THE CHALLENGE 
 
 WARREN CHENEY * 
 
UN BANCROFT IA 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 

THE CHALLENGE 
 
He kept his gaze fixed as before and pointed See p 
 
THE CHALLENGE 
 
 By 
 WARREN CHENEY 
 
 Author of 
 The Way of the North, etc. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 N. C. WYETH 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
COPYRIGHT 1906 
 THE BOBBS-MERRIU, COMPANY 
 
 MARCH 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 BRAUNWORTH & CO. 
 
 BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS 
 
 BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
TO MY WIFE 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I THE SECRET OP THE BAY ...... 1 
 
 II IVAN MEETS A GHOST 13 
 
 III THE PRIEST'S SON 39 
 
 IV THE PRIEST'S SON Is BURIED . . . . 59 
 V SIMEON, THE PRIEST, FINDS A MISSION ... 88 
 
 VI THE RINGING OP THE BELL r . . . . . 110 
 
 VII IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 137 
 
 VIII VARENKA BECOMES ROMANTIC . . . .174 
 
 IX THE WOOING OF MOTRYA 196 
 
 X PETER LAYS A PLOT 225 
 
 XI THE PRIEST VISITS THE SICK ... . .253 
 XII THE PASSING OP MIKHAIL , . * * . . 279 
 
 XIII LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 306 
 
 XIV THE FLIGHT 335 
 
 XV THB GRIP OF THE DRAW ...... 353 
 
 XVI IVAN is BROUGHT TO BOOK 367 
 
THE CHALLENGE 
 
OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE SECEET OF THE BAY 
 
 Because they are benighted and still believe 
 in ghosts, the Alaskan natives never pass by 
 night through the long arm of Ltua Bay that 
 is its sole connection with the sea. And be- 
 cause in that far northern place for half the 
 year the time is mostly night, until the Rus- 
 sians came the bay lacked much of its full share 
 of human use and occupancy. 
 
 The Russians, perhaps, were as superstitious 
 as the brown men they found in the new place, 
 but the feeling moved them in a different way. 
 They admired the bay's long entrance channel, 
 smooth and straight as the trunks of the yellow 
 firs along its banks ; they were grateful for the 
 quiet of the inner harbor space ; they marveled 
 at the even way in which the basin had been 
 hollowed out on either side of the entering stem 
 like the arms of a great T ; but most of all they 
 read a superstitious meaning in the outline of 
 
 i 
 
2 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 the harbor as a whole. To them it was a gi- 
 gantic cross of water laid upon the land, and, 
 with the pleasing arrogance of the Russian 
 mind, they made sure to themselves that it was 
 a sign that God vouchsafed to them a shelter in 
 this inhospitable land and looked with favor on 
 their somewhat doubtful schemes. 
 
 In grounds for conviction about the place the 
 natives had logically the better point. The 
 Russians claimed no basis for their superstition 
 other than their hope. The natives could de- 
 fend their case with a grim record of the un- 
 fortunates of their kind who had set out to run 
 the channel from the harbor to its mouth and 
 had not come back again. Somewhere between 
 these two points they and their boats had been 
 spirited away, and this as often in clear weather 
 as in foul. It stood to reason, therefore, that 
 the ghosts of these lost ones might well be 
 lingering permanently thereabouts. 
 
 The Russians listened lightly to these stories 
 and said to each other that the natives lied. 
 But they could not so dispose of the records left 
 by La Perouse, the adventurous Frenchman who 
 discovered the bay in 1786, and whose statement, 
 embodied on a monument there, went to show 
 
THE SECRET OF THE BAY 3 
 
 that the reports of the grim disappearances 
 of the channel were of a surety true. His in- 
 scription chronicled that on a certain dreadful 
 day two of his boats with twenty of his men had 
 dropped down from the landing to take sound- 
 ings at the harbor 's mouth. The sea was smooth 
 and the morning clear and there was nothing in 
 earth, or air or sky, to speak of danger or to 
 give alarm. The boats were seen to pass in be- 
 tween the low cliffs that stand on either side of 
 the passage gate and that was all. They did 
 not reach the open sea and they did not come 
 back to port again. 
 
 The people sent in search of them passed 
 without adventure and in safety through the 
 mouth of the runway and out to the open water 
 beyond. But the two boats with their load 
 of human freight that had gone before them 
 had, in the same distance, in some occult way, 
 vanished completely. Only, the next day, just 
 within the heads on the northern side, they 
 found two bodies traveling round and round and 
 spinning upon the shoals like fish at play ; and 
 so, without much thought, they divined the fate 
 that had come to all the rest. 
 
 But the Russians who profited by La Pe- 
 
4 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 rouse's discovery and two years later took pos- 
 session of the bay, were wholly of the promysh- 
 leniki, the soldier hunters, on whose hardihood 
 and strength of arm the great Fur Company 
 depended to collect its pelts and to spread and 
 hold its sway. These men cared little for the 
 good or bad reputation of a place so long as it 
 afforded proper shelter and abounded plenti- 
 fully in the fur-bearing animals of which they 
 were in search. They accepted both the na- 
 tives' tales, which they did not believe, and the 
 tragedy of La Perouse, which they could not 
 deny was true, with little more than a feeling 
 of curiosity over a state of affairs they could not 
 understand. 
 
 In time, more than one of these doubters gave 
 his life to the firmer establishment of the tradi- 
 tion of strange disappearance that had fixed it- 
 self about the channel's lower end. These men 
 went out of the fellowship about them in the 
 same unexpected and unceremonious way, with- 
 out a word to point out why or whither they had 
 gone. Worse than that, in each case, they took 
 with them in their flitting such of the company's 
 guns and boats as they had with them at the 
 time they disappeared. 
 
THE SECRET OF THE BAY 5 
 
 The men themselves might have passed and 
 occasioned small remark; but the loss of the 
 property of the company was another and more 
 serious thing. And so from Kadiak the order 
 came definitely that the matter should be ob- 
 served until the mystery of these sudden goings 
 was unraveled and made plain. 
 
 Thus watched, the place gave up its secret 
 or at least such part of it as made it possible 
 to guard the company from further loss. For 
 twenty hours out of the twenty-four the chan- 
 nel proved as free from treachery as was pro- 
 fessed by the smooth promise of its face. But 
 twice in the twenty-four, there came a time 
 when to venture on it presaged certain death. 
 
 At a point some hundred yards inside its 
 mouth, where on either side high cliffs rose up 
 perpendicularly from the sea, at the moment of 
 high water, when the tide was at its supreme 
 depth, with the first turn toward the ebb there 
 began to run toward the cliff on the northern 
 shore a swift and sudden current. There was 
 no great disturbance of the surface of the sea 
 except that in front of the cliff the water began 
 to stir uneasily and eddied and bubbled as if 
 about to boil. But any ill-fated thing caught 
 
6 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 within the circle of that magic draw, turned 
 from its course with quickening speed and 
 moved with irresistible motion in toward the 
 central whirl. Once there, it paused for a 
 breathless moment, balancing itself as if in 
 dizzy preparation for the plunge, and then set- 
 tled slowly down with the suck of the vortex 
 beneath it and so disappeared for ever in the 
 waves. But in an hour the whirling ceased, the 
 tide ran out in quite the ordinary way and the 
 channel was again as safe and smiling as be- 
 fore. 
 
 These were the things the watchers saw and 
 therefore the portion of the water's secret they 
 came to understand. The remainder of the rid- 
 dle the reason for this strange condition and 
 why this gigantic trap was thus set twice daily 
 was something they never sought to solve. 
 Whether it was due to the tide, or malformation 
 of the rocky channel floor, or, more likely, the 
 presence of some hidden under-channel running 
 to the sea which filled at the great tides until 
 it siphoned out to make the sudden draw, it was 
 beyond their ken or care ; and, for that matter, 
 has remained so to this day. 
 
 It was enough for them that the thing was 
 
THE SECEET OF THE BAY 7 
 
 there, yet could be trusted to confine its mis- 
 chief to the times of turning tides. So they 
 used the channel at all other times without 
 fear, and through it the company's property 
 came to no further loss. But the natives, be- 
 ing superstitious, put small faith in the explana- 
 tions that they heard and continued to use the 
 outlet in the day alone. 
 
 But at the determined times, there was no 
 doubt as to the channel's danger for both brown 
 men and white, and it was the conviction of 
 this truth that made it impossible for Mikhail 
 Etolin, the lieutenant in charge of the sum- 
 mer post, to sit comfortably at table while it 
 was on his mind; and which took him out of 
 the coolness of the barrack building at the un- 
 usual hour of noon. 
 
 , He stood for a moment outside the door, pant- 
 ing discontentedly in the humid heat and gazing 
 interrogatively around the place with his fat, 
 half-closed eyes. Then, with a grunt of satis- 
 faction, he located what he had sought to find, 
 and, holding up his hat so the air circulated 
 under it as he walked, he set out at a leisurely 
 pace and went shambling slowly toward the 
 beach. 
 
8 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 There was but one person at the landing, a 
 young man of perhaps twenty-five or six, who 
 sat comfortably in the shadow of a boat that 
 had been overturned just out of reach of the 
 tide. His tools lay near him on the ground and 
 he was busying himself with the consumption 
 of a large piece of bread and a strip of brown 
 dried fish. He paused in his occupation as the 
 officer approached and saluted him with the 
 hand that held the bread. 
 
 "Well, your Well-born," he said good-humor- 
 edly, "are you trying to find a spot that will be 
 more cool?" 
 
 "Akh!" returned the officer when he got his 
 breath, "God never made a country such as 
 this ! To believe it would be to make heathen 
 of us all. ' ' His voice was wheezy and he wiped 
 the perspiration from his forehead as he spoke. 
 The younger man laughed and gave a little 
 shrug to his shoulders. 
 
 "You should not be so fat, Mikhail Sergeie- 
 vitch," he said mockingly. 
 
 "If I had been thin," returned the officer with 
 a sorrowful shake of his head, "I should never 
 have left Eussia for service in this God-for- 
 saken place!" 
 
THE SECRET OF THE BAY 9 
 
 ' ' That was sheer vanity, your Well-born, ' ' re- 
 plied the young man lightly, "and deserves no 
 sympathy at all." 
 
 "Vanity or no vanity," said the fat man 
 testily, "it was as good a reason for coming as 
 chagrin at being flouted by a girl. ' ' The young 
 man flushed consciously and looked quickly at 
 Mikhail Etolin as if about to answer the chal- 
 lenge thus advanced. 
 
 "There was no trouble with the girl " he 
 began hastily and then, as his discretion got 
 the better of his eagerness, he stopped. He 
 paused for an instant while his self-control 
 came back. Then, turning to the other with his 
 former smile, he said quietly : "It will be cooler 
 soon. It is already thickening out there in the 
 west." 
 
 Mikhail Etolin let his glance run out along 
 the channel until it rested on the open sea. 
 Near in, the air was clear and the water re- 
 flected sharply the bright noonday light; but 
 off to the west there was no decisive line where 
 the sky and water met. The perspective faded 
 out across the tops of the lazy swells into an 
 ultimate gray blur that had about it the pre- 
 monition of growth and movement which sailors 
 
10 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 say betokens wind. He considered a moment in 
 silence. 
 
 "Fog," he said finally, with an air of con- 
 viction. "It is time for the change, though. 
 This is the third day. You may get it," he 
 added meditatively, "before you speak the boat, 
 but it will not reach us, probably, until to- 
 night." The young man gathered himself and 
 sat up with sudden interest. 
 
 "What boat?" he said expectantly. 
 
 "The lookout has reported one as coming 
 from the north." The young man got quickly 
 to his feet and shaded his eyes with his hand. 
 
 "I do not see it," he said, gazing intently up 
 along the coast. "And anyway, it is not time 
 for the regular boat." 
 
 "That is what troubles me. It must be from 
 Yakutat, yet it may have people in it who do 
 not know the danger of the bay. You can not 
 see it yet. It was beyond the headland and 
 close in to the shore, I think you had better 
 go out to meet it and see that they do not try 
 to come in through the channel while the tide is 
 on the turn." The young man went down 
 toward the beach to where he could measure the 
 wet strip with his eye. 
 
THE SECRET OF THE BAY 11 
 
 " There is no hurry," he said coolly, as he 
 came back. "It is fully two hours yet before 
 the turn." 
 
 "Suit yourself as to that, Ivan Egorovitch," 
 replied the officer with his customary shrug. 
 "Only do not forget and arrive beyond the 
 need." 
 
 "I will not," replied the other positively, and 
 Mikhail Sergeievitch, with a sigh of self-pity 
 for the new exertion he must make, turned him- 
 self about and began slowly to climb the hill. 
 Ivan Egorovitch watched him for a moment with 
 indecision in his face. Then he went swiftly 
 after him along the path. 
 
 "Mikhail Sergeievitch," he said humbly, "I 
 am sorry that I disturbed you by saying that 
 you were fat." The officer paused and looked 
 around at him, his puffy face wrinkling good- 
 naturedly into a smile. 
 
 ' ' And how about the girl ? " he panted. * ' Am 
 I to ask you also to forget?" Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch 's face flushed, but his voice remained 
 steady as before. 
 
 "That is why I came," he said quietly. "I 
 myself had already forgotten about the mat- 
 ter and I wanted to say that it would be bet- 
 
12 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 ter if you forgot it, too. ' ' He did not wait for 
 further answer, but turned on his heel and went 
 swiftly back toward the beach. Mikhail Etolin 
 stood still and watched him 2 with the twinkle 
 still shining in his eyes. 
 
 " Akh ! what a thing it is to be young and able 
 to forget like that!" he chuckled. "It is not 
 all of us who can set a thing aside and yet keep 
 it so surely with us all the time. It is magnifi- 
 cent ! 9 9 He shook his head and grinned again to 
 emphasize his enjoyment and continued so to 
 nod and chuckle to himself at intervals until he 
 had traversed the whole space that had sepa- 
 rated him from his house upon the hill. 
 
CHAPTEB II 
 
 IVAN MEETS A GHOST 
 
 In spite of his feeling of self -certainty, Ivan 
 Egorovitch went about his mission with an un- 
 easy mind. As he sent his boat skimming over 
 the dimpling water of the runway, he put reso- 
 lutely from him the thought of the old trouble 
 that Mikhail Etolin had called back, and let his 
 eyes take as eagerly the familiar details of earth 
 and sea and sky as if there had been no other 
 themes of interest in life. 
 
 At the great draw he pulled the boat across 
 to the northern wall and set himself to look 
 down industriously into the depths of the blue 
 water, as if in belief, by some sudden compre- 
 hension, to surprise the unwilling secret of the 
 place. It was a spot that always held a fascina- 
 tion for him, with its sunlighted waters and 
 sinister threat of a relentless treachery, against 
 the exercise of which it seemed so humanly to 
 bide its time. 
 
 13 
 
14 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 This done, he paddled on lazily to the chan- 
 nel's very mouth, and landing, tied his hoat and 
 climbed the low cliff to the rocky point on the 
 southern shore which commanded the best view 
 of the open sea. There was yet not even a dis- 
 tant speck to show a boat in the northern 
 offing, and after a moment's gaze that took 
 in the empty waters, the abrupt and somber 
 cliff line with its effeminate cap of green, and 
 the vague spread of mist along the western 
 horizon, which, even while he was coming, had 
 grown and risen till it stood well overhead, he 
 settled himself at the edge of the grassy plateau, 
 to lie at length and await in patience the com- 
 ing of the vessel that he sought. 
 
 The North is never more attractive than at 
 this culminating season of its growth. The 
 reckless summer crowds into its ephemeral day 
 a display that would serve for months of deco- 
 ration in a slower clime. In six short weeks 
 from frost, the April grass, the flowers of June, 
 and the full completion of brown seeds and pods 
 come and pass in turn, and the sun gathers in 
 the breathless air the warmth and languor of a 
 tropic coast. 
 
 But the softness of the North is not a soft- 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 15 
 
 ness that inspires trust. There is the charm, 
 the promise and the wonderful show of peace ; 
 but behind the flowery perfection there is al- 
 ways a suggestion of the grim and wintry deso- 
 lation that is its primal heritage and part 
 the pricking in the velvet that tells of the Ijidden 
 claws. 
 
 The riot of summer green lay on, but did 
 not entirely hide, the sharp and haggard outline 
 of the coast. The birds, cheerful enough at 
 morning and at night, were chary of disturbing 
 the close noonday hush, and the few songs that 
 persisted served rather to accentuate the de- 
 pressing silence that at all times hangs like a 
 shadow on the land. It was the sun, not the 
 earth, that was debonair and kind, and in the 
 shade and close to the ground, there lurked even 
 in the noontide the dismaying certainty of 
 cold. 
 
 Five years in the company's service had ac- 
 complished for Ivan Egorovitch a full familiar- 
 ity with these things, and it may be that in ordi- 
 nary hours they would have brought to him no 
 thought. But it is a different thing when a man 
 finds again at heart a pain that he believed 
 had been completely overcome. He had no 
 
16 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 mind to give up to it as he lay and smoked and 
 resentfully felt it stir him there within. It was 
 an uncomfortable fact and an ever-present one 
 down in his subconsciousness, and his tilt with 
 Mikhail Etolin had set the current bubbling up- 
 ward again irrepressibly toward the light. He 
 could not himself have told where the conscious 
 resistance weakened and the unwelcome pres- 
 sure gained the upper hand. But in the end, 
 the quiet of the place, the melancholy wash of 
 the surf, and the chill that came up through the 
 grass roots from the frozen ground beneath, had 
 their way with him, and with a shiver he let 
 his mind come squarely round to the thing he 
 had set aside. 
 
 What did he have in life that really counted 
 for him in the end? "Was it home? In answer 
 there came up before him in sardonic vision, 
 his bare barrack room, scantily furnished with 
 chair and table, and in a corner the pile of 
 tumbled covers that he called a bed. Was it 
 friends? Who, now that Stepan Skuratof, his 
 blood-brother, had been moved to Yakutat, was 
 there at Ltua to answer to the name? No one 
 but the dog he had raised and the tame gull 
 with the broken wing that came to him when it 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 17 
 
 needed to be fed. "Was it advancement? He 
 had been in the service now five years and in 
 that time the lieutenant had given him practi- 
 cally no assignment more important than to 
 mix the sour dough for the mess Jcvass. 
 
 With a sigh of unreasoning impatience, he 
 reached his hand out, and drawing down a 
 branch of a bush there by his head, he began 
 to strip it of its leaves and flowers. Why had 
 these things all come to pass ? And as if in an- 
 swer, there came to him the vision of a dark, 
 girlish face, a stir of garments and the warm 
 touch of a hand. 
 
 There was no bitterness for him in the recol- 
 lection, for as he told Mikhail Sergeievitch, in 
 his relation with the girl it had not been she 
 who was at fault. She had been more than 
 kind and to his glances had lifted honest eyes. 
 It was her father who had interfered and, like 
 a laggard lover, under the pressure of parental 
 disapproval, without a declaration, he had let 
 himself be pushed aside. 
 
 This had been the beginning of his drifting,, 
 and when, two years later, the girl had married 
 another man, he had cut loose entirely from 
 his native place and wandered farther and far- 
 
18 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 ther to the east until at last he had drifted to 
 this ultimate Eussian shore. 
 
 "I should have stayed!'' he said to himself 
 with a sudden sick distaste. Eaising himself on 
 his elbow, he reached forward and broke off the 
 branch he had been stripping and looked it over 
 critically from end to end. The movement was 
 unconscious, for his mind was still filled with a 
 dull resentment at the loneliness of his daily 
 life, and the worst of it was there seemed to 
 open for him naturally no definite avenue 
 toward its escape. He could not go back to the 
 girl he had left, because she was already mar- 
 ried to another man. The chance of finding 
 another, should he venture to return, seemed 
 despairingly remote, and here in the new settle- 
 ment there was small opportunity unless he 
 chose to take a native, for a wife. 
 
 He laughed aloud when he first thought of 
 this alternative. Then he remembered the 
 house of Gavril Eudnef , who had taken to him- 
 self in permanence a Thlinkeet wife and whose 
 comfort was the envy of every hunter of the 
 post. His was a clean home and cheerful, and 
 the woman seemed not to require beating more 
 often than if she had been white. 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 19 
 
 "They are not so bad, the brown ones!" he 
 said softly to himself. He laughed again as 
 the humor of the thing came home to him and 
 rolled himself over on his face. 
 
 "I'll gamble on it," he exclaimed gleefully. 
 "Both ways shall have a chance." He sat up 
 and reached for another branch on which were 
 still open flowers. "I will do as the girls do," 
 he said to himself, "and pull the petals for a 
 choice. ' ' 
 
 But as he settled himself for a decision, he 
 chanced to raise his eyes above the low shrub- 
 bery about him, and, gazing out to sea, saw that 
 the boat he sought had come into sight while 
 he had been idling and was already fairly close 
 at hand. 
 
 His mood changed on the moment and he got 
 eagerly to his feet. The strange vessel was 
 a large one and from the speed it made he sur- 
 mised it was racing with the fog in the attempt 
 to reach the harbor before the bank of cloud 
 should cover it and so shut out the outline of 
 the coast. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch watched the craft specu- 
 latively for a moment and then made ready to 
 go down to his boat. The excitement brought 
 
20 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 back to him his usual poise and he forgot the 
 depression that had so lately weighed him down. 
 But before going, he stooped and broke from 
 the bush an armful of the blossoming branches 
 he had picked before, and, carrying them with 
 him, he threw them into the bottom of the boat. 
 
 "You lie there," he said with a laugh. 
 ' ' There is no time now, but when there is leisure, 
 we shall have our test." 
 
 The tide was almost at the full and he knew 
 that the coming boat must wait until the lower- 
 ing of the water put an end to the great draw. 
 It must surely come in to him where he was and 
 his first impulse was to wait. But his curiosity 
 was the stronger prick, and, getting into the 
 boat, he cast off and pulled impatiently out into 
 the open sea. From time to time he stopped 
 and rose in his place to see that his course was 
 shaped to intercept the stranger craft. At first 
 he saw it clearly as it rose on the higher swells, 
 but it was not long before a whirl of mist swept 
 over it and he could only guess how near to it 
 he was. 
 
 When he, too, reached the fog-line, and the 
 gray cloud shut away the sun, he stirred him- 
 self more strongly lest the bidarka should miss 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 21 
 
 him and slip by unobserved. He stopped row- 
 ing and, raising himself upon his knees, listened, 
 intently for some sound that should signal its 
 approach. It was still too far away, however, 
 and after a moment's waiting, he put his hands 
 to his lips and through them called aloud. 
 
