I can count five, taking both sides of the road; watch between
the trees a hundred paces from the road; you will see them creep from
shadow to shadow, keeping pace with us."
"Holy Mother of God!" exclaimed Olga, piously crossing herself; "yes--I
see them--Lord have mercy upon us. I cannot forget Kiril who died but a
week ago!"
"Do not fear," said Ivan; "these wolves may yet prove to be our best
friends."
Olga pondered in silence over this enigmatical utterance of Ivan's.
She concluded at length that he must have meant it would be dangerous
to stop in order to murder the Barin, as he had threatened to do, and
that therefore the wolves must be regarded as good friends having thus
prevented the intended crime. The discovery gave Olga much comfort.
"The wolves are more and more," said Ivan presently, "and they come in
closer and closer to the road. There are at least a score, or it may be
thirty; doubtless it is Kiril's pack."
"Lord save us!" ejaculated Olga.
"Bah! if there were three hundred there would be no danger behind these
good horses--I would race the brutes from now until daylight!" said
Ivan. "There is nothing to fear, Olga, only hold tightly to your seat."
Olga shuddered, but did as she was bidden. The wolves, as Ivan said,
increased every moment in numbers and in audacity. They made no sound,
but they cantered nearer on each side of the road, but twenty paces from
the sledge, while others followed behind. The three horses, harnessed
abreast, snorted with terror; they laid back their ears and dragged the
light sledge at a hand-gallop. Ivan was a practised whip--every Russian
peasant is--and controlled the pace at his desire. The Barin slept
heavily on.
"How many there are, and how bold they grow!" whispered Olga. "Are you
sure we are safe, Ivan?"
"Only hold on tightly," said Ivan hoarsely. A moment later he added:--
"Now, especially, hold on very tightly, Olga, with both hands; there is
a bit of rough road here, and we may jolt."
Almost at the instant the off runner of the sledge struck the stem of a
pine-tree which stood at the very edge of the road. The vehicle lurched
heavily, glided perilously for a moment on one runner, then righted
itself. The frightened horses started away at full gallop.
Olga, in spite of having clutched her seat with both hands, was thrown
sidelong against Ivan, who grabbed her with his left arm, while with
his right leg he touched and shoved off from the ground; this it was
that righted the sledge. As the horses dashed forward both Ivan and Olga
jolted back into their places, Olga shrieking with terror, but gripping
the board upon which she sat so tightly as to be perfectly secure. Ivan
sat still, looking neither to right nor left. He seemed to employ all
his energies in getting the horses once more under control. They had
travelled thus, at lightning speed, for two hundred yards, a distance
which was covered in a quarter of a minute, before a shriek from behind
caused Olga to cease, suddenly, her own screaming and look round.
"The Barin--the Barin!" she cried. "He has fallen out, Ivan!--stop the
horses--we must save him!"
"Stop them who can--do not speak foolishness, Olga; you see that I am
pulling with all my strength!"
Olga kept silence. There followed a second scream from behind; then a
cry that seemed to be broken off in the middle.
Ivan took off his boots and threw them in the road. "Do the same, Olga,"
he said.
Olga obeyed, but half understanding. A few wolves were still following
the sledge, but most had remained behind.
"Throw your coat also," said Ivan, "and your head kerchief!"
All these garments were afterwards found by the horrified persons who
went out to look for the Barin, together with the heels of the Count's
boots, and a few shreds of his clothes. Olga's boots and Ivan's were in
pieces and partly eaten, and her coat and red cotton headkerchief were
in shreds.
"This is where the Barin fell out," said the searchers; "the two others
clung to the sledge a little longer, it appears, before being thrown out
and pulled to pieces. It is horrible!"
But many of the peasants in Maximof's villages were of opinion that
the Barin's fate was well deserved. He had been a tyrant and oppressor
of the poor. "It is the finger of God!" they said. Why two innocent
peasants should have been sacrificed at the same time was a puzzling
factor in the matter. As for the sledge it was duly brought back by the
three hungry horses next day.
"Dear Lord, look at them!" said the peasants at Toxova; "they have run
half a hundred miles--chased by wolves throughout the night, only think
of it! And the sledge empty behind them--bah! it is horrible!"
* * * * *
The new master at Ostrof asked no questions. He registered Ivan and Olga
by the names they chose to give him. Two new serfs were a godsend not to
be despised. It was as though some one had paid in an unexpected sum to
his credit at the banker's!
And the reputation of the old hag at Maximof's manor-village increased
wonderfully from this day. Her blessing upon crops, marriages and so
forth doubled at once in value; while as for her curses, why, from this
time onward until she died, if she but launched a malediction, the
victim might as well go and hang himself for all the pleasure life would
afford him until the wise woman was pleased to withdraw it.