 The sound was scarcely still when out of the 
 distance there came a faint but unmistakable 
 reply. Shouting an answer, Ivan Egorovitch 
 seized his oars and sent the boat in the direc- 
 tion from which the sound had come. He con- 
 tinued to call at intervals and turned his course 
 to suit the answering shout. His ear was good, 
 and he felt without seeing that the two boats 
 were slowly but surely converging. 
 
 When it did come, the great canoe burst on 
 him out of the mist with a suddenness that was 
 wholly a surprise. It looked so big in the fog 
 and towered so above him as it came, that Ivan 
 Egorovitch involuntarily checked his course and 
 backed away that it should not run him down. 
 
 The people on it saw him almost as he dis- 
 covered them and, with a final shout of greet- 
 ing, threw him a rope with which to draw him- 
 self alongside. It was a row of strange faces 
 which looked down on him, but among them 
 
22 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 almost at once lie caught one that was as fa- 
 miliar to him as his own. He threw up his 
 hands with a little shout of joy. 
 
 "Stepan Dmitrievitch V ' he cried, "are you 
 indeed come back? ' ' He awaited no further in- 
 vitation, but, standing up, caught at the gun- 
 wale of the bidarka and hoisted himself uncere- 
 moniously aboard. Stepan Dmitrievitch seized 
 him as he came over the rail, and, wrapping his 
 arms about him, kissed him vigorously on each 
 cheek. 
 
 "I thought it would be you," he said ex- 
 citedly, "if only that it was you I wished most 
 eagerly to see." 
 
 "I had given you up," replied Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch simply. ' l They told me you were to stay at 
 iYakutat for the construction of the sleds." 
 
 "Sol was, but the order came to make Ltua 
 an all-year station from this time. The people 
 and the things were too much for the regular 
 boat and the galiot that brought them stopped 
 only to discharge before turning back. All must 
 be sent and I was the only other man who knew 
 the entrance to the bay." 
 
 "That is why I came. The fat one sent me 
 to warn you of the tide. ' ' 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST: 23 
 
 "How is it? Can we go in?" 
 
 "Not for a space. It is almost at the full." 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch shrugged his shoulders 
 with a sudden discontent. 
 
 "It will be an hour, then, at the least. But," 
 he added joyously, "I shall not care, now that 
 I have you." They still stood with hands 
 clasped, gazing like children into each other's 
 eyes. 
 
 "The place " cried Stepan Dmitrievitch im- 
 patiently. "Tell me about the place!" Ivan 
 Egorovitch laughed. 
 
 "There is not much to tell," he said, "though 
 it has been so long. The fat one is good-na- 
 tured if he is not seriously crossed ; Luka Odint- 
 zof has engaged a new wife for the coming 
 year ; Vassili Leskin has had the scurvy and will 
 lose his legs; and Moissei Gvosdef the little 
 man is dead." The light went out of Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch 's face and he looked from side to 
 side to see if any one had overheard. 
 
 1 ' Dead ! " he said, < ' Moissei Gvosdef I Speak 
 lower. His father is here with me on the 
 boat." 
 
 "His father!" 
 
 "Yes. He is a priest and was sent out for 
 
24 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 the permanent camp. ' ' Ivan Egorovitch scorn- 
 fully shook his head. 
 
 "It is hard to believe," he said, "that Moissei 
 Gvosdef would be missed by any one." 
 
 "He is his father," replied the other reprov- 
 ingly, "and he has talked much of him on the 
 way. ' ' 
 
 "And did you not tell him the truth!" 
 
 "Why should II How did the man come to 
 die?" 
 
 "I do not know. It only happened yester- 
 day. Eustrate Polutof and Ivan Paxin brought 
 him in and Mikhail Sergeievitch told them not 
 to say. They will bury him to-night. ' ' Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch raised his eyebrows in significant 
 understanding. 
 
 "The fat one never liked him," he said 
 soberly, "but I scarcely thought it would come 
 to that!" Ivan Egorovitch shrugged his shoul- 
 ders in his turn. 
 
 "It may not be," he answered. "There was 
 no one among us sufficiently his friend to care 
 to take the matter up." 
 
 "Well," said Stepan Dmitrievitch softly, 
 "violence or no violence, it is good for the set- 
 tlement that he is dead." 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 25 
 
 "He was a cur!" burst out Ivan Egorovitch, 
 and spat vigorously into the sea. ' ' Is the father 
 like him?" he asked. 
 
 "I can not tell," said Stepan Dmitrievitch. 
 "I have not seen enough of him to know. If 
 you want to break the news to him, I will have 
 him called. ' ' He made a movement as if to go 
 forward among the men, but Ivan Egorovitch 
 caught him by the arm. 
 
 "Wait!" he said. "I did not come here to 
 bring bad news. Let him learn it when he gets 
 ashore." Stepan Dmitrievitch paused obedi- 
 ently and opened his mouth to speak; but be- 
 fore the word was out there was an interrup- 
 tion that drove the matter from his mind. It 
 was a girPs voice, soft and pleasant, coming 
 from beyond them at the stern. 
 
 "There are flowers in that boat, Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch," it said reproachfully. "Why 
 have you not had them brought on board?" 
 Both men turned in the direction of the sound 
 and Stepan Dmitrievitch spoke, but Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch did not hear him and stood looking at the 
 girl as if he had seen a ghost. 
 
 "Varenka!" he said under his breath, and 
 the exclamation had in it both a protest and a 
 
26 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 call; "Varenka!" He stood for full a minute 
 looking at her in the same incredulous surprise. 
 Then, as if bent on proving the reality of her 
 physical presence there before him, he went 
 toward her, stepping cautiously and without 
 taking his eyes an instant from her face. 
 
 ' ' Varenka ! " he ejaculated wonderingly, ' ' is it 
 really you?" The girl was visibly startled and 
 drew back from him with an air of suspicion 
 and surprise. But at the name, she raised her 
 eyes to his in puzzled inquiry that grew to com- 
 prehension as she recognized who he was. 
 
 "Why, it is Ivan Nilof !" she said eagerly. 
 "Do you not know me! I am not Varenka, 
 but Motrya and you did not know!" He 
 took the hands she offered, but stood stupidly 
 gazing at her with the same devouring eyes. 
 The girl grew conscious under the hungry look 
 and the color began to rise and flutter in her 
 cheeks. 
 
 "Motrya " he began unsteadily, "you can 
 not be Motrya. She was a child!" The girl's 
 eyes lighted into laughter and she shook him 
 impatiently by the hands. 
 
 "And how many years is it, Ivan Egorovitch, 
 since you knew me as a child?" 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 27 
 
 "True," he said slowly, "it is a long time. 
 But if you are Motrya, why do you look so 
 exactly as Varenka used to look?" 
 
 "Is it a crime," she answered, "that you 
 make it a reproach? As I remember it, you did 
 not use to think she was so plain!" 
 
 "She was beautiful!" said the young man 
 impulsively. The girl flushed at the indirect 
 compliment and drew away her hands. 
 
 "I did not know you were here," she said, 
 "or I would have been more satisfied to come." 
 
 "Why did you come?" he asked. 
 
 "There was no choice. When my father and 
 Varenka and her husband came, they brought 
 me with them whether I would or not." Ivan 
 Egorovitch drew in a sudden breath and looked 
 uneasily toward the stern of the boat. 
 
 "Varenka " he said, "is she, too, wiffi you 
 here?" 
 
 "Oh, no," replied the girl. "She is still at 
 Yakutat. Only my father is here. Zakar 
 Medvedef 's wife agreed to care for me and it 
 was more convenient that I should come with 
 her." The young man remained silent for a 
 moment, but his gaze came thankfully back to 
 the girl's face. 
 
28 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "But you are all to live at Ltuaf " he asked 
 finally. 
 
 "Yes. Ossip, Varenka's husband, and my 
 father are in the company's employ." 
 
 "I am glad of that," he continued. "Even 
 with Stepan Dmitrievitch to comfort me, the life 
 here at the best of times has not been over full. ' ' 
 
 .The girl looked at his companion with a 
 friendly glance. 
 
 "Then you have known Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 before?" Ivan Egorovitch turned to him with a 
 smile. 
 
 "Ask him," he said. Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 had watched in silence, but with growing in- 
 terest, the demonstration of acquaintanceship 
 between Ivan and the girl. Boiling up his sleeve, 
 he came forward and put out his arm. Ivan 
 Egorovitch loosened his sleeve and extended his 
 own arm till it lay close to the one Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch had put out. 
 
 "He is my brother, Motrya Petrovna," he 
 said earnestly. "His blood is in my veins and 
 mine in his. Look!" he added, placing his 
 finger on the two arms just above the wrists, 
 "you can see the scars. ' ' The girl bent gravely 
 for a moment above the hard, white lines. Then 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 29 
 
 she looted up into Ivan Egorovitch 's eyes with 
 a shrinking that was almost disgust. 
 
 "Did you make those scars yourselves ?" she 
 asked. 
 
 ' ' Of course, ' ' said Ivan Egorovitch. ' ' It was 
 a bond." Motrya Petrovna shivered and 
 looked thoughtfully down at her own smooth 
 wrists. 
 
 "I could not do that," she said. "You must 
 have cared for each other very much." The 
 two men's faces lighted sympathetically as they 
 looked into each other's eyes and, after a mo- 
 ment's pause, Stepan Dmitrievitch said with 
 dignified simplicity: 
 
 "Yes, it is very much." The girl stood con- 
 sidering the matter seriously, and listened un- 
 convinced. 
 
 "I could care, myself," she said defiantly, 
 "but it is stupid to hurt one's self like that." 
 
 The relationship was so sacred a thing to the 
 two men that for the moment Ivan Egorovitch 
 was disturbed. He held himself well in check, 
 however, and answered so as to turn the thing 
 aside. 
 
 "It is an ordeal that will never come to 
 you, little sister," he said with an attempt at a 
 
30 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 smile. "A woman does not have to swear 
 blood-fealty with a man to make him keep his 
 troth." The change in his manner was small, 
 but Motrya Petrovna felt it. 
 
 "Oh," she said in some confusion, "was I 
 wrong in speaking as I did? Believe me, Ivan, 
 I had no thought to be unkind." She was so 
 appealing in her concern that he could not but 
 have forgiven her had her lapse been really 
 grave. 
 
 "There was no fault," he said gently. "It 
 only nxeans that henceforward you will have 
 two brothers instead of one." The girl looked 
 up at him gratefully and flashed a shy glance of 
 interrogation at her newly-declared relative 
 at his side. 
 
 "Stepan Dmitrievitch has been very kind to 
 me so far," she said demurely. "I shall be 
 glad if he does not forget me later on." She 
 turned toward him with a friendly nod. "But 
 that is not what I came to ask you, Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch," she said. "Are you going to let 
 me have my flowers?" The man spoken to 
 looked vainly around for a subordinate and took 
 an irresolute step toward the bow. 
 
 "I will call some one to bring them up," he 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 31 
 
 said deferentially, but Ivan Egorovitch did not 
 wait. 
 
 "I will get them," he said eagerly, and swung 
 himself over the side. The girl leaned down 
 to him across the bulwark and, steadying him- 
 self against the larger craft, he handed up to 
 her the blossoms he had brought. She received 
 them with a little cry of joy, and when he re- 
 gained the deck, stood with them hugged up in 
 a great heap in her arms, her face bent deep in 
 the fragrant blooms. 
 
 "Oh," she cried, "it is good to see them 
 again. I have not had any of my own for 
 weeks." 
 
 "I am glad I brought them," said Ivan 
 Egorovitch. "I picked them on the headland 
 while I was waiting for you to come." 
 
 "And are there many!" she demanded 
 breathlessly. 
 
 ' ' Yes, ' ' he answered, ' t all that your heart can 
 wish." She gave a little sigh of satisfaction 
 and pressed her head again against the flow- 
 ers. 
 
 "I am afraid it is wrong to love them so 
 much, ' ' she said doubtfully. ' l Sometimes I feel 
 as if I could not live without them." She 
 
32 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 looked at Ivan Egorovitch with wide eyes as 
 if she expected him to pass judgment on the 
 dereliction. 
 
 "Oh, I do not know,'' he said practically. 
 "It does not seem so bad. Besides, it is not 
 worth while to worry about it here, for before 
 you realize it, the flowers will all be gone and 
 you will not see them again until next year. ' ' 
 
 "I shall hate the cold, I know," she declared 
 emphatically. 
 
 "It is not the cold but the dark that wears 
 on one," he answered. "There is something 
 fairly maddening about the long winter nights. ' ' 
 
 A boatman came up and spoke to Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch, who had been listening in appre- 
 ciative silence to all that had been said. He 
 considered for a moment, nodded, and, turning 
 with the man, went reluctantly away. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch and the girl remained alone 
 together, standing at the side. The young man 
 was still upset by the emotions stirred by the 
 unexpected meeting and watched her move- 
 ments without venturing on speech. The girl 
 waited for some moments and busied herself 
 with her flowers. She felt the silence, however, 
 and grew uneasy under it. 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 33 
 
 "Why do you look at me like that, Ivan 
 Egorovitch ? ' ' she demanded finally. The young 
 man started as if he had been asleep and let his 
 eyes drop to the floor. 
 
 "You are two people to me to-day," he said 
 slowly; "the child you were when I saw you 
 last and the older woman whom I have kept in 
 mind through all these years." 
 
 "Did you then care so much!" she asked 
 curiously. 
 
 "As I cared for my life," he answered with 
 conviction. 
 
 "Then why did you go away without telling 
 her so 1 " she demanded scornfully. ' ' You were 
 not bold for a lover, Ivan Egorovitch, and it 
 was not fair to her." 
 
 "I was a fool," he said humbly, "and too 
 easily overborne but I suffered for it in the 
 end." 
 
 "And do you think she did not suffer, too?" 
 she asked. 
 
 "Did she then also care?" he said softly. "I 
 have never really known." 
 
 "Yes," replied the girl, "though I have no 
 right to tell it. She did care and she was never 
 quite the same after that." 
 
34 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 * ' I should have stayed, ' ' he said moodily. ' ' I 
 know it well enough now!" 
 
 "Yes," she said softly, "you should have 
 stayed." He gave himself up to the bitter 
 recollection and she did not try to interrupt his 
 thoughts. Yet when he spoke again it was only 
 to touch the subject on another side. 
 
 "Varenka " he said hesitatingly, "has she 
 changed much in looks ? ' ' The girl thought for 
 a moment with her head turned to one side. 
 
 "No, not very much," she said musingly. 
 "She is older, of course, and less slender, but 
 otherwise she is much the same." 
 
 "I wish the change were greater," he said 
 gloomily. "It would be easier for me when we 
 meet." Motrya Petrovna misunderstood him 
 and disliked the implication in his words. 
 
 "Do not forget that she is married now," 
 she said with some intensity, "and, further, if 
 she were not, you may be sure she would 
 never show you that she had cared. But what 
 is it to you, anyway?" she demanded. "Surely 
 by this time you have found some other in her 
 place." The young man smiled down at her 
 and shook his head. 
 
 "No," he said, "I did not mean it in that 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 35 
 
 way. But so far there has been no one else. 
 I have kept away from women and besides, 
 there are few girls in this country for any one' 
 to have. There will be more than one man 
 here, little sister, who will be glad to see your 
 face; and with the memories I have of it, if I 
 see you daily, I am not sure but I shall fall in 
 love with you myself." Motrya Petrovna's 
 eyes danced and she made him a low bow. 
 
 "How kind you are !" she exclaimed derisive- 
 ly. "You were an excellent brother when I 
 was a little girl, but from what I have seen of 
 you as a lover I am afraid I should be some- 
 what doubtful about selecting you for myself. ' ' 
 
 The young man's face flushed and he was 
 plainly moved to make a vigorous reply. 
 
 "I was only a boy then," he said abruptly, 
 but got no further in his defense. As he spoke, 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch came back to where they 
 stood and, with him present at the telling, Ivan 
 Egorovitch felt the sentimental protest die 
 within his throat. Stepan Dmitrievitch was full 
 of impatience at the delay. 
 
 "It has been an hour, Ivan," he announced. 
 "Do you not think it would be safe now to go 
 in?" The boat had come quite close to the 
 
36 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 channel's mouth and on the right the rocky 
 headland loomed up vaguely in the fog. Ivan 
 Egorovitch bent forward and peered intently 
 into the mist, but the gray cloud was too thick 
 for vision and he could not decide on the mat- 
 ter as he wished. The girl watched the two 
 men in eager silence. 
 
 " Shall we soon be there?" she asked. 
 
 "It will be no time at all," said Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch, "when once we pass the draw." 
 
 "My father was asleep when you came," 
 continued Motrya Petrovna, "and I do not 
 think he knows that you are here. I will go and 
 tell him, and get the things ready so there will 
 be no delay. ' ' 
 
 She left them with a little nod to both and 
 they watched her go away without a word. 
 Then Stepan Dmitrievitch turned to his com- 
 panion and laid a hand upon his arm. 
 
 "Was it her sister!" he asked, speaking low, 
 as if afraid some one else would hear. Ivan 
 Egorovitch nodded without saying a word. 
 
 "And did the other one look then as this one 
 does now!" 
 
 "So close that, as you saw, when I met her 
 to-day I thought they were the same." Stepau 
 
IVAN MEETS A GHOST 37 
 
 Dmitrievitch breathed out hard and clapped 
 Ivan Egorovitch smartly on the back. 
 
 "I do not blame you," he cried. "She was 
 worth it. I should have been in love with her 
 myself." Ivan Egorovitch laughed and gave 
 his shoulders a sarcastic shrug. 
 
 "Be careful that you do not fall in love with 
 this one now," he said and made ready to go 
 down into his boat. ' * This fog is too thick to see 
 through," he added briskly. "I will go ashore 
 and walk along to where I can see the draw. ' ' 
 
 He was down almost as he spoke and pulling 
 swiftly toward the land. Once or twice he looked 
 back, but it was at the stern of the bidarlca 
 rather than at the point where Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch stood. He pulled more slowly as he 
 reached the cove, and when the bow of his boat 
 slid up on the tiny beach, he sat for a full mo- 
 ment thinking, before he took up the rope to 
 make it fast. 
 
 As he stooped to lift it, he came upon a spray 
 of the blossoms that had been left behind when 
 he had given the others to the girl, and he 
 paused again, taking the branch up curiously in 
 his hand. He looked it over from end to end 
 with the same twinkle in his eye, and finally, 
 
38 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 opening his thumb and forefinger, dropped it 
 over into the sea. 
 
 "You will not have to wait," he said whimsi- 
 cally. "I shall not need you to make choice. 
 God willing, she is going to be white ! ' ' 
 
CHAPTEB HI 
 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch stood waiting for Ivan 
 Egorovitch as he came again over the side of 
 the boat. He was not alone, for close behind 
 him stood a slender, undersized person, who 
 kept his eyes fixed on the coming man and 
 showed by his manner that he only waited for 
 him to be well on the deck before accosting him. 
 
 The man's face was long, even without his 
 thin, straggling beard, and he was more than 
 usually narrow between the eyes. His head 
 hung forward on his neck and his shoulders had 
 the sanctimonious droop that marks the cleric. 
 So well did he look his trade that, without his 
 hat and high, close-buttoned habit, Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch would easily have known him for the 
 priest. Stepan Dmitrievitch spoke at once. 
 
 "Well," he said, "is it right yet so we can go 
 in r ' Ivan Egorovitch nodded assuringly. 
 
 " It is near the end, " he said confidently. ' ' Go 
 
 39 
 
40 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 slowly and I think that you need have no 
 fear." 
 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch turned to give the neces- 
 sary commands, but was interrupted by the 
 priest, who pushed forward and took him by 
 the arm. 
 
 i ' Is this the man ? " he asked eagerly. Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch flashed an apologetic look at Ivan 
 Egorovitch before he spoke. 
 
 ' ' Yes, ' ' he said laconically, ' ' this is the man. ' ' 
 Then, as the priest waited, he turned again to 
 Ivan Egorovitch and said with a note of depre- 
 cation in his voice : 
 
 1 ' This is Simeon Gvosdef , the father of Mois- 
 sei. You will remember that I spoke to you of 
 him when you first came on the boat. ' ' He was 
 ill at ease and, having spoken, backed away as 
 if to leave Ivan Egorovitch with the man he 
 had introduced. The priest waited no further 
 advances, but moved at once close to the 
 young man and smilingly put out his hand. 
 Ivan Egorovitch evaded the contact and edged 
 hastily away in the direction Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch had gone. 
 
 "I will talk to you in a moment," he said, as 
 he passed by him. "I must speak to Stepan 
 
THE PKIEST'S SON 41 
 
 Dmitrievitch before lie goes away." He has- 
 tened after his blood-brother and brought him 
 rudely to a stop. 
 
 "What foolishness is this?" he demanded ir- 
 ritably. "Have you not told him?" Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch drew in his under lip between his 
 teeth and shamefacedly shook his head. Ivan 
 Egorovitch remained looking at him in silence 
 while his indignation grew. 
 
 "I do not blame you so much for not telling 
 him yourself," he said ruefully, "but why have 
 you put the burden on me?" Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch threw up his hands in a gesture of ap- 
 peal. 
 
 "It was he who decided it, not I," he said 
 helplessly. "He knew that you came from the 
 shore and was only biding his time." 
 
 "Well, I do not want to tell him any more 
 than you do." 
 
 "You must. It will be kinder than to let him 
 wait." Ivan Egorovitch clung to him irreso- 
 lutely. 
 
 "Stay with me till it is done," he urged, but 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch would not hear. 
 
 "I could not do it," he said soberly. "He 
 has talked so much with me about the boy 
 
42 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 while we were on the way." They stood for 
 a moment in embarrassed silence, looking down 
 at the deck and avoiding each other's eyes. 
 Then Stepan Dmitrievitch recovered himself 
 and drew quietly away. 
 
 "I must go now," he said gently. "I wish 
 I could help you further, but I must give the 
 orders to the men. ' ' Ivan Egorovitch shrugged 
 his shoulders but did not raise his eyes, and 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch continued on his way with 
 the same apologetic, half-guilty tread. 
 
 The priest, meanwhile, stood where he had 
 been left, watching with impatient eyes the col- 
 loquy between the two men. When Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch came back to him his face brightened and 
 he nervously clasped his hands. 
 
 "You will pardon me," he said, with the 
 slight, fawning cringe that seemed a habit of 
 the man, "but they tell me you are come from 
 the station of the promyshleniki at Ltua that it 
 is just over there." He unclasped his hands 
 and waved one vaguely in the direction of the 
 shore. Ivan Egorovitch, with his eyes fixed on 
 his interlocutor as if in fascination, silently 
 nodded an assent. 
 
 "I have a son," went on the priest softly. 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON 43 
 
 "He lias been with the promyshleniki for four 
 years and even a longer time away from home. 
 It has been said that he was with the hunters at 
 Ltua and I am making bold to ask you if he 
 is still at that place." Ivan Egorovitch tem- 
 porized as he could. 
 
 "You mean Moissei Gvosdef!" he asked 
 feebly. The priest's face broke into a smile 
 and his restless hands clasped and unclasped 
 impulsively. 
 
 "Ah, you know him!" he cried joyously. 
 "You have seen him day by day! Then it is 
 true he is at the post, and I shall see him. ' ' He 
 turned in the direction of the shore, leaning 
 forward in his excitement and straining into 
 the fog, as if by his insistence he could over- 
 come the obstacles that intervened between him 
 and his desire. Ivan Egorovitch saw no road 
 open that would lead him to the truth, and a 
 sudden wave of anger toward Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch swept over him as he thought how un- 
 necessarily this disagreeable duty had been 
 thrust upon him. 
 
 "He has been there eight months," he said 
 with an effort, "and was there when I came 
 away. You will see him if we get in before 
 
M THE CHALLENGE 
 
 night." Simeon Gvosdef gave a little sigh of 
 content and continued the inquiry that was near 
 his heart. 
 
 "Is he well?" he inquired abruptly, turning 
 his nervous eyes again on the young man. Ivan 
 Egorovitch felt his heart go down and, try as 
 he might, no fitting answer came. The priest 
 watched him in silence that after a little grew 
 into alarm. 
 
 ' ' What is it ?" he cried sharply. ' ' What is it 
 you have not told!" His timidity fell away 
 from him in his excitement and, coming close 
 to Ivan Egorovitch, he seized him convulsively 
 by the wrist. "Tell me!" he demanded almost 
 fiercely, "in what way has he come to harmV 
 Ivan Egorovitch drew back hastily and strove 
 to pull himself away. 
 
 "Let me go!" he cried threateningly. "I 
 had no hand in it at all!" 
 
 The priest's grasp tightened more firmly as 
 his conviction lent him strength. 
 
 ' t Then there is harm ! " he burst out, his voice 
 rising higher as he spoke. "You know of it, 
 but you do not wish to tell ! ' ' 
 
 "Well, take it then, if you will have it!" cried 
 the young man angrily. "I only know that he 
 
THE PBIEST'S SON 45 
 
 was away for a week with the others preparing 
 the ground for the new traps, and when the 
 men came in last night they said he was dead. ' ' 
 
 For an instant the priest's fierce grip per- 
 sisted and he stood looking breathlessly into 
 Ivan Egorovitch's face. Then the light went 
 out of his eyes and the clasp fell suddenly 
 away. 
 
 1 i Dead V ' he repeated in an incredulous whis- 
 per. "Dead!" His face began to twitch con- 
 vulsively with the strength of his emotion and 
 he turned abruptly away. As if the power of 
 sight had suddenly gone from him, he put out 
 his hands before him and groped his way dizzily 
 to the rail. There he stood rigid, with bent head 
 and back, gazing fixedly out into the mist. 
 
 ' l Moissei ! " he cried almost fiercely. ' ' Mois- 
 sei ! " and his voice was bitter with the reflection 
 of his grief. For a long time he stood motion- 
 less, bound by the first shock of his loss. Then 
 the reaction came, his shoulders began to rise 
 and fall and Ivan Egorovitch could hear the 
 smothered intake of his sobs. Suddenly he 
 turned and came back to the young man. 
 
 "Tell me," he demanded brokenly, "that it 
 is not true ! You promised me that I should see 
 
46 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 him at the post to-night. " Ivan Egorovitch's 
 eyes filled and he sorrowfully shook his head. 
 
 "You will see him/' he said gently. "The 
 men brought in his body and he will not be 
 buried until to-day at dusk." The priest's 
 hands came convulsively together and he strove 
 to steady his voice. 
 
 "I must! I must!" he whispered. "God 
 would not will it that he should lose the blessing 
 at the end. ' ' He shivered slightly and steadied 
 himself against a convenient bale. Then, as if 
 the weakness that had fallen on him were mere 
 physical fatigue, he added wearily : ' ' Oh, I have 
 come so far ! ' ' 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch found no words to comfort 
 him, but his hands went out in readiness to catch 
 the man if he should fall. The priest held his 
 place, however, and unconsciously drew away 
 from the proffered aid. When he spoke again, 
 it was in pursuance of a new idea. 
 
 "How did death come?" he demanded abrupt- 
 ly. ' i Was it from God or man ? ' ' Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch was startled by the suddenness of the 
 inquiry and found no fitting answer. 
 
 "I do not know," he answered, but the sus- 
 picion at his heart rose up and looked out 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON 47 
 
 through his eyes, and Simeon Gvosdef saw it 
 there and understood. He came closer to the 
 young man, pushing out his head until their 
 faces almost touched, and Ivan Egorovitch could 
 feel his hurried breath upon his cheek. 
 
 "Who was it did it?" he demanded fiercely. 
 "Tell me! I have a right to know!" Ivan 
 Egorovitch pushed him hastily away 
 
 "I did not say any one did it," he answered. 
 
 "But you believe " 
 
 "Never mind what I believe. I should be a 
 fool to make an accusation where I do not fully 
 know. I have made no accusation, and I make 
 none! If you are not satisfied, talk with Mik- 
 hail Etolin, the lieutenant, when you get 
 ashore." He turned on his heel and would 
 have gone away, but the other seized him by 
 the arm. 
 
 "So be it!" he cried, between his clenched 
 teeth. "If I must, I will wait my turn. But, 
 as God is good, if my boy was killed, I will 
 bring the matter to the light! And if it was 
 foully done, I will have judgment if it fall upon 
 the lieutenant himself!" As he finished, he 
 dropped the arm that he had held and left Ivan 
 Egorovitch free. His excitement overcame the 
 
48 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 weakness that had held him bound and, with a 
 pathetic attempt at dignity, he moved unstead- 
 ily away and went forward to his place among 
 the men. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch watched him ruefully till he 
 was out of sight and then looked about to see 
 where he should go. The merchandise piled up 
 along the central shut-in space hid from him 
 the exact position of the people at the stern; 
 but from that direction there floated to him, now 
 that he had time to listen for it, the sound of 
 a girl's voice, singing. 
 
 He picked his way along the cluttered pas- 
 sage to the open after-space and, coming on 
 its occupants, saw that it was Motrya Petrovna 
 who was lifting up her voice. 
 
 She sat with her back to a stanchion wound 
 about with a great rope, and was busy in an 
 attempt to occupy and amuse a vigorous, well- 
 grown infant that lay in her spread lap. She 
 was giving absorbed attention to the process, 
 with somewhat qualified success, bending for- 
 ward over her charge and swaying her body 
 from side to side so that the light glinted on her 
 black hair as she moved. Her flowers lay in 
 a heap beside her on the deck. 
 
THE PKIEST'S SON 49 
 
 Near-by, on a pile of baggage, sat a sickly, 
 middle-aged man in a long blue nankeen coat, 
 the skirts of which he had drawn up over his 
 knees to keep them from contact with the deck. 
 He had a square, stubborn jaw, and large, rest- 
 less gray eyes, that roamed continually from 
 place to place. His arms were held straight 
 along on either side of him, the hands pushing 
 against the seat as if to support his weight, and 
 he sat stiffly upright with an air of general dis- 
 content. He talked continuously, but evidently 
 for his own satisfaction, rather than with an 
 idea of conversation with the girl, for Motrya 
 Petrovna responded but occasionally to what 
 he said. 
 
 " There were seven, Motrya, I am sure of it," 
 he was saying fretfully. "And now I can find 
 only six. It must be that one was taken for- 
 ward by the men or else was lost overboard 
 carelessly in the night. I have looked every- 
 where that they would let me there below, and 
 I shall have the boat searched vigorously do 
 you hear me? vigorously, before we go 
 ashore!" The girl continued her attentions to 
 the baby and swung it gently from side to side. 
 
 "I saw only six," she said without look- 
 
50 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 ing up. "I do not believe you brought any 
 more than that from Yakutat." The man's 
 jaws came together with a snap and he looked 
 down stubbornly at the pile of things on which 
 he sat 
 
 "I know I can not be mistaken, " he repeated 
 sullenly. " There were the two rolls of bed- 
 ding, the laurel chest, the long leathern sack, the 
 bucket of brandy, the clothes-pouch, and and 
 one other package that is not here. It is singu- 
 lar I can not remember what it was. ' ' The girl 
 yawned slowly as she dandled the baby up and 
 down. 
 
 1 i That is because there never was a seventh, ' ' 
 she answered wearily. "When the boat brings 
 the rest of the things from Yakutat, you will 
 find that all have come." 
 
 "I shall not, 7 ' he declared angrily. "There 
 were seven came with us and I shall have a 
 search." The baby cried and the girl lifted it 
 up and, placing it against her shoulder, began 
 to pat it on the back. In so doing, she looked 
 up and saw Ivan Egorovitch, and he came 
 immediately to where she sat. She gave him a 
 cheery nod of recognition and turned to the man 
 at her side. 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON 51 
 
 "Father," she said, "here is Ivan Nilof^ 
 You will rememher him at home. Is it not good 
 to see a familiar fa,ce out here in this strange 
 land?" Whatever of joy Peter Gagarin felt at 
 this sudden recognition, it was not reflected in 
 his face. 
 
 He did not rise, or change his position, but 
 fixed his big eyes suspiciously on Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch and looked him swiftly up and down. 
 
 "I remember him," he said dryly, and then, 
 as if ashamed of his churlishness, he put out 
 his hand. The young man flushed and hesi- 
 tated, but a glance from the girl decided him, 
 and he took the proffered grasp as cordially as 
 if it had been offered in full heart. 
 
 "You are almost at your journey's end, Peter 
 Efimovitch," he said pleasantly. "I am glad 
 to be the first to bring you welcome to the 
 place." Peter Gagarin sniffed ungraciously 
 and fell back on the grievance that occupied his 
 mind. 
 
 ' ' The place is a small matter if I can find my 
 things," he complained childishly. "When I 
 started I had seven parcels in my effects and 
 now there are only six." 
 
 1 i father, "said the girl, ' ' be patient ! Why 
 
52 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 can not you wait and see 1 ' ' She blushed in her 
 embarrassment and leaned forward to lay a 
 pleading hand upon his arm. But the child 
 had reached the furthest limit of its patience 
 and refused to brook even this temporary in- 
 terruption of her ministrations to itself. It 
 straightened to its full length, threw back its 
 head and gave voice to its protest in a pro- 
 longed and vigorous wail. Motrya Petrovna 
 returned promptly to its aid. 
 
 "0, Grinya, be good!" she cried coaxingly, 
 and gathered him closely in her arms. She ap- 
 plied again the small arts that had comforted 
 him before and hummed to him and joggled him, 
 while the young man watched. Then, as her 
 efforts failed to bring success, she turned her 
 head and began to look anxiously toward the 
 cabin door. 
 
 "Tatiana!" she called briskly. "Tatiana 
 Vassilievna! The baby is crying and I think 
 you had better come." 
 
 "I'm coming," responded a voice from the 
 space within, and almost on the word the owner 
 of it came out through the doorway. She was 
 a short, stout woman, with an extremely red 
 face. Her features were coarse and heavy and 
 
THE PBIEST'S SON 53 
 
 i 
 
 the skin on lier cheeks was shiny as if it had 
 been scoured. Her eyebrows were bushy as a 
 man's above her tip-tilted nose. She had a 
 green handkerchief tied around her head, the 
 knot under her chin serving to fill up and make 
 wider her wide, fat neck, and she carried in her 
 arms a great bundle of clothing which she had 
 evidently been gathering against the going from 
 the boat. Depositing it hastily on a pile of like 
 baggage on one side, she hurried to Motrya 
 Petrovna, making a crooning noise with her 
 closed lips and opening her bodice with an in- 
 stinctive maternal movement as she came. 
 
 "Give him to me," she said, and lifting the 
 child she backed away with it for some paces, 
 choosing her place by a glance over her shoul- 
 der, and dropped down behind a pile of boxes 
 where the others could see nothing of her but 
 her head. For an instant there was an increase 
 in the vigor of the child's impatient note, and 
 then the outcry broke suddenly in the middle 
 with a gurgle and a sigh. The mother bent 
 above him busily for a moment and then 
 smilingly raised her head. 
 
 "Are we nearly there?" she asked with a 
 touch of interest. "I see that we are under 
 
54 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 way." Her eyes fixed themselves on Ivan 
 Egorovitch rather than the others, and Motrya 
 Petrovna spoke at once. 
 
 "This is Ivan Nilof, Tatiana, the man who 
 came in the boat. He says we are near the 
 post." Then, turning to the young man, she 
 added in a lower tone: "Tatiana Vassilievna 
 is Zakar Medvedef 's wife, in whose charge I 
 told you I had come." Tatiana Vassilievna 
 looked round her curiously in the fog. 
 
 "Well," she said emphatically, "I hope he is 
 taking us to something we shall like. I haven't 
 seen air as thick as this since the Fridays when 
 I was laundry-maid at home. ' ' The girl smiled 
 at Ivan Egorovitch and said to him under her 
 breath, 
 
 "I could tell her there will at least be flow- 
 ers." He nodded affirmation and she spoke 
 again openly to Zakar Medvedef 's wife. 
 
 "It is so warm that it surely must be nice 
 where there is no fog," she said. Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch was pleased with her defense of the un- 
 known land and answered her with zest. 
 
 "Yes, but it will not last as long as I could 
 wish. It is only a fortnight till Elijah's Day, 
 and after that there is sure to be a change." 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON 55 
 
 " Shall we have houses?" asked Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna, ' ' or where shall we live ? ' ' 
 
 "Why, certainly, and warm ones, only they 
 are somewhat small. I know of no house at the 
 post that has more than two rooms. ' ' Tatiana 
 Vassilievna threw back her head and laughed 
 aloud. 
 
 "Oh, that is nothing," she cried. "It is 
 easier to find the children when we are all to- 
 gether in a heap." The young man's eyes 
 danced in sympathy. 
 
 "I know how that is," he said. "I was one 
 of a family of fourteen." Tatiana Vassiliev- 
 na 's wide mouth opened and she looked at him 
 aghast. 
 
 "Fourteen!" she exclaimed. "God remem- 
 bered your father certainly, young man. Were 
 many of them girls!" 
 
 "No, only two." 
 
 "Ha, that was good!" said the woman, 
 breathing out in her content. "Boys are like 
 horses. They can go to their market as they 
 are. But with girls, it is hard to get rid of them 
 without a harness that is good." 
 
 "Were you all ready, Tatiana," interposed 
 Motrya Petrovna, "when I called you to come 
 
56 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 out?" The baby was now asleep and Tatiana 
 Vassilievna, moving carefully so as not to waken 
 it, came around again to where the others sat. 
 
 "Beady to a shoe-string," she insisted. "My 
 first and last bundles are together in that pile." 
 
 "I wish ours were," spoke up Peter Efimo- 
 vitch sulkily. "We, too, would be ready if we 
 could find the one bundle that is lost. I have 
 asked everybody in the boat about it, too," he 
 added gloomily. Tatiana Vassilievna looked at 
 him in cheerful scorn. 
 
 "I haven't a doubt of it, Peter Efimovitch," 
 she returned breezily. "And most of us have 
 heard you more than once. The world may 
 saddle other faults upon you, but no one will 
 ever lay the sin of silence at your door." 
 
 Out of the mist on the right hand loomed 
 suddenly a rocky point covered from base to top 
 with stately trees. 
 
 ( ' See ! ' ' cried Ivan Egorovitch excitedly. ' ' It 
 is the island in the bay. When we have passed 
 it, we are almost there." He rose to his feet 
 and shouted a long, quavering call. After a 
 moment it was answered from the shore, and 
 Ivan Egorovitch turned to his companions with 
 a beaming face. 
 
THE PEIEST'S SON 57 
 
 "You hear?" lie said. "They are waiting 
 for us just ahead. ' ' Stepan Dmitrievitch, hear- 
 ing the call, came back to where they stood and 
 he and Ivan Egorovitdi returned together to 
 the bow. There were ten minutes more of wait- 
 ing and then the boat slowed gently to a stop. 
 A sudden stir of oars and voices broke out 
 around them and small boats appeared on either 
 side. The two men came back and Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch demanded cheerily: 
 
 i ' Well, are you ready now to go ashore 1 J ' 
 
 "Shall I take the baby, Tatiana?" asked 
 Motrya Petrovna. "You will need both your 
 hands to look after the unloading of your 
 things. ' ' Tatiana Vassilievna protested feebly, 
 but finally allowed the girl to have her way. 
 
 ' ' But how will you manage your own things 1 ' ' 
 she objected. "Your father can not be de- 
 pended on, you know." Both Ivan Egorovitch 
 and Stepan Dmitrievitch stepped promptly for- 
 ward. 
 
 "We will attend to that," said both as if in 
 one voice, and Ivan Egorovitch added: "Where 
 are the things you want?" The girl nodded 
 toward the pile on which her father had been 
 seated. 
 
58 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "The clothes-pouch is about the only thing I 
 shall need at once, ' ' she said. ' ' The others can 
 wait till later if you like." Both men plunged 
 forward and reached for the designated pouch. 
 Ivan Egorovitch pulled it from the pile and 
 pushed back Stepan Dmitrievitch 's officious 
 hand. 
 
 "That is all right, Stepan," he said dryly. 
 "You help the other woman. I can attend to 
 this." But Stepan Dmitrievitch did not seem 
 to hear him and took hold of the other end. 
 Motrya Petrovna watched them with amuse- 
 ment in her eyes. 
 
 "Let Stepan Dmitrievitch take it, Ivan," she 
 said. "He can put it on the boat." Ivan 
 Egorovitch flushed and, letting go the handle, 
 stood angrily aside. Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 shouldered the piece of baggage triumphantly 
 and moved off with it to the rail. Motrya Pe- 
 trovna waited and then beckoned Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch to come near. 
 
 "Are you not ashamed?" she said. "It was 
 not worth it. I know you better than I do him, 
 and I thought I should need some one to help 
 me with the baby down into the boat" 
 
CHAPTER IV! 
 
 
 THE PBJEST'S SON is BURIED 
 
 The women had been settled in safety in the 
 boat that was to take them to the shore, and 
 Ivan Egorovitch was himself preparing to de- 
 scend into it, when he felt a detaining touch 
 on his arm. He looked around and saw that 
 it was Simeon Gvosdef, who had come behind 
 him unnoticed in the stir. The priest's eyes 
 were red with weeping and his insignificant fea- 
 tures twitched restlessly in spite of his efforts 
 to maintain his calm. 
 
 " Where is he?" he said hoarsely. " Where 
 shall I find him when I get ashore?" Ivan 
 Egorovitch was touched by his distress and 
 sought to comfort him. 
 
 6 ' He was in his own cabin when I came away, ' ' 
 he answered. ' ' They put him there when they 
 first brought him in." He felt from the man- 
 ner of the priest that this was not all h& wished 
 to know, so he continued: "Altogether, there 
 
 59 
 
60 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 are so few houses in the place that there is little 
 danger of mistake; but, if you like, you can 
 come with me. My lodging is just across the 
 way from his and I will pilot you." The 
 priest's shifty eyes came gratefully up to Ivan 
 Egorovitch's face and as quickly dropped away 
 again. 
 
 "But you are going now," he said uncer- 
 tainly, "and I shall have to wait." 
 
 "I shall be detained at the landing for a time 
 and you can easily find me." 
 
 "You are very good to me," said the other 
 humbly, and gave back from the rail. Ivan 
 Egorovitch lost no further time, but swung him- 
 self nimbly down into the boat. He found his 
 place by Motrya Petrovna, but his mind was full 
 of what had just occurred, and, without speak- 
 ing, he sat gazing absently out into the mist. 
 Motrya Petrovna noticed it and let her curiosity 
 crystallize into words. 
 
 ' ' What is it, Ivan f " she said softly. ' ' Is our 
 coming so sad a thing that it has taken away 
 your power of speech?" He heard her and 
 turned promptly toward her, but it was a full 
 moment before her meaning filtered through his 
 preoccupation so that he understood what she 
 
THE PKIEST'S SON IS BUEIED 61 
 
 had said. Then his face lighted responsively 
 and he smilingly shook his head. 
 
 "It was not my own worries that kept me 
 still," he said in quick apology. "I have never 
 had a happier home-coming in my life. If any- 
 thing, it was Simeon Gvosdef 's troubles that put 
 a damper on my thought." 
 
 "Simeon Gvosdef?" she repeated. "What 
 has he done to you that should make you sad?" 
 
 "Nothing, of himself. His son at the. post 
 was killed, and it fell to me to bring him the 
 evil news." Motrya Petrovna crossed herself 
 almost unconsciously and drew her brows to- 
 gether in a frown. 
 
 "It was enough!" she said with ready sympa- 
 thy. "I had not heard of it before. But, now 
 that it is done and finished, why are you still 
 disturbed?" 
 
 "Because it is not finished. I was thinking 
 of what is coming for me and him after we 
 get ashore." 
 
 "Oh," said the girl understandingly, and re- 
 lapsed into silence in her turn. He was satis- 
 fied not to disturb her, knowing that she was a 
 sharer in his thought, and it was Motrya Pe- 
 trovna who was the first to speak again. 
 
62 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Be good to him, Ivan," she said coaxingly. 
 "He is different from the others, but he is an 
 old man and alone and I can not bear to think 
 of his having trouble for lack of a friendly 
 deed." Her voice was tremulous and, looking 
 suddenly at her, he saw that her eyes were filled 
 with tears. 
 
 "I will," he said, and felt his own eyes cloud. 
 The shadow of the priest's grief stayed with 
 them and they were both quiet for the remain- 
 der of the way. With Motrya Petrovna it was 
 simply a natural girlish sympathy that went out 
 impulsively to one in need. But with Ivan 
 Egorovitch their common depression of spirits 
 seemed not alone the expression of a vicarious 
 tenderness, but a bond that held him for the 
 moment delightfully within the pale of her 
 maidenly reserve. 
 
 Mikhail Etolin met them at the water's edge. 
 
 "What is this?" he said fretfully. "Are 
 there women, too?" He held in his hand the 
 open letter which had brought him the news of 
 the enlargement of the post, and it was easy to 
 see that his sense of his own importance had not 
 thereby grown less. Ivan Egorovitch saw it 
 and paid his tribute to it with a smile. 
 
THE PBIEST'S SON IS BUEIED 63 
 
 ( ' Congratulations, your Well-born, on your in- 
 creased estate," lie said with a low bow. "I 
 trust there is enough brandy left in the govern- 
 ment tubs that all of us can drink to your good 
 fortune." Mikhail Etolin's fat face wrinkled 
 in acknowledgment of the compliment, but he 
 raised a warning finger as he made reply. 
 
 "Time enough later, my boy, to think of 
 that," he returned ponderously. "Just now, I 
 want to know what you expect me to do with 
 these women you have brought?" Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch's eyes twinkled. 
 
 "I had thought of your house," he said inno- 
 cently. " It is the most comfortable of the lot. ' ' 
 Mikhail Etolin's little eyes grew narrower and 
 he looked suspiciously at the young man. 
 
 "I believe the one you are in will do well 
 enough," he said dryly. "You can carry your 
 things across to the house that little Gvosdef 
 occupied and leave the other place to them. 
 The men I can quarter in the warehouse sheds. ' ' 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch shrugged his shoulders and 
 grinned somewhat ruefully at the unexpected 
 turning of his joke. 
 
 "All right," he said. "But have they taken 
 Moissei Simeonovitch away?" 
 
64 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "No, but they will before you need the place 
 to-night." The young man saw the chance to 
 reach the lieutenant in turn. 
 
 "I am glad he is still there," he said with as- 
 sumed frankness. "His father will see him 
 then before he is put underground." 
 
 Mikhail Etolin woke slowly to an understand- 
 ing of the words, and stood blinking his little 
 eyes. 
 
 "What do you mean!" he demanded. 
 
 "Nothing, except that his father is aboard 
 there on the boat and was afraid that you would 
 hold the funeral before he got ashore. He is 
 the priest sent out by the company for the larger 
 post." The lieutenant was visibly startled by 
 the news. 
 
 "He would have been right in his fear if I 
 had known that he was there," he said hastily. 
 His face darkened and he looked ominously at 
 the young man. 
 
 "Why did not you tell me this at once?" he 
 demanded. "Where is he now?" 
 
 "How could I sooner? This is the first time 
 I have been ashore. The priest, though, is on 
 the boat, still waiting for his turn." 
 
 "How do you know?" 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 65 
 
 "Because he is to come to me here for direc- 
 tion as soon as he gets away." Mikhail Etolin 
 breathed more easily and was visibly relieved. 
 
 ' ' That is better, ' ' he grunted. ' ' I can scarce- 
 ly get the thing over before they fetch him off, 
 but it will not be like having him come upon us 
 unprepared. Akh!" he burst out suddenly, 
 "the One God knows that with the death of that 
 vermin I had hoped that the company would be 
 able to cry quittance of the breed!" 
 
 He looked about him and beckoned with his 
 hand. A man, at work about the luggage, left it 
 and came to where he stood. He talked with 
 him for a moment and the man saluted and went 
 rapidly away. The lieutenant turned to Ivan 
 Egorovitch for a final word. 
 
 "Wait without fail for the priest," he said, 
 ' ' and it will be well if you can hold him here till 
 Luka Odintzof's return." 
 
 The waiting was not for long. The priest 
 made spur of his anxiety to hasten his desire 
 and the women were scarcely arranged for and 
 sent on, when he appeared on the beach and 
 made his way eagerly to where Ivan Egorovitch 
 stood. Behind him came Peter Efimovitch, car- 
 rying a leathern roll bound tightly round with 
 
66 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 strips of twisted cloth. He held the bundle 
 closely to his breast and there was an air of gen- 
 eral elation in the way he looked around. 
 
 "I have found it," he said with dignity as he 
 passed Ivan Egorovitch. "Simeon Gvosdef 
 had thoughtlessly covered it with his things. I 
 knew I could not be mistaken when I said there 
 were seven." He walked on without waiting 
 for an answer and Ivan Egorovitch turned un- 
 willingly to the priest. 
 
 "You will have to wait," he said with an 
 effort. "I can not go till the man comes back 
 who has charge of this pile of things." 
 
 He bent above the luggage to hide his telltale 
 flush and moved the pieces busily from side to 
 side. The priest, however, scarcely seemed to 
 hear and showed no interest in what he did. His 
 lifelong habit of humility dominated even the 
 impatience of his grief and he set down his bag 
 and stood listlessly by, betraying neither by 
 word nor look his heart-sick eagerness to be on 
 the road. He seemed totally unconscious of the 
 stir and movement round him and waited de- 
 jectedly and in silence, without moving from his 
 place. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch, as he worked, watched him 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 67 
 
 covertly and found it hard to make the pretense 
 that would fill the lagging moments as they 
 passed. When Luka Odintzof returned, he ran 
 to meet him and came back with him to the 
 place. 
 
 "Is it arranged!" he whispered. 
 
 "Yes," said the man, "they have done what 
 they could and I was to tell you that you should 
 let him come." Ivan Egorovitch gave a great 
 sigh of relief and spoke immediately to the 
 priest. 
 
 ' ' This man will take my place, ' ' he said. ' l If 
 you are ready, come." Simeon Gvosdef gath- 
 ered himself eagerly and took up his bag. Ivan 
 Egorovitch timed his pace to the handicap of his 
 companion's burden and began at once to climb 
 the hill. 
 
 The little group of houses that made up the 
 post were set irregularly on the sloping crest 
 of the first level above the sea. There was 
 none of any size, except the long warehouse built 
 of split logs, and it was the only one with a 
 stockade. The various dwellings stood around 
 in the cramped clearing without particular plan, 
 low and squat, a single story high. Two stood 
 together, a little apart from the rest, and it was 
 
68 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 at the door of one of these that Ivan Egorovitch 
 stopped. 
 
 ''This is the place," he said soberly, and 
 crossed himself as he thought of the dead man 
 lying within. " Go in as you will. If you need 
 me further, you will find me at the house across 
 the way." 
 
 The priest eased down his burden and leaned 
 it against the door. For an agonized instant 
 he stood with his hands pressed together as if 
 to gain courage for the task. Then with a sob 
 he went swiftly forward and disappeared into 
 the house. Ivan Egorovitch waited till he was 
 fully out of sight and then went slowly across 
 to the house he had pointed out. Motrya Pe- 
 trovna was standing in the doorway. 
 
 "Is that where Simeon Gvosdef is to find his 
 son?" she asked, gazing across at the open 
 door with the fascinated curiosity, that the 
 place where death is awakens inevitably in the 
 young. 
 
 "Do not look at it," he answered, pushing 
 her back from the open space. "Come, let us 
 go inside." She yielded to his mood and they 
 entered without further word. But the girl's 
 thoughts were busy with the tragedy against 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 69 
 
 which her skirts had brushed and she could not 
 get it from her mind. 
 
 "0 Tatiana," she cried excitedly, "the dead 
 man is in that house across the way! His fa- 
 ther has just gone in!" Tatiana Vassilievna 
 raised her eyes meditatively from the clothes 
 which she was sorting and gazed out through 
 the open door. 
 
 "Poor fellow!" she said commiseratingly. 
 "We all step off, one after the other, but that 
 does not make it easier when one sees the others 
 go. Will there be a funeral, do you think?" 
 
 "I suppose so now," said the young man. 
 "His father is a priest. Still, it can not be 
 rightly done," he added, "for there is no church 
 nor deacon, and not even a two-kopeck candle in 
 the place." 
 
 "Still, it will be a funeral," said Tatiana with 
 a sigh of content. ' ' There were such beautiful 
 funerals at Kirsanov. One could weep and 
 weep, and I always stayed till the Eternal 
 Memory was sung." Motrya Petrovna leaned 
 forward and looked fixedly at the other house. 
 
 "Ivan," she said, "Simeon Gvosdef is com- 
 ing out and I believe he is coming here. ' ' 
 
 The young man assured himself of the truth 
 
70 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 of what she said and went quietly to the door. 
 Simeon Gvosdef met him there and seized him 
 with both hands. He was speechless with emo- 
 tion and his breath came in great gasps. 
 
 "My boy !" he cried when he could force him- 
 self to talk. "They will not let me see my 
 boy!" He clung to Ivan Egorovitch with un- 
 reasoning frenzy and shook him to add force to 
 what he said. "Where is the lieutenant f" 
 he managed to get out. "Take me to him at 
 once!" Ivan Egorovitch guessed shrewdly 
 what had happened and wasted no time in un- 
 necessary words. 
 
 "Come," he said, and led the way across the 
 open space. The priest pressed closely at his 
 elbow, but made no more complaint, and they 
 went swiftly and without speech back by the 
 storing-sheds and up to the house at the edge 
 of the little plain in which Mikhail Etolin lived. 
 
 It was getting toward six o'clock and the 
 lieutenant sat on a cushioned bench before 
 his door, resting himself while he awaited the 
 summons to his evening meal. His coat was 
 off and his linen sack was open at the throat. 
 He had a fan in one hand and in the other a 
 half-filled bowl of tea. 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 71 
 
 He rose inquiringly as the two approached 
 and carefully set down his cup. Then, as if 
 suddenly recognizing his visitors, he came cum- 
 brously forward a pace or two. 
 
 "This is the priest, I suppose, " he said in 
 his wheezy voice, and reverently put out his 
 hand. Moved unconsciously by habit, Simeon 
 Gvosdef reached out his hand to touch him and 
 gave him mechanically the blessing he had 
 asked: The lieutenant drew out a bench and 
 motioned his visitors to sit down. 
 
 "You will take some tea with me, of course," 
 he said, and turning, called through the open 
 door, "Mitry, fill up the samovar and bring us 
 two more cups." Simeon Gvosdef refused the 
 proffered drink, though the unexpected friend- 
 liness of the lieutenant embarrassed him so 
 that he stood for a moment uncertain where to 
 begin. But as the sense of his wrongs came 
 back to him, he found no lack of words. 
 
 ' ' You are commander here, ' ' he said. ' ' Why 
 is it you will not let me see my son!" 
 
 Mikhail Etolin had evidently foreseen this 
 interview and question and had determined be- 
 forehand how they should be met. His little 
 eyes blinked blankly at his interlocutor and his 
 
72 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 lips parted in a smile of polite surprise and 
 interrogation. 
 
 "What is this?" he demanded. "You have 
 a son here at the post?" He looked at Ivan 
 Egorovitch rather than at the priest and the 
 young man felt he was expected to reply. 
 
 "It is Moissei Gvosdef, your Well-born," he 
 said in a low voice. He was not a good actor 
 and it was plain he was not at ease. Mikhail 
 Etolin's mouth opened and his face lighted as if 
 in sudden comprehension, and he began mourn- 
 fully to shake his head. 
 
 "Akh! that is bad," he said in a whisper. 
 "But surely he is not buried yet?" 
 
 6 ' No, but they will not let me see him. ' ' 
 
 "Not see him!" 
 
 "No, I was told it was not allowed." 
 
 "This must be looked into," said the lieuten- 
 ant with a show of astonishment. "What rea- 
 son did they give for not letting you go in?" 
 
 < < They did not prevent me from going in ; but 
 the boy has been bound in cloth and sewed so 
 I could not see even his face ! ' ' 
 
 "Oh!" said the lieutenant, as if with new 
 understanding. "I thought they had shut you 
 from the house. ' ' 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 73 
 
 Simeon Gvosdef shook his head. Then, with! 
 a fierceness that was almost accusation, he faced 
 the lieutenant and looked him squarely in the 
 eyes. 
 
 "How was it that He died?" he demanded 
 harshly. Ivan Egorovitch's heart stood still 
 and he awaited breathlessly what the lieutenant 
 would say. His conscience could not but be 
 shocked at the deceit in which he had a part, but 
 in spite of that there stirred in him a thrill of 
 admiration for the skill and coolness the lieu- 
 tenant displayed. The fat man met the priest's 
 question frankly. His manner waived gra- 
 ciously the accusation it implied and showed in 
 itself only the desire to be kind. 
 
 "He was crushed by a tree which fell on him 
 as he worked," he said simply. "As to the 
 cloth, it was a necessary thing. I could not 
 leave him out there where it happened, without 
 a service or a word of prayer, if only that I 
 wanted him to be satisfied and stay away when 
 once we had put him underground. There was 
 the sun to fight, and the flies, and it was a long 
 way to come. To cover him with a cloth and 
 keep it moist seemed the only way to manage 
 while we brought him in." 
 
74 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 His manner was so plausible and he mingled 
 fact and fancy so skilfully in what he said, 
 that if Ivan Egorovitch had not known that the 
 concealment of the body was but lately done, 
 he could have believed in the explanation him- 
 self. The priest was bewildered, but not yet 
 convinced. The cunning excuse cut out the 
 props on which his suspicion had been built, but 
 his heart still cried out unreasoningly against 
 his son's death as a wrong. He received the 
 explanation in dogged silence, turning the mat- 
 ter over confusedly in his mind. 
 
 "Then why did they refuse to let me see 
 him?" he demanded resentfully. Mikhail Eto- 
 lin drew up his shoulders and threw out his 
 hands. 
 
 "Because they were fools!" he said shortly. 
 "I can see no reason beyond that it made them 
 extra trouble and was unusual to be asked." 
 The priest clasped his hands together and broke 
 into excited speech. 
 
 "Then I may see him once again?" he cried 
 entreatingly. "At least you will let me see 
 his face!" Mikhail Etolin drew down his eye- 
 brows thoughtfully and half shook his head. 
 
 "It would be better not," he urged. "He 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 75 
 
 lias been dead too long to be good to see. But 
 if you can not do without " 
 
 ' ' Oh, I must ! I must ! ' ' broke in Simeon Gvos- 
 def eagerly. 
 
 "Very well, then,' 7 said the lieutenant, "I 
 will see what can be done." He called for his 
 coat and struggled into it and, putting on his 
 hat, set out at once to put his promise into deed. 
 Ivan Egorovitch followed silently behind. 
 
 "About the service, father," said Mikhail 
 Etolin as they walked. "We have no church 
 and for you to do it will be hard. But there 
 is no other priest and if you do not, I shall have 
 to read." The priest nodded understandingly 
 and drew his hand up to his throat. 
 
 "I will do it," he said tremulously, yet de- 
 cidedly. "He shall have all that I can do to 
 rest his soul." 
 
 "You have your robes?" 
 
 "They are in my bundle at the house." 
 
 "Very well. Make yourself ready. It lacks 
 but half an hour to the time that has been set. ' ' 
 
 They relapsed into silence and so continued 
 until the two houses had again been reached. 
 Ivan Egorovitch turned aside to the one where 
 he lived. The others, without noticing his de- 
 
76 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 fection, proceeded on their way and entered to- 
 gether into the other house. 
 
 It was half an hour later that Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch, accompanied by the two women, came out 
 and went across to the house where the services 
 were to be held. Tatiana Vassilievna carried 
 her baby, holding her handkerchief above its 
 eyes to shelter it from the sun. The room 
 where the body lay was low and square and 
 had such diminutive windows that it was dark 
 even in the day. An altar had been improvised 
 from a table set below the holy picture at the 
 farther end, and on it were the book for the 
 service and seven generous candles taken from 
 Simeon Gvosdef 's private store. The flickering 
 yellow flames of these helped much to make 
 things visible in the room and sent dancing 
 shadows all across the walls. A pot with in- 
 cense smoldered at one side and the heavy 
 vapor from it struggled bravely with the vague 
 odor of mortality that filled the place. 
 
 The score of men who made the population of 
 the post stood here and there in subdued rustling 
 groups and whispered idly as they waited for 
 the service to begin. The priest was not in the 
 room, but Mikhail Etolin sat listlessly on a 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 77 
 
 bench near the altar, his puffy hands clasped 
 aimlessly in his lap. 
 
 The body of the boy, still wrapped in its 
 cerements of cloth, was set with its head to the 
 altar, and the loosened flap across the face re- 
 vealed that the priest's persistence had won its 
 way. There was nothing, however, to show that 
 he had read the truth from the dead man 's face, 
 and Ivan Egorovitch sat quietly down by 
 Motrya Petrovna and fell to waiting like the 
 rest. 
 
 The room grew absolutely still, except as 
 some person among the lookers-on shifted a 
 foot or punctuated his impatience with a deep, 
 sighing breath/ The sunlight from the western 
 window stretched a bar of white through the 
 thick air to a bright circle on the wall beyond. 
 Mikhail Etolin's great body rose and fell 
 placidly as he breathed. The baby made low, 
 contented noises as it lay in its mother's lap, 
 and Tatiana Vassilievna, responding to the 
 stimulus of the time and place, threw up her 
 head and leaned contentedly back, prepared to 
 experience to the full her coming thrills of 
 grief. 
 
 The silence grew oppressive and Mikhail 
 
78 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 Etolin, awaking from his lethargy, roused up 
 and looked impatiently at the inner door. 
 Finally, from beyond it, there came the noise 
 as of a bench pushed back, a scraping as of foot- 
 steps, then the door opened, and Simeon 
 Gvosdef came hurriedly into the room. 
 
 His face was very pale, and he looked neither 
 to the right nor to the left. In one hand he held 
 a slip of folded paper and in the other carried 
 a small, pointed knife. He was in his full robes 
 and the people in the room roused themselves 
 in expectation of his beginning the service they 
 had come to hear. His mind seemed bent on 
 something else, however, for, without a word, 
 he, went swiftly to where the body lay and with 
 his knife began cutting at the stitches that 
 held the canvas together at the side. He bent 
 above the body and worked with eager haste, 
 but his hands trembled as if he had a palsy and 
 he did not seem to see clearly that which he 
 essayed. 
 
 Mikhial Etolin watched him with astonish- 
 ment for a moment and then rose up and went 
 quickly to his side. 
 
 " What are you doing ?" he demanded roughly, 
 and seized him by the arm. "Why do you not 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 79 
 
 begin?" Simeon Gvosdef struggled vainly for 
 a moment and then passively allowed himself 
 to be pushed away. He lifted to Mikhail Etolin 
 a face distorted by the frenzy of his emotion, 
 and fixed on him his fiercely accusing eyes. 
 
 "It is his passport !" he cried, holding up the 
 strip of paper he had brought. "I have writ- 
 ten it and it is my right to place it in his hand." 
 It was a clever stroke and the lieutenant, 
 taken unawares, let go his grip and stood look- 
 ing at him, stupidly making up his mind. The 
 priest was undoubtedly within his right if he 
 chose to make the claim, and already in the 
 room Mikhail Etolin could hear the murmur 
 of interest and assent that ran from mouth to 
 mouth. His face flushed violently and he made 
 a determined stand. 
 
 "That is for the dying," he said contempt- 
 uously. i ' There is no application when the man 
 is dead!" The priest's eyes blazed and he 
 threw up an interrupting hand. 
 
 6 ' ' For those who suffer accident and come to 
 bloody death,' ' he quoted solemnly. "How 
 did he die, Mikhail Etolin? How did he come 
 to die?" 
 
 As before, his question had all the bitterness 
 
80 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 of accusation and his eyes did not once waver 
 while he waited for a reply. Mikhail Sergeie- 
 vitch's slow wits failed to find for him a 
 ready answer and he stood, swelling vindictively 
 and looking angrily, first at his accuser, 
 and then at the people in the room. His con- 
 fusion made Simeon Gvosdef still more bold. 
 Pushing out his head till his face almost touched 
 that of the man to whom he spoke, he delivered 
 a final shot. 
 
 "Is it that you are afraid, Mikhail Sergeie- 
 vitch, of that which I should see!" he demanded 
 in a whisper so shrill that it was audible all 
 around the room. The lieutenant came to his 
 senses with a snort. 
 
 "Bah!" he cried, "what is there to conceal? 
 Give me the knife!" Checked unexpectedly in 
 his attempt at personal examination of the 
 corpse, the priest hesitated for a moment and 
 then irresolutely surrendered the weapon that 
 he held. Mikhail Sergeievitch took it without 
 a word and, turning to the dead man, began in 
 his deliberate way to rip out the stitches at 
 the point where Simeon Gvosdef had stopped. 
 The priest had not imagined that the lieutenant 
 would yield to his demand, and standing with 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BUEIED 81 
 
 close-pressed hands and muscles rigid as if he 
 had been turned to stone, followed his advance 
 with a look in his eyes that was almost terror. 
 
 When the opening in the shroud had been 
 lengthened almost to the waist, Mikhail Etolin 
 laid down the knife and, reaching under the 
 cloth, laid hold of Moissei Gvosdef 's hand with 
 the intention of drawing it outside. But the 
 joints had stiffened in the time that he had 
 been dead and when Mikhail Etolin pulled, the 
 whole body moved toward him as if it had been 
 alive. 
 
 There was an instant stir of horror in the 
 room and the dead man's father sprang for- 
 ward with a pathetic little cry. But before he 
 reached the body, Mikhail Etolin, steadying it 
 with one hand, drew out with the other the un- 
 willing limb and slid the cloth deftly under it 
 again down to the side. 
 
 The clothing had been thriftily taken from 
 Moissei Gvosdef 's body before it was closed in 
 and the arm was bare from the shoulder to the 
 wrist. Mikhail Etolin turned sharply away 
 from it and faced the priest. His lips were 
 drawn into a snarl, and he thrust down the hand 
 that had held the dead man's and rubbed the 
 
82 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 palm of it against his thigh, as if to cleanse it 
 from something that was unclean. 
 
 "Is this enough?" he demanded harshly. 
 "Give him the passport and make a finish of 
 your work!" The priest came swiftly to the 
 body and, bending down, slipped the paper into 
 the dead man's half-closed hand. 
 
 "Go now to God," he said brokenly. "I 
 have done what I could and, if it is His will, 
 you shall enter into His peace. ' ' 
 
 His fingers lingered lovingly on the unre- 
 sponsive flesh and he ended by drawing down 
 the flap that covered up the face and kissing 
 him tenderly between the eyes. Then, as gently, 
 he drew back the cover into place, and, as if the 
 thing had never happened, took from the table 
 his book and, opening it, began to read the ser- 
 vice he had so long delayed. 
 
 Mikhail Etolin interpreted his action as a 
 final admission of defeat and after watching 
 him closely for a time, returned to his former 
 seat. The priest, however, had not abandoned 
 his purpose, but was simply biding his time. 
 He read on steadily and without change of 
 voice, but his shifty eyes were always on Mik- 
 hail Etolin and he watched intently for the lapse 
 
THE PBIEST'S SON IS BURIED 83 
 
 in vigilance on his part that alone could prom- 
 ise him success. 
 
 He followed custom closely in the service, ex- 
 cept that, when he knelt, it was not before the 
 altar, but by the body's side. More than once 
 his hand stole cautiously out toward the de- 
 sired goal, only to find that the lieutenant 
 was alert and it was but the part of caution to 
 delay the chance. But in the end his patience 
 was rewarded and before the closing prayer the 
 crisis came. 
 
 Those assembled had risen from the confes- 
 sion and the priest, kneeling beside the body, 
 raised up his voice in the beautiful Rest with 
 the saints, Christ, Thy servant's soul. His 
 listeners, responsive to the grave sweetness of 
 the chant, joined in till the place was filled with 
 the stirring tide of song. The baby fretted, and 
 Tatiana Vassilievna, herself grown nervous 
 with the excitement and the child's care, rose 
 from her place and walked softly back and forth 
 behind the seats and hushed it by moving it 
 gently up and down. 
 
 But at the sharp break in the music where 
 the voices stop and there is silence before they 
 are lifted in the grand final strain, her feelings 
 
84 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 overcame her and, with her breast pressed close 
 against the window-sill, she sobbed bitterly 
 aloud. Mikhail Etolin's attention was caught 
 by the unusual sound. Forgetting for the mo- 
 ment his vigil over the priest, he turned his 
 head and looked to see whence the interruption 
 came. 
 
 It was only for a moment, but it was enough. 
 Stealthily but swiftly the priest's hand went 
 out and disappeared beneath the canvas that 
 covered the body of the dead. For a brief in- 
 stant he kept his posture till he was fully sure. 
 Then with a cry that drew all faces toward 
 himself, he sprang to his feet and stripped back 
 the covering so that the boy's whole body was 
 exposed. 
 
 1 ' See!" he cried wildly. "See! What will 
 he tell me now?" He raised the body so that it 
 was visible to all who were in the room. The 
 skin showed pallid in the uncertain light, but 
 over the heart there was an open wound and 
 around it the brown stain of blood that those 
 who prepared it for burial had not thought it 
 worth while to wash away. 
 
 There was a stir of responsive excitement 
 among the lookers-on, and more than one moved 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 85 
 
 involuntarily from his place. But the feeling 
 that it was Mikhail Etolin's affair, not theirs, 
 held all of them in check, and they waited where 
 they were, with eyes turned curiously on the 
 lieutenant to see what he would do. 
 
 At the first cry from the priest, his eyes had 
 come swiftly back to the scene in front of him, 
 and he made a movement forward as if to in- 
 terfere. Then, seeing that the harm was done 
 and that no word or artifice of his could further 
 set aside the truth, he stopped and with a shrug 
 of resignation stood in his place and waited like 
 the rest. 
 
 Simeon Gvosdef held up the body only for a 
 moment and then let it drop slowly to the bench. 
 As if suddenly ashamed that he had so exposed 
 its nakedness, he hastily drew up the cloth and 
 with awkward hands endeavored to arrange 
 smoothly over it the narrow folds. Then, as he 
 raised his head, his glance fell on Mikhail Etolin 
 and his paternal tenderness was swept aside by 
 the thought of the way in which he had been 
 wronged. 
 
 He drew himself up to his full height and fixed 
 on the lieutenant a look so fierce in the in- 
 tensity of its hate that Mikhail Etolin 's eyes 
 
86 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 went involuntarily before it to the floor. For 
 a time no word was said and the priest con- 
 tinued standing with his lips working dryly 
 at the words he could not speak. Then his de- 
 sire for revenge found need for something more 
 than speech and his hand went groping out be- 
 hind him to the table and took hold on the knife 
 where Mikhail Etolin had laid it down. His 
 purpose was so plain that a dozen men among 
 the spectators started hurriedly to their feet. 
 The interference was not needed, however, for 
 their movement broke the spell for Simeon 
 Gvosdef , so that the reaction came. 
 
 He drew the weapon to him and even took 
 a step forward with it in his hand. But he could 
 not hold either hand or body steady and shook 
 his head savagely again and again as if to clear 
 away some obstruction that hung before his 
 eyes. He made a pitiable struggle with himself 
 to regain his self-control, but in spite of his de- 
 termination, his movements grew more waver- 
 ing and his eyes less bright until, with a sharp 
 cry of anguish and despair, he let himself go and 
 plunged headlong to the floor. Mikhail Etolin 
 saw to his uplifting and ordered him carried 
 out. Then, turning to the little group that had 
 
THE PRIEST'S SON IS BURIED 87 
 
 watched the tragedy with wondering eyes, he 
 said in his deliberate way: 
 
 "We will not wait for the finishing of this 
 service for the dead. Moissei Gvosdef will be 
 buried at once and without further rite. And 
 lest some of you who have seen what has hap- 
 pened here to-night should remember and not 
 understand, I will say that this man's death was 
 not a murder made possible by me, but a just 
 and necessary thing and mercifully done ! ' ' 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 FINDS A MISSION 
 
 Peter Efimovitch was the only man among the 
 new-comers who did not find his quarters in the 
 barrack-sheds. He had been billeted there with 
 the rest, but, after a short inspection of the com- 
 forts of the place, with his usual decision of 
 character, he had taken up his bed and retired 
 with it to the house where Motrya Petrovna 
 and Tatiana Vassilievna had been lodged. 
 
 The first night he spent in peace, but the sec- 
 ond day his defection was reported to the lieu- 
 tenant, who promptly ordered Ivan Egorovitch 
 to tell him to return. The young man accepted 
 the commission with reluctance. 
 
 "Send somebody else, Mikhail Sergeievitch," 
 he begged ruefully. "The old man has none 
 too good an opinion of me now, and if I go, he 
 will never afterward let me come into the 
 house." 
 
 "Bah!" said the lieutenant with a grin. 
 "It will give you a chance to even up with him 
 
 88 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 89 
 
 for some of the trouble he caused you once at 
 home. I suppose, though, for that matter, you 
 might let the women decide. He will have to 
 have his own house in the end and if they are 
 not crowded, it will probably do no harm. ' ' 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch seized on the alternative 
 with a grateful heart. As a tribute of good 
 feeling, he dropped down the channel in his 
 boat and gathered another armful of the flowers 
 in which Motrya Petrovna had found delight, 
 and, thus equipped, presented himself irreso- 
 lutely at the women's door. He found them 
 busy with the unpacking and arrangement of 
 their things. Peter Efimovitch sat in the door- 
 way where he could see both in and out, and 
 smoked and looked on contentedly while the 
 others worked. Tatiana Vassilievna, her 
 sleeves rolled up and her hair bristling in dis- 
 order with the vigor of her activity, was sorting 
 various articles and bustlingly carrying one 
 after another to its appointed place. Motrya 
 Petrovna was seated on the floor, with the baby 
 handy on a mattress, and on her other side a 
 hamper half unpacked, from which she was lift- 
 ing out the articles that Tatiana Vassilievna put 
 away. 
 
90 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 With a surly nod of welcome, the old man 
 made room for Ivan Egorovitch to pass in and 
 he entered and stood waiting, his flowers in his 
 hand. Motrya Petrovna rose at once and came 
 to him. 
 
 "More flowers?" she said. "I might have 
 known that you would think. " She took them 
 from him and stood looking for a place in the 
 confusion where they could be safely set. 
 
 "They will be a comfort in the house," she 
 said, "but I am waiting most impatiently for 
 you to take me where I can pick them for my- 
 self." 
 
 "It is only a question of the day," he an- 
 swered. "As soon as it is bright you shall 
 surely go." 
 
 "I shall ask Stepan Dmitrievitch to do it for 
 me if you forget. If he is to be of the family, 
 as you promised, I am going to make him use- 
 ful from the start." Ivan Egorovitch gave a 
 chuckle of delight. 
 
 "You had better stick to me," he counseled. 
 "I have not a doubt but Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 would do his best, but I do not believe he would 
 know a blossom from a bramble, if he had it in 
 his fist." 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 91 
 
 "He is a good hunter, " retorted the girl 
 witli a show of warmth. "He brought us a lot 
 of birds that he had shot this morning. ' ' Ivan 
 Egorovitch gave an understanding cry. 
 
 "Ah!" he said, "that is why he got out so 
 early. I wondered where it was that he had 
 gone. ' ' 
 
 i ' He is coming back to help us eat them, ' ' she 
 volunteered demurely. "Tatiana asked him. 
 She is a splendid cook." Ivan Egorovitch 
 drew up his shoulders ruefully. 
 
 "On that chance any man here would go out 
 of his way to be of service to her," he said. 
 "I should be glad to get in her good graces 
 myself." 
 
 "And yet you forgot her and only remem- 
 bered to bring flowers to me!" she murmured, 
 her eyes bent on him as if in serious reproof. 
 The young man looked doubtfully at her and 
 then at Tatiana Vassilievna and his face flushed. 
 The girl laughed aloud as she saw his discom- 
 fiture. 
 
 "You do not take teasing now any better 
 than you used to, Ivan Egorovitch," she said 
 delightedly. Then, turning, she called to the 
 other woman across the room: "Tatiana, Ivan 
 
92 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 Nilof has come to help us put away the things. 
 He will stay to dinner, so you must not forget 
 to put him in the pot.' 7 Tatiana Vassilievna 
 straightened up from her work as if to rest her 
 back and looked thoughtfully at the young 
 man. 
 
 "Men are really useful, sometimes, in a 
 house," she said, with the air of one who has 
 suddenly discovered a new truth. "But you 
 have to stick to them like a wet leaf to get much 
 out of them. I have been telling the Lord in 
 my prayers what I think of the company that 
 has kept my man back there in Yakutat and 
 left me to come on here and settle down alone. ' ' 
 The young man laughed and nodded vigor- 
 ously. 
 
 "It is a pleasant thing, though," he said, 
 "that you recognize us even as a necessary evil 
 in the house." Then turning again to Motrya 
 Petrovna he added in a lower tone : "It is good 
 of you to ask me. What am I to do to earn 
 my dinner as I should?" 
 
 "Nothing, of course. What I meant was 
 that from Tatiana 's point of view, at least, it 
 is the young man who comes with something 
 definite to offer who is most likely to be asked 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 93 
 
 to stay." A sudden remembrance of why he 
 himself had come swept over Ivan Egorovitch, 
 and he looked at the girl beside him with 
 troubled eyes. 
 
 "I, too, had a mission in seeing you to-day, " 
 he said with some hesitation, "but I fear that 
 when you hear what it is, you will not be so 
 satisfied to have me stay. 9 9 The girl raised her 
 eyes to his in expectant curiosity. 
 
 "What is it?" she demanded eagerly. 
 
 "Mikhail Sergeievitch is disturbed because 
 your father did not remain with the others as 
 he was ordered and sleep in the warehouse 
 sheds. He sent me to-day to tell him he must 
 go back. 9 ' 
 
 The girl's face grew serious and she looked 
 past him speculatively to where Peter Efimo- 
 vitch sat. The old man was still smoking con- 
 tentedly, absorbed apparently in pleasant 
 thought. But there was a stiffness in the 
 way he held himself even in repose and a 
 certain setness in the lines about his mouth, 
 which carried the conviction that even at the 
 best of times he kept a wary and suspicious eye 
 on life. The girl let her eyes linger lovingly 
 on him for a moment before she spoke. 
 
94 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Are you sure," she said, without looking at 
 Ivan Egorovitch, "that he was told he must 
 stay!" 
 
 ' ' I did not hear them given, but I understood 
 that he had the same instructions as the rest." 
 
 "I can hardly believe," said the girl slowly, 
 ' ' that he would be foolish enough to antagonize 
 the lieutenant at the start. I will ask him, 
 though. But if he has made up his mind, ' ' she 
 added with a sigh, "I am afraid you will not 
 get him to return. ' ' She went at once to where 
 Peter Efimovitch was sitting and Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch followed her to the door. 
 
 "Father," she began, "Ivan Nilof says that 
 Mikhail Sergeievitch is vexed because you did 
 not go with the others to the warehouse to 
 sleep." Peter Efimovitch came out of his 
 reverie and looked keenly from her to the young 
 man. 
 
 "Well?" he said interrogatively, and there 
 was an unconscious hardening of the lines about 
 his mouth. Motrya Petrovna returned bravely 
 to the attack. 
 
 "Is it true," she demanded, "that you knew 
 at the time that you were expected to stay in 
 that place?" Peter Efimovitch 's eyes re- 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 95 
 
 mained fixed on her steadily and in them began 
 to burn a small malevolent spark. 
 
 "Yes, it is true," he said coolly, and waited 
 as before. 
 
 "Then why did you not do it? It was not 
 prudent, at the least, to defy the lieutenant the 
 first time he gave you a command." 
 
 "I did not like it," returned the old man 
 shortly. "It was not clean and I would rather 
 be with you." 
 
 "But what good will it do you?" persisted 
 the girl. "He has sent to-day to say that you 
 must go back. ' ' Peter Efimovitch set his teeth 
 together with a snap. 
 
 "I will not!" he declared grimly. "I am an 
 accountant, not a laborer, and am entitled to 
 different treatment from the hunters and the 
 rest." 
 
 "I do not think," said Ivan Egorovitch tim- 
 idly, "that Mikhail Sergeievitch had in mind at 
 all in sending you to the barracks that the going 
 would put you out. The order was made sim- 
 ply because he feared it would make it too 
 crowded for the women to have you here with 
 them in the house." 
 
 "Let them settle that for themselves!" re- 
 
96 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 torted the old man sullenly. "I prefer to re- 
 main here where I am. ' ' 
 
 Inserting his pipe between his teeth, he turned 
 his back on them both and began again the con- 
 templation of the surrounding scenery that had 
 been holding his attention when he was first dis- 
 turbed. He had so much the air of having said 
 the final word that Motrya Petrovna turned help- 
 lessly to Ivan Egorovitch with a look of despair- 
 ing interrogation on her face. He put his hand 
 out to her with a smile. 
 
 "Do not worry," he said in a whisper. 
 "Would Tatiana Vassilievna object, if he should 
 be allowed to stay!" She put her hand into 
 his almost unconsciously and let it remain there 
 while she spoke. 
 
 "I do not think so," she said earnestly. 
 "Let us ask her and see what she will say." 
 They went into the house together and out to 
 the farther room where the older woman was 
 at work. 
 
 "You tell her," said Motrya Petrovna under 
 her breath. Ivan Egorovitch responded prompt- 
 ly to her wish. 
 
 "Tatiana Vassilievna," he began, "are you 
 so crowded here that you would prefer to 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 97 
 
 have Peter Efimovitch go somewhere else to 
 sleep 1" 
 
 Zakar Medvedef 's wife thought slowly, and 
 the skin was so tight over her plump figure that 
 as she undertook the process and stood still, 
 considering, she seemed about to burst. Motrya 
 Petrovna watched anxiously for the first indica- 
 tion of a break. When it came it was a smile, 
 and the girl unconsciously took heart of her 
 distress. 
 
 "It is a little thick, " said the older woman 
 frankly. "He has to sleep in this room and I 
 tread on him some in the mornings when I cook, 
 but you never could put him anywhere else. 
 He hits up against everything above him as nat- 
 urally as a fish under the ice, and would be un- 
 happy all the time. He is not always as thank- 
 ful as one would like, about what is set before 
 him, but on the whole I have got accustomed 
 to him and would really be lonesome if I could 
 not hear him cluck." Motrya Petrovna made 
 a sudden rush at her and put both arms about 
 her neck. 
 
 "I thought you would say he might stay," 
 she cried. "He is a trial, I know, but I could 
 not bear to think of his going out there by 
 
98 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 himself." She did not wait for an answer, but 
 danced away to where Ivan Egorovitch stood. 
 
 "Come," she said, seizing him impatiently 
 by the hand. "Let us go and tell him it is all 
 right." 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch went out with her on this 
 errand with less liking than he had come 
 in. At heart he still had a wholesome fear of 
 the fierce old man and had no desire to ap- 
 proach him unnecessarily, even as a bearer of 
 good news. The girl, however, had no such 
 qualms and hurried him unwilling on his way. 
 
 "Father," she said breathlessly, "Tatiana 
 has no objections and Ivan is going to arrange 
 it so that you can stay." Peter Efimovitch 
 raised his head quickly and listened as if he 
 had not heard aright. 
 
 "Who is going to arrange it?" he demanded. 
 
 "Ivan Nilof." The old man blew through 
 his nose disdainfully and his face relaxed into 
 a grin. He still retained the opinion of the 
 young man that he had gained through obser- 
 vation of his vacillating youth, and the thought 
 of leaning on him for assistance came to him 
 somewhat as a joke. 
 
 "I suspect," he said dryly, "that his inter- 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 99 
 
 cession will be worth about as much to me as the 
 thanks I shall give him in return and they 
 will not be large. " Ivan Egorovitch's face 
 flushed angrily at the unexpected insult and a 
 sharp answer rose up on his tongue. But Mo- 
 trya Petrovna was quicker than he. Her face 
 was redder than his with shame and she laid 
 her hand restrainingly on his arm. 
 
 " Don't, Ivan, for my sake!" she said ap- 
 pealingly, and in the same breath she turned 
 to the old man. 
 
 "Oh, how could you, how could you!" she 
 cried indignantly, "when he was simply trying 
 to be kind!" 
 
 Peter Efimovitch did not answer, but it was 
 plain from his face that he felt he had gone too 
 far. He sat for a moment looking moodily at the 
 ground and then, with an inarticulate snarl of 
 discontent, rose and went past them into the 
 house. Motrya Petrovna kept her hold on Ivan 
 Egorovitch until her father was fairly out of 
 sight. Then she raised her face to his with 
 tremulous lips and eyes that were ashamed. 
 
 "You will not mind him, will you, Ivan!" 
 she said coaxingly. "He is old and not well 
 and he oan not always hold his temper as he 
 
100 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 should." Ivan Egorovitch swallowed his in- 
 dignation bravely and showed a willingness to 
 be beguiled, 
 
 "I shall have no feeling," he said magnan- 
 imously, "but for a time, at least, I think I had 
 better go." 
 
 "But you will come back?" she cried, with 
 a shade of disappointment in her voice. Ivan 
 Egorovitch smiled down at her and took both 
 her hands. 
 
 "Have no fear of that, little sister," he said 
 reassuringly. "I am going now, simply be- 
 cause I have other things to do. I shall even 
 be back for the dinner that Tatiana Vassilievna 
 is about to cook. It is no new thing to me that 
 your father does not like me. That other time, 
 I was foolish enough to let him drive me out. 
 But now, I have tested the sweetness of your 
 friendship and unless you yourself insist upon 
 it, he shall not make me go." He raised her 
 hands affectionately and touched them to his 
 lips. Then, with a bow of grave politeness, he 
 released her and went whistling out along the 
 path. 
 
 He had several commissions on his list which 
 took him to different points about the camp, 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 101 
 
 and as the last of these he came to the barrack- 
 sheds and set himself to see how Simeon Gvos- 
 def fared. 
 
 The little priest had been a long time coming 
 out of his unconscious state, though he had 
 received no hurt more serious than bruises from 
 his headlong fall. They had carried him to his 
 appointed place in the warehouse and made him 
 as comfortable as possible upon his bed. All 
 the night he lay there as quiet as if he had been 
 dead and paid no heed to those who spoke to 
 him. What thoughts, if any, either of sorrow 
 or vengeance, came to him there was no way to 
 know. In the morning he opened his eyes and 
 asked for water, which with food was brought 
 to him and laid convenient to his hand. 
 
 He was conscious after this, but made no 
 effort to sit up or rise. Either he had suffered 
 some sort of stroke or had been stunned tem- 
 porarily by the horror of what he had just 
 gone through. It was probably the latter, be- 
 cause when Ivan Egorovitch came to him, he 
 knew him at once and made as if he wished to 
 speak to him. 
 
 1 ' What can I do for you, Simeon Gvosdef ?" 
 asked the young man kindly, bending above him 
 
102 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 to catch what he would say. "What is it that 
 you want?" The sick man made an ineffectual 
 effort to shake off the deadly physical weak- 
 ness that held him bound and looked up at Ivan 
 Egorovitch with wide-opened eyes. He real- 
 ized the uselessness of the struggle in his pres- 
 ent state and for the moment bent his energy 
 toward gaining strength. 
 
 "Brandy," he whispered, "give me brandy, 
 quick!" Ivan Egorovitch raised himself and 
 looked helplessly around. There was no liquor 
 closer at hand than the nearest house, but he 
 made up his mind on the thought and was swift 
 to act. 
 
 "You shall have it in a moment," he prom- 
 ised and was immediately on the way. When 
 he returned, the priest's eyes were shut and he 
 did not move, but Ivan Egorovitch raised his 
 head and poured some of the liquor between 
 his lips. The priest swallowed it unconsciously 
 and after a moment the color began to come 
 back into his cheeks. He opened his eyes and 
 made a feeble attempt to raise himself upright. 
 Ivan Egorovitch watched him with satisfaction, 
 and his lips parted in a smile. 
 
 "That is better, is it not?" he said cheer- 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 103 
 
 fully. * ; You will be all right now when you get 
 something to eat." Simeon Gvosdef did not 
 answer him, but kept his eyes fixed on him with 
 the same devouring look. 
 
 "What is it now?" asked the young man 
 curiously. The priest's mouth opened and he 
 breathed rather than spoke his words. 
 
 "Moissei what did they do with him?" he 
 demanded. 
 
 ' l They buried him. It was done immediately 
 after the service was through." The priest 
 closed his eyes and lay passively considering, 
 and after a moment the tears began to run from 
 under his shut lids. Then, with the accession 
 of strength that came with the little rest, he 
 opened his eyes suddenly and flashed their sol- 
 emn gaze again on the young man. 
 
 "The lieutenant " he said slowly, "what 
 have they done with him?" Ivan Egorovitch 
 did not clearly understand. 
 
 "Why, nothing," he said. "What did you 
 expect them to do?" The priest did not an- 
 swer, but remained as he was, without even try- 
 ing to wipe away his tears. 
 
 "I would like to see him," he said finally. 
 ' ' Do you think he would come ? ' ' 
 
104 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "If you wish it," returned the young man 
 obligingly, "I will go and see." 
 
 "Do!" said the other eagerly, and settled 
 down on his bed. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch went directly to the house 
 of the lieutenant, but found that he was not 
 at home. He guessed that Mikhail Etolin was 
 out on one of his irregular tours of inspection 
 among the men and, following after him, dis- 
 covered him with his coat off, working with the 
 group that was felling trees for the construc- 
 tion of houses for the new settlers at the post. 
 In few words he stated to the lieutenant the 
 wish of the priest that he should come. 
 
 "What does he want with me?" asked Mik- 
 hail Sergeievitch suspiciously. 
 
 "He did not say," returned the young man, 
 "but it was the only thing he did ask for and 
 I thought perhaps that you would want to go. ' ' 
 
 "Well," said the lieutenant, "I shall have 
 to have it out with him sooner or later and I 
 suppose it might as well be now. Come along, ' ' 
 he added, smoothing down his blouse. 
 
 Simeon Gvosdef was brighter when they 
 reached him and seemed to have more strength. 
 He had drunk the rest of the brandy and had 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 105 
 
 eaten some of the food that had been placed for 
 him beside his bed. He did not try to lift him- 
 self from where he lay, but acknowledged the 
 coming of the lieutenant, when he stood beside 
 him, with a lifting of the head which, if he had 
 been standing erect, would have been a bow of 
 courtesy and respect. 
 
 "You sent for me," said the lieutenant 
 stiffly. "What is it that you want?" For the 
 moment the priest did not answer, but remained 
 looking mournfully at Mikhail Sergeievitch and 
 murmuring inaudibly to himself. 
 
 "Why did you do it?" he asked tremulously, 
 when he got his lips into control. "Why did 
 you not tell me the truth?" Mikhail Etolin's 
 phlegmatic heaviness stood him in good stead 
 and, under the question, his big face remained 
 as stolid as a mask. 
 
 "You are not strong enough to worry about 
 this now," he answered. "Wait till you are 
 well and I will tell you everything I know. ' ' 
 
 "Did you kill him?" persisted the priest 
 searchingly. Mikhail Etolin's face stirred with 
 the first sign of feeling it had shown. 
 
 "No! Before God, I did not!" he cried with 
 earnestness. The only part of Simeon Gvosdef 
 
106 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 that seemed alive was his eyes, but they fastened 
 on Mikhail Etolin's face as if they would search 
 him to the bottom of his soul. For an unbear- 
 able moment the priest kept them thus steadily 
 fixed, and then let the lids shut slowly over them 
 again as if the search had ended for the time. 
 
 "I do not believe you, 7 ' he said simply. 
 "You did not tell me the truth before." He 
 lay back silently and turned away his head, and 
 the fat man began to breathe more quickly as 
 his excitement rose. 
 
 "Why did you send for me, then," he 
 wheezed, "if you can not believe me, now that 
 I am come?" The priest's eyes opened again 
 with startling suddenness and fixed themselves 
 as before on Mikhail Etolin's face. 
 
 "Why did I send for you, Mikhail Etolinf " 
 he repeated in his low, even voice. "Because 
 I wanted to tell you what I am here to do. God 
 is going to punish you, Mikhail Etolin, and you 
 are going to die." 
 
 He paused a moment to regain his breath and 
 in the respite the lieutenant crossed himself 
 vigorously twice. He was not a superstitious 
 man, but the strangeness of the affair and the 
 sinister threat of evil to himself stirred him 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 107 
 
 mechanically to be on his guard. The priest's 
 eyes opened almost at once and he began again 
 in his slow, colorless speech. 
 
 "I do not know where I was all this last 
 dreadful night, " he said solemnly, "whether 
 with God or here. But wherever it was, I saw 
 Him there and I know that what I tell you now 
 is true. You are going to die, Mikhail Etolin, 
 and if you want the proof, it is that I was not al- 
 lowed to die last night, but was sent back here 
 to see that the happening surely comes to pass. 
 I know now how it is to come and when, but 
 I will not tell you yet. The shadow of it I 
 know is over you from this time. You will not 
 need to watch for it. It will be only days be- 
 fore it will begin to come to you so that you 
 yourself will see." The strain of the long 
 speech exhausted him and he lay back breath- 
 lessly upon the bed. He was still so long that 
 Mikhail Etolin thought he was done. 
 
 ' ' Well, is that all ? " he said finally. His tone 
 was defiant, but his voice was husky and con- 
 strained. Simeon Gvosdef collected himself 
 for a final effort and spoke with a conviction 
 that could not be misunderstood. 
 
 "No," he said determinedly, "that is not 
 
108 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 all. I have yet to tell you what it is that has 
 been given me to do. God has made me His 
 instrument in this matter, Mikhail Etolin, and 
 I am to pray for it every day until it comes. 
 Among the things I brought here for the church 
 there is a service bell. To-night at six I shall 
 ring it so that you will hear and to-morrow 
 morning it will ring again. And so at noon 
 and then to-morrow night. Every day until 
 the end it will be rung three times so long as 
 I have strength, and every time it rings I shall 
 pray to God and you will know that I am 
 praying to God that He will keep His promise, 
 that your punishment shall come ! ' ' 
 
 He had worked himself into such a fever of 
 excitement that there was almost inspiration in 
 his haggard look, and as he finished the last 
 words he lifted himself from the pillow and 
 pointed at Mikhail Etolin with a sternly accus- 
 ing hand. He remained thus for a moment, 
 propping himself by his arm. Then he fell back 
 again, a pathetic, shrunken heap upon the bed. 
 
 "I am done," he said, and turned himself 
 resolutely to the wall. Mikhail Etolin stood 
 looking at him for a time in silence and then 
 moved away to where Ivan Egorovitch stood. 
 
I shall pray to God Uiat your punishment shall come ! " 
 
 Page 1 08 
 
SIMEON FINDS A MISSION 109 
 
 He was startled and somewhat shaken by the 
 prophecy made against him, although he was 
 too practical a man to hold it seriously in be- 
 lief. Ivan Egorovitch was much more im- 
 pressed and showed his perturbation in his 
 face. 
 
 "The man is not himself, " said the lieuten- 
 ant in a low tone. "He will look at the mat- 
 ter differently when once we get him well." 
 
 He beckoned Ivan Egorovitch with his head, 
 moving with him to the door, and once outside, 
 the two men went along together on the way. 
 The lieutenant was in no mood for talking, 
 and Ivan Egorovitch did not dare to break in 
 on his thought. At the parting of the paths, 
 however, Mikhail Etolin stopped and spoke of 
 his own accord. 
 
 "You had better, perhaps, say nothing of 
 this matter, " he said slowly. "The man is a 
 fool or insane, but some people might be su- 
 perstitious about it and I would rather it would 
 not be talked over among the men." 
 
CHAPTEE VI 
 
 THE KINGING OF THE BELL 
 
 Mikhail Etolin was not a man of wide imagi- 
 nation, and Simeon Gvosdef's prophecy failed 
 to impress itself on him as it might have 
 done on one of a more sensitive mind. But 
 the sincerity of the priest, the unusual solem- 
 nity that attached to the delivery of the warn- 
 ing because of his weakened condition of body 
 as he spoke, and, perhaps, more than all, the 
 superstitious fear of the power of evil that 
 is an undercurrent universal in the Eussian 
 soul, conspired to impress the message on him 
 so that it remained a distinct recollection, 
 
 As he went about his work he had the uneasy 
 consciousness of knowing that the thing was 
 there, though the impression was not strong 
 enough to render him especially disturbed. As 
 far as he was able, he dismissed the matter 
 from his conscious thought and when it came 
 to him unconsciously, he found no serious diffi- 
 
 110 
 
THE SINGING OF THE BELL 111 
 
 culty in putting forth the effort of will that 
 was needed to set it aside. Yet in spite 
 of all endeavor he could not blot it entirely 
 from his mind, and as the time moved on toward 
 six o 'clock, he found himself wondering vaguely 
 whether the priest would really carry out his 
 threat. 
 
 "He is too sick," he said to himself, "and 
 besides, if he comes to his senses and is not, he 
 will be of a different mind." 
 
 He loosened his garments and sat down as 
 usual before the door of his house for his even- 
 ing cup of tea. The fog still filled the nearer 
 spaces so that he could not see the warehouse 
 or the dwellings beyond. But with the cessa- 
 tion of the work about the post, there had 
 fallen a silence so complete that he could hear 
 the roar of the ice as it broke from the edge 
 of the glacier and fell into the water at the 
 farther limit of the bay. 
 
 It was too still for comfort in his present 
 mood, though, without loneliness, he had been 
 conscious of the silence many times before ; and 
 it was a welcome interruption therefore when 
 his servant came outside to him and called him 
 to his evening meal. 
 
112 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 He rose with his usual deliberation and 
 turned out the remaining liquid from his cup. 
 He shook the dish sharply to expel the final 
 drops, and then in the motion, remained fixed 
 with head pushed forward and arm out- 
 stretched for suddenly, without warning, there 
 came to him the sound of Simeon Gvosdef 's bell. 
 
 It was evidently not a large bell, for the 
 volume of its sound was neither deep nor great. 
 But in the evening stillness its finer tone lost 
 none of its distinctness through being small, and 
 it seemed to Mikhail Etolin as if it might be 
 heard for miles. He knew, too, that he could 
 not be mistaken in the matter, in that up to this 
 time there had been no other bell about the 
 post. 
 
 For a moment he stood there motionless, with 
 a queer sensation of tightness about the heart. 
 The bell was being tolled rather than rung, and 
 there was something so oppressive in its long 
 plaintive note that Mikhail Etolin, hearing it, 
 felt his spirits sink within him whether he 
 would or not. 
 
 Then he came to himself with a start and 
 looked hastily from side to side to see if he 
 had been observed. He found no watcher spy- 
 
THE RINGING OF THE BELL 113 
 
 ing on his fear and, with a shake of his great 
 body, as if to rid himself of an uncanny pos- 
 session, he turned his back on the irritating 
 sound and went stolidly into the house. 
 
 He sat down at the table and poured himself 
 a glass of brandy, more generous than usual, 
 to warm his blood and give himself an appetite 
 for the meal. There had come, on the bidarka, 
 certain luxuries, besides the usual and necessary 
 stores, and his cook, taking advantage of the 
 opportunity, had made for him some of the 
 three-cornered dumplings filled with cheese, of 
 which he was inordinately fond; and on the 
 table beside them, he found a dish of salted 
 cucumbers, the first he had seen for months. 
 His eyes glistened as they rested on the food 
 and he grinned as he transferred the first in- 
 stalment to his plate. 
 
 "I may be going to die/' he said to himself, 
 "but, it will not be from lack of decent food." 
 
 He quite enjoyed himself in the heat of the 
 attack and for some time forgot practically 
 the canker that was preying on his mind. When 
 it did come back, it took the form of curiosity 
 as to what had happened at the warehouse when 
 the priest began to ring. 
 
114 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 It was a foregone conclusion that the sound 
 would draw spectators to the scene, and he 
 found himself wondering if the priest had gone 
 further than to ring the bell. 
 
 If, as in his prophecy he had advised him 
 he would do, Simeon Gvosdef simply followed 
 up his ringing with a prayer, those who had 
 come to gaze would go away but little wiser for 
 their pains. But if the spirit moved him to 
 repeat in public the warning he had before pri- 
 vately bestowed, the men were so ignorant and 
 superstitious that the effect would not be toward 
 good either for him or them. 
 
 The more he thought of it the more he was 
 convinced that it was a thing to receive at- 
 tention, that the priest should not relate his 
 story to the men, if only that his authority over 
 them should not be impaired. He got up from 
 the table and went to listen at the door. The 
 sound of the bell had ceased some time before 
 and there was nothing unusual to reward the 
 attention he gave. 
 
 "It is probably all done," he said to himself 
 moodily, ' ' and I could not change it by going out 
 there now." He came back to the table and 
 stood drumming on it with his fingers' ends 
 
THE EsTHE BELL 115 
 
 and looked irresolutely at the place where he 
 had sat. 
 
 ' i I had practically finished anyhow, ' ' he mur- 
 mured absently. "I hope he has not spread it 
 to the camp." 
 
 But Simeon Gvosdef was not the man to hurt 
 by silence a cause so near his heart. When 
 Mikhail Etolin came close enough to the ware- 
 house so the mist no longer hid its front, he saw 
 that a group of from ten to fifteen men was 
 already gathered there before the door. 
 
 Between them and the building was the priest. 
 He was kneeling with his face upturned as if 
 in prayer, but though his lips moved constantly, 
 Mikhail Etolin could hear no sound and it was 
 evident to him that the people were waiting to 
 see what he would do next, rather than listening 
 to what he said. 
 
 The men in the group recognized the lieuten- 
 ant almost as soon as he saw them, and there 
 was an immediate stir among them of a sort that 
 showed something unusual had occurred. Mik- 
 hail Etolin 's red face grew redder as he realized 
 that he had come too late. Under his gaze, the 
 onlookers began to stand farther apart from one 
 another and one by one to slip quietly away. 
 
116 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 The lieutenant watched them with an irri- 
 tation he did not attempt to quell. His first 
 thought was to order the priest under arrest 
 and so make an end to the affair at once, but 
 cooler judgment held him back lest he should 
 appear to make too much of an action that 
 he was not yet sure was criminal in intent. The 
 only course that on the moment seemed a fit 
 one was to question those who had been present 
 and from their statements determine on a plan. 
 
 By the time he had decided what to do, there 
 were only two or three of the bystanders who 
 still stood their ground. Of these he singled 
 out Stepan Dmitrievitch, who was the nearest 
 by, and beckoning him, went with him a little 
 space apart. 
 
 "What is the trouble?" he demanded fret- 
 fully. ' ' Why are these people gathered here ! ' ' 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch was palpably disturbed 
 and showed his perturbation in his face. 
 
 "It was because of the bell, your Well-born," 
 he said, casting down his eyes. "They came 
 to see why it was rung." The lieutenant him- 
 self felt a sudden embarrassment, as if Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch must be aware he had been already 
 warned. 
 
THE RINGING OF THE BELL 117 
 
 "Why was it rung?" he asked with difficulty. 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch shifted awkwardly on his 
 feet and manifestly chose his words. 
 
 "It was because Simeon Gvosdef had some- 
 thing he felt he should announce. He has had 
 a vision. ' ' 
 
 "A vision 1" 
 
 ' ' Yes, a warning which, while he was lying on 
 his bed there, was sent to him from God. ' ' 
 
 Mikhail Etolin's self-consciousness made it a 
 struggle with him to appear properly uncon- 
 cerned. He kept his eyes suspiciously on his 
 companion, but Stepan Dmitrievitch was him- 
 self so disturbed that he should be the bearer of 
 bad news, that he kept his own glance on the 
 ground and made no observation of Mikhail- 
 Sergeievitch 's face. The lieutenant waited till 
 he could hold his voice so it would not shake. 
 
 "For whom was this warning given?" he said 
 slowly. "For himself V 
 
 "No, your Well-born," said the young man 
 faintly, " it was for you. " 
 
 "Forme!" 
 
 "Yes, for you. He said that God told him 
 you were going to die. ' ' 
 
 In spite of the fact that he had known before- 
 
118 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 hand what the priest's prophecy must have 
 been, Mikhail Etolin felt a shiver run over him 
 and experienced again the same uneasy tight- 
 ness at the heart. His face, however, did not 
 change, and he turned to the other with a shrug 
 of disbelief. 
 
 1 1 Bah ! " he said impatiently. ' ' One does not 
 believe in foolishness like that!" 
 
 The young man's face grew more grave. He 
 lost the fear of what he had to tell, now that the 
 thing was told, and was only solicitous for the 
 other's good. 
 
 "How can one be sure, Mikhail Sergeie- 
 vitch?" he said seriously. "It is certainly a 
 truth to Simeon Gvosdef , and having been told, 
 it would be foolish not to be prepared." His 
 simple faith jarred on the lieutenant, the more 
 that he did not like to admit even to himself 
 that his own fear had been touched. 
 
 "Look at me!" he cried angrily. "Do I 
 seem like one about to die?" The young man 
 raised his eyes and looked him over with a smile. 
 
 "You are a strong man, your Well-born," he 
 said simply, "and there are many others of us 
 here that would seem more sure to be the first 
 to go. But if God has willed it, it will come, 
 
THE SINGING OF THE BELL 119 
 
 and what will you do if, after a little, you should 
 find the change coming to you as he has said?" 
 The lieutenant's glance rose to him sharply 
 and his voice was abrupt in his demand. 
 
 ' ' What change V ' he insisted sternly. < ' What 
 was it that he said?" His sudden warmth 
 seemed to Stepan Dmitrievitch no more than 
 the awakening of interest proper in the case and 
 he noted it without surprise. 
 
 "It was very little," he said, "beyond the 
 fact that the thing would positively come. Of 
 that he was sure and also that it would not be 
 long delayed. ' ' 
 
 A pregnant question framed itself on Mikhail 
 Sergeievitch's lips, but he hesitated long before 
 he put it into words. Finally, however, his in- 
 terest got the better of his desire to appear un- 
 moved and he let it out, speaking slowly and im- 
 personally and with as strong an expression of 
 impassivity as he was able to command. 
 
 "Was there then no revelation as to how the 
 thing would come?" he asked. 
 
 "Only this much, that if we would know it 
 in its coming we should watch you as you 
 breathed." Mikhail Etolin received the infor- 
 mation with a puzzled stare. His mind went 
 
120 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 floundering among the probabilities like a 
 hooked fish, turning blindly this way and that, 
 and striving with sullen irritation to shake off 
 this new bond that threatened to hold him in. 
 
 "But I breathe all the time!" he said resent- 
 fully. 
 
 "Of course," returned the young man, "but 
 within a fortnight he said we should see a 
 change." The lieutenant considered the prop- 
 osition thoughtfully. 
 
 "Well," he said with a tinge of quiet con- 
 tempt, "when the change comes I shall believe. 
 In the meantime if you see it and I do not, I 
 shall depend on you to let me know!" He 
 bowed stiffly and Stepan Dmitrievitch under- 
 stood that the interview was at an end. Bow- 
 ing respectfully in turn, he saluted awkwardly 
 and went away, leaving the lieutenant watch- 
 ing him much as if he had detected him in the 
 commission of some petty crime. 
 
 When Mikhail Etolin turned again, the place 
 was clear and there was no one there except the 
 priest. He was still on his knees in prayer and 
 the lieutenant, hesitating to break in on his 
 devotions, waited impatiently till he should be 
 done. But even then he was thwarted in bring- 
 
THE EINGING OF THE BELL 121 
 
 ing Simeon Gvosdef to speech. The priest saw 
 him as he rose, faced him fearlessly, and be- 
 fore the lieutenant could begin what he had to 
 say, commenced himself to speak. 
 
 " You see it has begun, Mikhail Sergeievitch, " 
 he said with a sort of solemn joy, "but it is not 
 with me you must make your peace. It is with 
 God ! ' ' He raised his hand significantly as he 
 spoke and before the lieutenant could stir his 
 slow tongue to reply he turned about and went 
 swiftly into the house. 
 
 Had he shown in his manner the smallest 
 touch of maliciousness or spite, Mikhail Etolin 
 would have known, without consideration, what 
 measures he should take. But the priest's face 
 reflected nothing but conviction and inspired be- 
 lief, and the lieutenant stood in perplexed si- 
 lence, finding no illuminating thought to guide 
 him as he watched him disappear from sight. 
 
 The next morning at sunrise the priest rang 
 the bell again, but this time Mikhail Etolin made 
 no sign. When it rang at noon, he sent for 
 Ivan Egorovitch. 
 
 "I want you to get the bell from Simeon 
 Gvosdef, " he said to him. "Do it quietly and 
 without his knowledge if you can. It makes me 
 
122 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 nervous when I hear it ring." It was a relief 
 to him thus to decide on something definite, even 
 though the accomplishment ran to an instru- 
 ment rather than a cause. He worked with bet- 
 ter spirit during the afternoon and was pom- 
 pously jocular with the men. It was almost six 
 when Ivan Egorovitch came to him again and 
 he saw that the young man had empty hands. 
 
 ' ' Well, where is it ? " he demanded testily. ' < I 
 thought I told you to bring it here to me!" 
 Ivan Egorovitch shrugged his shoulders and 
 threw up his palms. 
 
 "He was too sharp for us, your Well-born," 
 he said apologetically. "I spent no little time 
 in searching his effects and only now I found 
 that he has tied the clapper and is carrying it 
 with him hung around his neck." The lieu- 
 tenant gave an exclamation of impatience and 
 drew down his brows. 
 
 "Damn him!" he said, "I never thought of 
 that!" Then some humor of the situation 
 struck him and he grinned ruefully. 
 
 "He knows I can not use force," he com- 
 plained, "so I suppose he has us for the time. 
 But keep an open eye out for him, and lose no 
 chance if he once sets it down. ' ' 
 
THE RINGING OF THE BELL 123 
 
 Simeon Gvosdef was cautious and gave no 
 opportunity for theft. The bell remained with 
 him always and rang three times a day. Mik- 
 hail Etolin made no further sign of his displeas- 
 ure beyond an order, cutting the priest out from 
 the company mess. 
 
 "There is no church for service, " he said, 
 "ancl the company only pays for what it gets. 
 Let the priest work at something like the oth- 
 ers, and then I will see that he is fed." 
 
 Such work with Simeon Gvosdef, however, 
 was hopelessly beyond his strength. He had 
 risen promptly from his bed of sickness and the 
 strain he had gone through seemed to have left 
 him with no special bodily ill. But from the 
 time of his awakening, his mind remained con- 
 fused and dull and he spent his time wandering 
 aimlessly from place to place, unable apparently 
 to concentrate his energies on anything in the 
 way of practical accomplishment. 
 
 The only thing in which he showed full inter- 
 est and a normal mind, was the carrying-out of 
 the scheme of vengeance he had determined 
 on for the killing of his son. No weakness 
 of memory was great enough to make him for- 
 getful of the times to ring his bell. He wan- 
 
124 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 dered widely, and sometimes its notes came 
 down from the silence of the woods above or 
 from a boat, or more often from the wooded 
 island in the bay. His boy had been buried in 
 this latter place beside the unfortunate sailors 
 of La Perouse's ship, and near his grave he 
 spent a large portion of his time. 
 
 But he was as punctual with his ringing as a 
 clock, and it became a habit with him to follow 
 Mikhail Etolin as he went his rounds and stand 
 and watch him for the evidences of change 
 which should show that the lieutenant's pun- 
 ishment had begun. It was a slim and precari- 
 ous living for him at the start, but the men 
 about him, though through fear of the lieu- 
 tenant they did not dare openly to divide with 
 him their meals, saw to it humanely that he did 
 not starve. But when Tatiana Vassilievna had 
 news of it, she did not hesitate to speak her 
 mind. 
 
 "The lieutenant is a beast!" she declared 
 indignantly. "If I had a soul like that, I would 
 be afraid to show myself with my body off be- 
 fore Saint Peter at the gate! He'd never see 
 me! I shall send for Mikhail Etolin and tell 
 him what I think!" She deferred the inter- 
 
THE EINGING OF THE BELL 125 
 
 view, however, for the household about her 
 was strong in its counsel for patience and 
 delay. It was with a distinct reservation, 
 though, that she finally agreed. 
 
 "If he does not mind his ways, I will boil 
 his kettle for him yet," she said defiantly. 
 
 This much at least she accomplished, that a 
 family council was called on the spot to deter- 
 mine how best they could be of aid. There were 
 present at it, both women, Peter Efimovitch and 
 the two young men. Tatiana felt entirely free 
 to speak her mind. She went into the nature 
 and personal characteristics of the lieutenant 
 with searching and objurgatory frankness, and 
 with half a finger measured up the shallow 
 depth of his heart. She left no detail to the 
 imagination in the explosive statement of her 
 disesteem, and met with contumely and scorn 
 all suggestions from the others in palliation 
 or defense. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch was practically the only one 
 to make any stand against the storm. His 
 blood-brother had knowledge from which he 
 might have spoken if he would, but he did not, 
 like Ivan Egorovitch, stand in close personal 
 relation to the lieutenant and, besides, his 
 
126 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 slower nature made him inert in quick reply. 
 But Ivan Egorovitch was sufficiently just in his 
 judgments to feel that Mikhail Etolin was not 
 wholly bad, and, besides, had at all times on his 
 tongue the ready word to help a friend. 
 
 "You are too harsh, Tatiana Vassilievna, ' ' 
 he said when he could get a chance to speak. 
 "Mikhail Sergeievitch ought not to have made 
 this order, but he is by no means bad at heart. ' ' 
 Zakar Medvedef 's wife sniffed disdainfully and 
 drew up her nose. 
 
 ' ' Now do not talk like that, ' ' she said reprov- 
 ingly. "I wager he is not quite as spotless as a 
 new moon!" Ivan Egoroviteh laughed and 
 Motrya Petrovna came promptly to his aid. 
 
 "Ivan is right, Tatiana," she said with a 
 soft glance at the young man. ' l He knows Mik- 
 hail Sergeievitch better than we do and perhaps 
 is better fitted to tell us how to go to work. 
 That really, I suppose, is what we have to think 
 about in the end." Ivan Egorovitch smiled 
 gratefully at her and Stepan Dmitrievitch found 
 his slower speech. 
 
 "The thing is a disgrace!" he said earnestly. 
 "It should be protested against at least, it 
 seems to me." Peter Efimovitch nodded vigor- 
 
THE RINGING OF THE BELL 127 
 
 ously and made an inarticulate mumble of as- 
 sent. He had taken a liking to Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch as strong as was his dislike for his 
 younger and more volatile blood-brother, and 
 in questions of policy or debate was commonly 
 on his side. 
 
 "Let him know it!" he said grimly. "Let 
 him see that he must rule with a decent hand. ' ' 
 
 "I do not think, though, Peter Efimovitch," 
 said Ivan Egorovitch deprecatingly, "that it 
 would be well to antagonize him further by what 
 we do. I believe we could arrange it without 
 that. ' ' The old man threw up his hands in un- 
 gracious assent. 
 
 "Oh, well!" he said. "If you have a 
 plan " The young man flushed as he always 
 did under Peter Efimovitch 's implied irony. 
 
 "It is not that," he protested. "But there 
 must be a way " 
 
 "What is it, Ivan!" said Motrya encourag- 
 ingly. 
 
 i ' This, if anything, ' ' he answered. ' ' Mikhail 
 Etolin can in no way object to Simeon Gvos- 
 def's earning his living as a priest, and I 
 thought perhaps we could furnish him the 
 way. ' ' 
 
128 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Of course we can!" cried the young girl 
 enthusiastically. " It is a good idea ! ' ' 
 
 "I am not so sure," said Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 cautiously, "unless we start him regularly by 
 building him a church. We have so few occa- 
 sions that would count. ' ' 
 
 "Nobody to be married and nobody to be 
 born, ' ' chimed in Peter Efimovitch like an echo. 
 "There are not enough stole fees here to sup- 
 port a cat!" Tatiana Vassilievna's face re- 
 laxed into a smile. 
 
 "If Mikhail Etolin would only die," she said 
 with a sigh of longing, ' ' I feel now as if I would 
 contribute his burial costs myself. Not if he 
 does it on a holiday, though, ' ' she added hastily. 
 "My husband's brother, once, died during the 
 ' bright week' and it cost us two roubles extra 
 for the special prayers." Peter Efimovitch 
 turned again to Ivan Egorovitch. 
 
 "Well," he said, "what ceremony do you pro- 
 pose to invent to make your plan here a suc- 
 cess?" 
 
 "There is always some fee proper for con- 
 fession," replied the young man thoughtfully, 
 "and it is more than a year since most of us 
 have confessed. But the thing I had particu- 
 
THE RINGING OF THE BELL 129 
 
 larly in mind was to have him bless the new 
 houses as they are built. There will be a num- 
 ber of them before we are all housed and by that 
 time I think we could get him up a church. " 
 
 "Of course !" exclaimed Motrya Petrovna. 
 "I knew it would be a good plan." Tatiana 
 Vassilievna beamed affectionately on her. 
 
 "Oh, you two are always hatching nest-eggs," 
 she said in mock derision. ' l But what is he to 
 do till we are ready to begin!" 
 
 "Why, the addition to this house will be ready 
 in two days," cried the girl enthusiastically. 
 
 "And up to that time," added Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch, "I will see to it that Simeon Gvosdef does 
 not starve." 
 
 "Well, have it your own way, then," said 
 Tatiana Yassilievna, "but I would like to tell 
 Mikhail Sergeievitch what is on my mind ! ' ' she 
 added with a sigh. Ivan Egorovitch turned to 
 Motrya Petrovna with the pleasure of his tri- 
 umph shining in his eyes. 
 
 "Thank you," he said, "for being of my 
 mind, and since you are the one most interested 
 with me in this affair, will you go with me now 
 and help me to make the arrangement with the 
 priest?" 
 
130 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 ' ' Of course, ' ' she answered promptly. Then, 
 with a look at Tatiana Vassilievna, she added 
 hesitatingly, "That is, if it will not take too 
 long/' 
 
 ' ' I think we shall find him at the warehouse, ' ' 
 said the young man. "But in any case I must 
 be back to report to Mikhail Etolin within an 
 hour." 
 
 Tatiana Yassilievna graciously nodded an as- 
 sent and the girl detained him only till she could 
 get a hat. She was dressed in a simple gown 
 of some soft gray material and had a knot of 
 color at her throat. Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 watched the couple enviously as he saw them 
 go, and Ivan Egorovitch assumed possession of 
 the girl with the easy familiarity that came 
 from close acquaintance with her as a child. 
 
 "You are very pretty to-day," he said, as he 
 looked her up and down. "I am glad that I 
 have got you away from the others and am go- 
 ing to have you to myself. ' ' She blushed a lit- 
 tle at the boldness of the compliment, but was 
 too accustomed to his teasing either to be 
 ashamed or to take offense. 
 
 "If you would make the weather brighter," 
 she said gaily, "you could have me much more 
 
THE RINGING OF THE BELL 131 
 
 than you do. And it would be a good thing for 
 me, too, in that I should be wanting you to come 
 to take me and so would be trying to be pretty 
 all the time." His eyes rested on her with an 
 intensity of interest that was not wholly shad- 
 owed back to him from hers. 
 
 "You laugh at me," he said as they walked 
 along. ' i Do you really know how much it is to 
 me to have you here 1 ' ' She looked up at him 
 with cheerful seriousness in her face. 
 
 "I know that it is very much to me to have 
 you here," she answered, "and that it would 
 be more than lonesome if I found you gone. 
 Why, then, can you not believe that I know you 
 find the same comfort in thinking it about me ? ' ' 
 
 They had come to the warehouse and saw that 
 Simeon Gvosdef was sitting at the door. 
 
 "I will tell you in a moment," he said under 
 his breath, and they went on in silence till they 
 came to where Simeon Gvosdef sat. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch made no disclosure of their 
 plan, but simply asked the priest if he would 
 come and bless the house at the appointed time. 
 Simeon Gvosdef was suspicious at the first, his 
 memory connecting Ivan Egorovitch too closely 
 with the man who, he believed, had killed his 
 
132 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 son. But the girPs entreaties, added to the rep- 
 resentations of the young man, made their way 
 convincingly to his heart and in the end he 
 agreed graciously to what they asked. When 
 they had left him, the girl turned to Ivan 
 Egorovitch with a sigh. 
 
 "I suppose we must go back now," she said 
 resignedly, but there was a tinge of regret in 
 her tone. 
 
 "Not at all!" he answered positively. ~ "I 
 am going to take you first up to the higher 
 ground. ' ' 
 
 "But we can not see anything to-day," she 
 objected. 
 
 6 ' That has nothing to do with it. I have you 
 now and I want you with me for the hour 
 that was allowed. I am not going to give you 
 up." As he spoke he changed his course 
 abruptly to one side, and she turned and fol- 
 lowed him without a word. He was the first 
 lover to attempt authority over her and she 
 found a pleasurable thrill in thus letting her- 
 self bend to his will. 
 
 It was only a few moments before they passed 
 out of the clearing and into the heavy woods. 
 It was not a pleasing place altogether, for the 
 
THE KINGING OF THE BELL 133 
 
 underbrush was damp and clammy and from 
 the trees the fog dripped with a constant patter, 
 like rain. The path was wide and roomy, but 
 Motrya Petrovna noticed that as Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch walked beside her, his hand always 
 touched, hers as she went, and that, when she 
 stood still, he remained so close to her that it 
 was still against her arm. 
 
 "Why do you always touch me like that, 
 Ivan?" she asked curiously. He flushed a little 
 at the question, but looked at her with searching 
 eyes. 
 
 "Do I?" he said with some self -conscious- 
 ness. He remained looking at her thoughtfully 
 for some moments as if probing the matter in 
 his mind. 
 
 "I suspect I do, little sister," he said finally, 
 "and do you really want me to tell you why?" 
 He turned her to him, taking both her hands. 
 "Look in my eyes," he said. "Perhaps you 
 will find the answer there." She met his gaze 
 frankly and without turning away her own, but 
 the color in her cheeks grew deeper and mounted 
 slowly until it reached her hair. 
 
 "You mean that you care?" she said softly. 
 
 6 ' Yes, ' ' he answered, ' ' so very much that I am 
 
134 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 no longer happy when I can not come to you." 
 The girl looked at him thoughtfully and con- 
 sidered in her turn. 
 
 "Why, I do not feel like that toward you," 
 she said with appalling frankness. "I am fond 
 of you and love your friendship. But it is not 
 a need with me a thing I feel like that. ' ' He 
 gave a little nervous laugh of disappointment. 
 
 "You will feel it sometime," he said mood- 
 ily, "either for me or for some other man. It 
 was too soon to tell you, but you tempted me 
 with your eyes. I am glad, though, that I have 
 told you, for now you will know what it means 
 to me and it will remind you that sometime you 
 are going to waken to the same dear tenderness 
 for me." He had dropped one of her hands 
 and, as he spoke, stood stroking the other with 
 both of his. She listened to him passively and 
 without attempting to move. 
 
 "There is only one thing that can prevent 
 it," he went on slowly, "and that is that you 
 already have the feeling for some other man." 
 She lifted her eyes till they looked honestly into 
 his. 
 
 "I have never had it toward any one, Ivan," 
 she declared earnestly. 
 
THE RINGING OF THE BELL 135 
 
 "Not even toward Stepan Dmitrievitch ? " he 
 said with a twinge of recollection. 
 
 ' ' Oh him ! ' ' she answered, forgetting, in her 
 desire to satisfy this importunate questioner, 
 that he had no right to ask. "I like him, of 
 course, and he is good to me, but that is all. ' ' 
 
 "And has he, too, told you that he cared?" 
 She was slow this time in answer, but it was 
 plain there was nothing she wished to conceal. 
 
 "Yes," she said bravely. "He wanted to, 
 but I would not let him much." A wave of 
 jealousy ran over the young man and he fairly 
 lost his head. 
 
 "And did you let him hold your hands?" he 
 asked searchingly. The girl responded by 
 drawing her hands swiftly from his grasp. 
 
 "I shall not tell you," she said indignantly. 
 "You have no right to ask." She put both her 
 hands behind her and stepped back quickly till 
 the path was between him and her. 
 
 "Let us not talk any more about it," she said 
 more kindly. e ' Come, it is time we were going 
 back." 
 
 She turned and started down the path and 
 left him to follow as he would. It was only a 
 moment before he closed the space between 
 
136 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 them and began the effort to make atonement 
 for his fault. She was firm, however, in her 
 decision not to talk and only answered when he 
 spoke of other things. But the- greatest grief 
 for him, in her behavior, lay in the fact that, 
 from the first of the journey back, she kept a 
 distance persistently between them so that at no 
 time could he touch her hand. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 
 
 Elijah's Day fulfilled its promise and brought 
 the expected change. The low-lying fog that 
 for a week had stretched itself between the little 
 village and the sky went raveling out in long 
 gray scarfs before the rising southern wind. 
 There was a pleasant stir in everything and 
 even the shallowest waters of the bay showed 
 blue with the reflection from above. In the 
 clean atmosphere one could see for miles, and 
 distant objects lost their true perspective and 
 came out distinct and clear. And so the look- 
 out, early at his post, made out the boat that 
 was to bring the remainder of the settlers down 
 from Yakutat, some hour's before it would other- 
 wise have come within his ken. 
 
 Before the fact was cried, Ivan Egorovitch 
 had gone with those whose work it was to begin 
 the selection of the places for the autumn traps, 
 and so was absent from the post. But from the 
 
 137 
 
138 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 higher ground, he saw the coming craft almost 
 as soon as did the lookout below, and watched 
 it to its landing with resentful discontent. 
 
 The force of habit lingers, long after it has 
 been consciously set aside ; and having for years 
 set up for himself Varenka Petrovna as a vital 
 need, Ivan Egorovitch could not thus look down 
 on the boat that was bringing her to the post, 
 without some little flutter of the pulse. It was 
 not longing and it was not pain. His heart had 
 turned too surely to the younger girl to make 
 it these. But there was still room for wonder 
 as to whether, when he saw her, she would be as 
 she was before, and what would be her greeting 
 and what she would have to say. 
 
 He was not quite sure whether he was wholly 
 at ease about this first meeting with his former 
 love. If as Motrya had said Varenka had 
 really suffered from his ungallant relinquish- 
 ment of pursuit, it might be uncomfortable, to 
 say the least, to have her at the post. And yet, 
 with the unconscious egotism of youth, he 
 wished that she might really show some evi- 
 dences of blight and he felt a secret comfort in 
 figuring what these blemishes might be. 
 
 He could see the small boats, like flies on 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 139 
 
 the water, go crawling back and forth between 
 the bidarka and the shore; and then the indis- 
 tinct movement at the landing which revealed 
 that the new-comers were being separated and 
 distributed to their various places of abode. 
 But there was nothing more that he could make 
 out certainly and after a time he went moodily 
 back to his work. 
 
 The labor had been planned to fill a day, but 
 the circuit laid out had been small, and many of 
 the places proposed proved, on examination, 
 so unsatisfactory that he did not dare to use 
 them without first making a report. And so, 
 not to his dissatisfaction, by early noon, he 
 found himself among the new-comers who had 
 taken his attention there above. There was dis- 
 taste rather than eagerness in the thought of 
 coming on Varenka Petrovna except in his own 
 time and way, and so when the clearing was 
 reached, instead of following out the usual path, 
 he turned aside and skirted round by a more 
 hidden way, so as to reach his own dwelling 
 from the rear. 
 
 He paused for a moment before going in, to 
 have a hasty look around the camp. There 
 was nothing about the house where he had for- 
 
140 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 merly lived to show that it harbored any other 
 than the people he had left in it that morning 
 when he went away. He listened for some evi- 
 dence of life, but there was not even a sound of 
 voices, except that, for a short moment, he fan- 
 cied he caught the baby's fretful cry. 
 
 "They are at dinner," he thought, and with 
 a sigh that was an expression of his vague lone- 
 liness and regret, he turned about and went 
 quickly into the house. 
 
 Once inside, he stopped and looked around 
 him in astonishment. There was no one there, 
 but the floor was littered over with packages 
 and stores and near the center, half unpacked, 
 lay a great pile of covers for a bed. He looked 
 the stuff over with growing curiosity. 
 
 "Stepan and I are to have companions," he 
 said to himself. "I wonder who they are." 
 He picked his way through the confusion and 
 opened the door into the other room ; and, as if 
 in answer to his thought, he saw that it had an 
 occupant and that he had come on her quite 
 unawares. 
 
 At the farther side, where the light from the 
 open door would shine on the person using it, a 
 little mirror had been hung. And before this 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 141 
 
 stood a woman, with her hands above her head, 
 engaged in putting the final touches to the ar- 
 rangement of her hair. Her back was turned 
 toward him, but he did not need to see her face 
 to know her for the one who, for the greater 
 part of the long morning, had occupied his 
 thought. 
 
 His first instinct was to close the door as 
 softly as he had opened it and retire without 
 being seen. But some change in her demeanor 
 apprised him that she had heard him come and 
 was conscious of his presence, though she did 
 not immediately turn her head. Instead, she 
 went on calmly until she had finished her labor 
 on the shining coil and only when the operation 
 was done did she let down her hands and turn 
 to look at him. 
 
 It was evident then that, in his intrusion, she 
 had not suspected who he was. Her lips parted 
 in a little gasp of recognition and the color 
 flushed up redly in her cheeks. Beyond this, 
 however, she held herself well in hand and did 
 not speak or stir to go to him. The young man 
 himself was equally confused and stood in si- 
 lence, trying to formulate the greeting he should 
 make. He found no words ready on his tongue 
 
142 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 and at last, without plan, made virtue of his 
 necessity and went boldly across the room. 
 
 Still she did not move, but stood looking at 
 him with the same expression of passive expec- 
 tancy and waited for him to come. His mind 
 refused to work with any clearness and, when he 
 was close to her, he was simply conscious that he 
 had taken the hand she offered and was mur- 
 muring to her some form of inarticulate speech. 
 
 There did not for the moment seem the need 
 for greeting more distinct, and half-uncon- 
 sciously his mind employed itself with the im- 
 pression of her that came to him through his 
 eyes. She was different from what he remem- 
 bered her to be as he had seen her last, and yet 
 so like, that he was puzzled to determine quite 
 wherein the difference lay. 
 
 Her figure was less girlish, as Motrya had 
 said, and she arranged her hair now in a differ- 
 ent way. But he decided that the thing that 
 counted was the unremembered expression of 
 her eyes. They were larger somehow and more 
 grave; though he recognized that this impres- 
 sion was helped by the thinness of her cheeks 
 and the firmer lines that had begun to show 
 about her mouth. 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 143 
 
 He had associated with her, always, the fra- 
 gile air of delicacy in face and carriage which 
 is called " flower-like " in a girl, and it was a 
 shock to him to find that this quality was no 
 longer there. There was the same delicate 
 transparency of skin that let the color come and 
 go as her emotions called it up, and she had still 
 the high, proud carriage of the head. But the 
 frank acceptance of her world, the shy trustful- 
 ness the innocence, perhaps of her girlhood 
 days had gone from her with the years and in 
 its place he found a pathetic gravity that made 
 her a stranger to him in a way, and gave him a 
 twinge at heart lest in some manner he had been 
 its cause. 
 
 " So it is you, Ivan, ' ' she said quietly. ' ' Mo- 
 try a told me you were here at the post, but I did 
 not expect to come on you in this way." Her 
 very voice was changed to him. It was less 
 fresh more colorless and placid than he re- 
 membered it to be. 
 
 "It was I who was wrong," he returned hur- 
 riedly. "I should not have come in from the 
 rear in that unceremonious way!" 
 
 i ' But it was your house, ' ' she went on in the 
 same even tone, * ' and you could not have known 
 
144 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 that we were quartered here. The lieutenant 
 gave us the place so that we might be near to 
 Motrya and the rest. He has had your baggage 
 transferred to his own house so he could have 
 you near him for his work." Ivan Egorovilch 
 flushed with surprise. 
 
 " It is a good thing for us both, then," he said 
 thoughtfully. "It means an advance for me 
 that I did not expect and I am glad it is to be a 
 comfort for you. ' ' 
 
 1 ' Thank you," she returned with the same 
 grave sweetness. She did not smile nor waver 
 in her expression under his curious gaze, but her 
 eyes dropped down so that she no longer looked 
 him in the face. 
 
 6 1 Tell me about yourself, ' ' she said with a mo- 
 mentary flutter of her eyelids. i i Have you been 
 with the company all these years?" 
 
 "Not all," he answered, "but so many that 
 the places they send me to seem most like home. 
 When one has once broken away from the ties 
 that hold him fast, it does not take so much to 
 satisfy him and make him grateful for the little 
 that he gets." 
 
 "Yes," she echoed, "one must have some- 
 thing, though it is not so much. ' ' He looked at 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 145 
 
 her keenly, for he could not tell whether her 
 words were an agreement with his philosophy 
 or a pathetic expression of her own. She re- 
 mained passive under his glance, however, and 
 after a moment went on in her measured speech. 
 
 "You have changed very little, Ivan," she 
 said, "and yet it is a long time!" There 
 seemed no need in this for a direct reply and he 
 answered her with a question of his own. 
 
 "And you?" he asked softly, "have you 
 been happy all these years?" The girl's eyes 
 lifted till their serious gaze rested with almost 
 solemn intentness on his face. 
 
 "Do you ask me that question, Ivan?" she 
 demanded earnestly. 
 
 1 1 Yes, ' ' he declared bravely. ( ' For whatever 
 came of it, I had no wish in my heart ever to 
 make you sad." 
 
 "Then I will answer it," she said, "for 
 there is nothing in it of which I am ashamed. 
 You did not tell me when you went, you know, 
 and not understanding, I had the anxiety and 
 the fear, and then I thought, too, that some- 
 time you would come back." Her unwavering 
 look was like an accusation and before it Ivan 
 Egorovitch's eyes went down. 
 
146 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "It was not that I did not remember, " he said 
 in a low tone, "and at one time I really began 
 the journey back!" It was not Varenka Pe- 
 trovna's way to smile or make distinct ex- 
 pression of her emotions, but her whole face 
 lighted with a feeling she could not conceal. 
 
 "Then you did remember I" she cried softly. 
 1 ' Ah, why did you not come ? ' ' 
 
 " Because, " he answered, "before I reached 
 you, the word came to me that you had given 
 yourself to another man. Why did you do it ! " 
 he added reproachfully. "Why could you not 
 have been content to wait?" 
 
 "I was content," she said quietly. "But it 
 was a long time, Ivan and you sent no word. 
 He desired me very much and my father was 
 uneasy always and insisted on my doing as 
 he wished. I think he was afraid you would 
 come back," she added slowly. There was a 
 little thrill for Ivan Egorovitch in this confes- 
 sion that was a gratification to his pride. 
 
 "And are you happy now?" he asked almost 
 under his breath. The woman's eyes met his as 
 bravely as before. 
 
 "Yes," she said with a pathetic little rise in 
 the voice. " He is good to me and I am as true a 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 147 
 
 wife to him, Ivan, as I would have been to you. ' ' 
 She was silent for a moment, standing with lips 
 pressed together and looking by him and away 
 with misty eyes. Then, as if talking to herself 
 as well as to him, she added : ' * Yes, I am con- 
 tent but the more so, perhaps, that I have had 
 this talk with you to-day." Ivan Egorovitch 
 watched her with a growing sense of shame. 
 
 "I am glad that you can say it," he said husk- 
 ily. "It would break my heart to think that 
 through me, where I did not mean it, your life 
 had come to wreck. ' ' 
 
 "I have understood," she answered tremu- 
 lously, ' ' and all these years I have believed. ' ' 
 
 "I have not deserved it," he said humbly, 
 "and the only excuse I have is that it was a 
 boy's mistake in doing what he thought was 
 right." 
 
 "Yes, what was right," she echoed vaguely, 
 and stood with her lips drawn in between her 
 teeth. Then she looked at him again with the 
 smile that seemed a radiance from the whole 
 face rather than the lips. 
 
 "That is all, I suppose," she said quietly, 
 "except that I shall see you again here at the 
 post." 
 
148 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Would it make you happier if you did not?" 
 he demanded earnestly. "For if so, I will go 
 away." 
 
 "No," she returned gently. "I do not think 
 I should wish you to do that and even if I did, 
 I have no right to ask it of you. ' ' 
 
 "It is not a question of right, but of what 
 would serve to make you more content." 
 
 "You are good," she said gratefully, "but I 
 believe it will make me no less happy to know 
 that you are close by. ' ' She moved away from 
 him irresolutely and then came back to him and 
 put out her hand. 
 
 "You had better go now," she said in her 
 even voice. "It is time that I went over to the 
 other house." He took her hand without a 
 word, bowed over it respectfully, and with his 
 head in such a whirl that he scarcely knew 
 where he stepped, picked his way through the 
 litter of the other room and went out by the 
 same way he had come. 
 
 Once clear of the place, he took counsel with 
 himself what he had better do. He was dis- 
 turbed by his meeting with Varenka Petrovna 
 and at heart he found a further disappointment 
 that on her account he must leave his quarters 
 
IVAN HAS A STKENUOUS DAY 149 
 
 near her sister and take up others where Motrya 
 Petrovna would not be so close at hand. He 
 decided to go at once to the lieutenant and find 
 out why he had been quartered at his house. 
 He thought, too, of Stepan Dmitrievitch, from 
 whom, if the news were true, he would for the 
 time be obliged to part. But this regret was 
 not so strong as it would once have been, for 
 since his blood-brother had found an interest in 
 Motrya Petrovna, common with his own, their 
 intercourse had been a shade less whole-souled 
 than before. 
 
 Mikhail Etolin was at home, though it was 
 after the hour to return to work; and going in 
 on him without announcement, as he was used 
 to do, Ivan Egorovitch found him spread out 
 full length on the bed. His dinner stood un- 
 touched on the table where it had been served 
 and he seemed like one who had forgotten hun- 
 ger or had no taste for food. 
 
 At the noise of his in-coming, the lieutenant 
 sat up. He moved with difficulty and when he 
 had raised himself erect, Ivan Egorovitch saw 
 that his face was without color and drawn as 
 near to haggardness as his puffy features would 
 permit. He was so disheveled and unkempt, so 
 
150 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 unhappy in his look, that the young man came 
 at once to where he sat. 
 
 "What is it, your Well-born?" he said with 
 quick concern. "Have you been sick?" The 
 lieutenant stirred vaguely and continued to 
 look at him with dull eyes. 
 
 ' 1 1 am not well ! " he said brokenly. i i It will 
 be all right though in a little while." The 
 young man bent above him sympathetically. 
 
 ' ' Where is the trouble ? " he said. ' ' Perhaps 
 I can be of use." Mikhail Sergeievitch hesi- 
 tated a moment and then, reaching out, took hold 
 of Ivan Egorovitch's hand and placed it clum- 
 sily against his breast. 
 
 "Here!" he said huskily, and the young man 
 could feel that the heart inside was beating 
 wildly, and fluttering like a thing gone mad. 
 
 "You are indeed ill," he said with solicitous 
 interest, and obeying mechanically the impulse 
 to be of help, he pushed him gently by the shoul- 
 ders to lay him back upon the bed. Mikhail 
 Sergeievitch resisted and held himself upright 
 as he was. 
 
 "No!" he panted, "I breathe better where I 
 am." Ivan Egorovitch stood back and looked 
 at him in some perplexity. 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 151 
 
 ' ' When did it happen ? ' ' lie said. * ' Have you 
 been this way long?" 
 
 "Only about an hour though I felt it this 
 morning and knew that it would come. I held 
 it back, though, ' ' he added with a gleam of tri- 
 umph, "until I got away from the people at the 
 beach!" 
 
 "But what was it that brought it on?" The 
 lieutenant's eyes came up searchingly to Ivan 
 Egorovitch's face as if weighing how far he 
 might reveal to him his heart. But he was sick 
 and weakened by his pain and the desire to un- 
 burden himself to some sympathetic soul was 
 too strong for the dread of ridicule which held 
 him back. 
 
 "I was afraid!" he whispered, and looked 
 shamefacedly at the floor. 
 
 "Afraid?" 
 
 "Yes, not of the sickness itself, for that I 
 have had before. But how could he know how 
 could he tell it was coming back?" 
 
 "Who know?" demanded the young man 
 earnestly. 
 
 "That devil of a priest!" Ivan Egorovitch 
 crossed himself swiftly and murmured an in- 
 ward prayer. 
 
152 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "He said it came from God!" he answered 
 with a sudden awe-struck recollection. "But I 
 did not believe him at the time ! ' ' 
 
 "It came, though, " said Mikhail Etolin sim- 
 ply, and began quietly to cry. "It was the 
 bell!" he went on miserably. "I should not 
 have minded if it had not been for that. When 
 he first rang it, I laughed and thought it was a 
 joke. But when he kept on doing it, the thing 
 stayed with me, whether I would or not. It got 
 on my nerves to hear it going day after day, and 
 then the heat brought back the trouble and I be- 
 gan to wonder whether he really knew. This 
 morning, I felt the thing was coming and tried 
 to fight it off but I knew it would get me when 
 the priest rang his bell and so I came away early 
 to this place. It was true, too," he added 
 gloomily. ' ' When he rang it, I went down ! ' ' 
 
 "But, your Well-born," cried the young man 
 earnestly, "it was your breathing, not your 
 heart, that Simeon Gvosdef said would show the 
 change." Moved either by the suggestion or, 
 perhaps, by some crisis of the disease, the lieu- 
 tenant's jaw dropped so that his mouth came 
 open and he carried his hand up swiftly to his 
 throat. His body stiffened till he was bolt up- 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 153 
 
 right and his breath began to come and go in 
 long spasmodic gasps. 
 
 "Air!" he cried fiercely, "air!" and clutched 
 at his face as if to tear away some physical ob- 
 struction from before his mouth. 
 
 It was only for a moment and then he went 
 limply together and slid, a helpless heap, down 
 to the floor. His face was purple and his 
 breath still came in short whistling gasps. But 
 he was not unconscious and, keeping his eyes 
 beseechingly on Ivan Egorovitch, he continued 
 his half-inarticulate cry for help. 
 
 The young man recovered from his fright and, 
 seizing him by the arms, dragged him uncere- 
 moniously across the room to the open door. 
 There, on his back, with his head across the 
 threshold, he let him rest, and taking a fan he 
 knelt beside him and swung it to keep the 
 air moving evenly across his face. The crisis 
 passed almost as quickly as it had come, but it 
 left the lieutenant so weak it was some time 
 before he was able to sit up. "When he did, his 
 first thought was to relieve his fear. 
 
 "The priest " he whispered, as Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch held him up. "Was any one here to see ? ' * 
 
 "Not a soul," replied the young man reas- 
 
154 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 suringly. Mikhail Etolin gave a long sigh of 
 relief. 
 
 "That is good/' he said faintly. "They 
 must never know!" Ivan Egorovitch got him 
 back into his bed and poured out for him a little 
 brandy in a cup. The lieutenant was too ex- 
 hausted to remain steadily awake, but more than 
 once his mind came back to the advantage of 
 keeping his sickness a secret from the camp. 
 
 "We will fool the priest yet!" he cried ex- 
 citedly. "You see now why I had need to have 
 you with me in the house." 
 
 After a time he went more comfortably to 
 sleep and his attendant, sitting idly by, found 
 life growing heavy on his hands. It had been 
 a strenuous day and the unusual emotion of it 
 weighed him down. He remembered, too, that 
 he had eaten nothing since the morning and, go- 
 ing noiselessly to the table, he selected for him- 
 self some food. But at the best it was lonely 
 work and he yearned for something that would 
 bring it to an end. 
 
 The men came back from work and he watched 
 the wind bend the smoke of their supper-fires 
 above the various roofs. Then he found con- 
 cern lest Mikhail Etolin should hear and waken 
 
IVAN HAS A STEENUOUS DAY 155 
 
 when Simeon Gvosdef rang his evening bell. 
 He closed the door and stood outside to listen 
 for the sound. But when it came it was from a 
 distance somewhere on the bay and so low that 
 in his closed chamber the sleeper could be 
 trusted not to hear. 
 
 It was a gleam of comfort to him to feel that 
 the priest's insidious suggestion for once, at 
 least, had failed of its effect. Then suddenly 
 he found another pleasant thrill, for on the 
 lower ground along the shore he caught a 
 glimpse of a girlish figure clad in a soft gray 
 dress and outlined clearly against the blue water 
 of the bay. He recognized it with delight and 
 instantly a resolve grew in his mind. Warning 
 the cook that he should not disturb Mikhail Eto- 
 lin in his sleep, he left the house behind him and 
 ran lightly down the path. Before he caught 
 up with her he sought, she was well along the 
 beach. 
 
 "Motrya," he called sharply, and she stopped 
 and turned around. 
 
 "Have you run away, too?" he demanded 
 breathlessly as he came to where she stood. 
 She looked at him brightly and answered with a 
 laugh. 
 
156 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "I suppose it was running away," she said, 
 ' ' though I had not thought of it as such. I had 
 been in the house all day and wanted to get 
 out." 
 
 "It was the same with me," he answered 
 gleefully. "Why should we not run away to- 
 gether? It is so much more fun than doing it 
 alone." She caught the infection of his gaiety 
 and clapped her hands as if she were still a 
 child. 
 
 "Where shall we go?" she cried delightedly. 
 Ivan Egorovitch thought quickly over the possi- 
 bilities at hand. 
 
 "It is nearly three hours yet to sunset," he 
 said promptly, "and the tide is nearly full. 
 Let us take the canoe and go down the channel. 
 I will show you the draw and you can pick the 
 flowers that I have been promising you from the 
 time you came ashore." 
 
 "Good!" she returned, "only I have no hat 
 and you must surely get me back here before 
 dark." They turned back to the landing and 
 out along the little causeway to the selected 
 boat. The young man drew it along the rocky 
 edge and held it firmly while she took her seat. 
 
 "Now do not move," he cautioned as he knelt 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 157 
 
 in his own place. She watched him with eager 
 interest as he pushed off the flimsy craft and be- 
 gan to increase the power of his stroke. The 
 bay was absolutely still and Ivan Egorovitch, 
 watching the girl as she sat facing him in the 
 bow, was moved to paddle fast, that the wind 
 caused by the motion should ruffle up her hair. 
 She had never before been in so slight a craft 
 and was disturbed by the swift movement 
 underneath her feet. 
 
 "It is like flying," she said, gripping the 
 edges convulsively on either side. "I like it 
 while it is smooth, but, even with you, I think 
 I should be afraid when it was not." 
 
 "It is always smooth," replied the young man 
 reassuringly. "I have been here two summers 
 now and have never yet seen a wave worth not- 
 ing on the bay," She was not sorry, though, 
 when the channel had been threaded and they 
 came to the little landing at the point. She 
 remained quiet while he tied the boat and drew 
 it as close as could be to the shore. 
 
 "Stand up," he said authoritatively, and she 
 rose unsteadily to her feet. He reached her his 
 hand as she took a first step forward. Then, 
 as the little craft moved treacherously beneath 
 
158 ,THE CHALLENGE 
 
 her, she lost her head, and with a little gasp 
 lunged forward and caught him nervously about 
 the neck. He lifted her with a straightening of 
 the shoulders and stepped quickly back, and the 
 canoe, freed of its burden, ran smoothly out till 
 it hung dancing at its tether's end. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch turned with the girl in his 
 arms and, instead of setting her down, went with 
 her up the winding path that led to the summit 
 of the cliff. She made no objection till the top 
 was reached. Then she lowered her arms and 
 pushed away from him. 
 
 ' ' That will do, ' ' she said warningly. i ' Please 
 let me down." He obeyed at once and set her 
 gently on the grass. 
 
 "You were too quick," he said when he could 
 get his breath. "It does not do to move so sud- 
 denly in a canoe." But Motrya Petrovna had 
 got her eyes on the flowers and with a little 
 cry was out among them, moving swiftly 
 here and there. She was like one intoxicated 
 with delight and went from one sort to another, 
 examining and gathering with almost jealous 
 haste. Ivan Egorovitch watched her with a 
 smile and waited contentedly until her erratic 
 wanderings brought her back again to where he 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 159 
 
 stood. Her hair was blown into disorder and 
 lie could scarcely see her face above the armful 
 of her flowers. 
 
 "Do you expect to take all those things home 
 with you?" he asked in good-natured raillery. 
 "If so, I shall have to get a bigger boat." 
 
 "I shall not leave one," she answered scorn- 
 fully, "and to-morrow I am coming back to get 
 the rest!" 
 
 "Lay them here, though, for the present," he 
 continued. "You can get them again when you 
 have seen the draw. ' ' She arranged them care- 
 fully under a convenient bush and followed him 
 across the little meadow for perhaps a hundred 
 yards. There, at the edge of the cliff along the 
 channel, he came to a final stop. 
 
 "Look down," he said, and steadied her by 
 holding to her arm. Just above the water and 
 some forty feet below, she saw there was a 
 narrow level shelf. 
 
 "I am going to take you down there," he 
 said, "and you will see something you never 
 saw before. ' ' She weighed the thing with some 
 misgiving in her mind but followed him submis- 
 sively when he began the descent. It was a 
 narrow path, but safe, and at first she found no 
 
160 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 reason for alarm. But half-way down, it 
 skirted dizzily around a rocky point and here 
 a sudden panic seized her and she stopped and 
 closed her eyes. He turned at once and, step- 
 ping between her and the descent, he swept her 
 firmly back against the rock. She clung to him 
 and he waited until she should regain her self- 
 control. 
 
 ' ' Were you afraid ? ' ' he whispered quizzically. 
 She gave her head a decided shake but did not 
 open her eyes. 
 
 "It is the last turn," he said consolingly. 
 "Come, I will help you till you get around. " 
 He put his arm around her and held her for the 
 going, tightly pressed against the cliff. When 
 they were down, he found a place for her with 
 her back against the rock, and threw himself 
 beside her on the ground. She was still for a 
 moment, and then her hand went out and slid 
 confidingly into his. 
 
 "I was afraid, Ivan," she whispered guiltily. 
 "It seemed as if the path led right off into the 
 sea." He laughed contentedly and patted af- 
 fectionately the hand that lay in his. 
 
 "And yet you are here all safe," he said with 
 pretended wonder. "Isn't it fine to have both 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 161 
 
 the thrill and the escape ! ' ' Her color was com- 
 ing back and she smiled up at him happily. 
 
 "What was it you brought me down here to 
 see?" she asked. 
 
 "The draw," he said, getting nimbly to his 
 feet. "Wait here for a moment till I go and 
 get the rope." He was away from her and 
 climbing up the cliff before she was fairly con- 
 scious what he had said. She raised herself 
 and looked after him in some dismay, but ac- 
 cepted his defection in the spirit he had urged 
 and set herself to wait for his return. The com- 
 ing was not long delayed, and when he appeared 
 around the point of rock, she saw that he had a 
 coil of rope and a good-sized log of wood. 
 
 "My! but you make me trouble!" he panted 
 as he laid them at her feet. "I have run all the 
 way back here from the boat." 
 
 "Why, I did not want them!" she cried in as- 
 tonishment. 
 
 ' ' Oh yes, you did, ' ' he answered lightly, ' ' only 
 you did not know it until now. I am going to 
 use them to show you the working of the draw. 
 I ran for fear I should not get here in time." 
 He was knotting one end of the cord to the billet 
 as he spoke, and fastened the other securely 
 
162 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 around a jutting point of rock. Then, lifting 
 the log, he threw it as far as he could out into 
 the stream. 
 
 It lay quite still after the splash and he eased 
 the long rope down into the water so the 
 float might be free to move which way it would. 
 At first, there was no definite advance, but soon 
 it could be seen that it was moving slowly up 
 the channel toward the bay. Ivan Egorovitch 
 nodded vigorously in satisfaction as he saw it 
 start. 
 
 ' ' I am in time, ' ' he said. t ' It is going toward 
 the east. That means the tide is not yet full." 
 The girl leaned forward and watched tlie mov- 
 ing billet curiously. 
 
 "I do not see that it is doing anything 
 strange, " she said. "When is it going to be- 
 gin?" 
 
 "Almost at once. Do not think about it for 
 the moment, but watch that line of water over 
 by the other shore." She did as she was bid 
 and saw that opposite them in the channel some 
 strange disturbance of the surface had begun. 
 Instead of the former smoothness, stirred only 
 by the running of the tide, there was now a well- 
 defined patch of choppy water, where the waves 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 163 
 
 rose and fell sharply, as if troubled by some un- 
 seen force, and around this the whole channel 
 began to stir and move uneasily in wider, longer 
 swells. There was something so unusual and 
 sinister in its development and growth that the 
 girl watched it with absorbed interest and un- 
 consciously moved back closer to the wall of 
 rock. She saw nothing else till her companion 
 touched her and pointed with his hand. 
 
 "Look at the billet, now," he said quietly. 
 She turned her head so as to bring the log again 
 within her gaze, and saw that instead of floating 
 idly as before at the end of the taut rope, it had 
 turned back on its course and was moving 
 slowly but steadily toward the spot of foam on 
 the other side. It struggled and pulled like a 
 sentient thing and when it had swept round the 
 wide radius of the cord and reached the farther- 
 most limit, it continued to strain against its 
 tether as if it were alive. 
 
 "Come and draw it in," said the young man, 
 reaching out his hand. "I want you to see how 
 strongly the water pulls." He raised her to 
 her feet and went with her to where the rope 
 was tied. She took hold of it with both hands 
 and pulled gently at first, and then with all her 
 
164 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 strength. The rope stiffened and raised up, but 
 the billet did not move. 
 
 "It is because you do not know how," he 
 said, to ease her failure. "You should give a 
 quick jerk like this." Bracing his feet, he 
 threw his whole weight suddenly back on the 
 rope. The billet stopped its dancing and began 
 to move responsively toward the shore. But 
 the girPs mind was on the thing itself, rather 
 than the way. 
 
 6 1 It is strong enough ! ' ' she said with a shud- 
 der. i ' What would happen if we were out there 
 in the canoe!" 
 
 "I will show you," he answered, "when I 
 have drawn this in." He brought the log 
 ashore and, untying the rope, he threw the loos- 
 ened billet back into the sea. It caught the im- 
 pulse of the whirlpool from the time that it was 
 launched and moved evenly out with a wide, 
 swinging curve toward the point from which it 
 had just been pulled. The girl watched it with 
 a fearful interest and when it began to quicken 
 in its speed she moved closer to Ivan Egorovitch 
 and slipped her hand timidly beneath his arm. 
 
 The billet reached the patch of angry water 
 and for a moment seemed to pause. Dipping 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 165 
 
 toward the center so that the rear end rose 
 above the foam, it waved uneasily from side to 
 side and then with a swift plunge went under 
 out of sight. The girl's tense grasp relaxed 
 and she took a long, deep breath. 
 
 " Where has it gone?" she whispered. 
 
 6 f There is no one knows, ' ' he answered. ' l Of 
 all who have been drawn down, not one has 
 ever come back to tell." 
 
 "Then there have been men?" 
 
 "Yes, men and boats. There were those 
 Frenchmen, you know, who are buried on the 
 island. So far, this year, but one hunter has 
 been caught, but last year we lost two." She 
 shivered slightly and he put his arm around 
 her and drew her closely to his side. 
 
 "I would not like to die like that," she said 
 appealingly, and leaned against him as if he 
 were a safeguard from the danger that threat- 
 ened so near her in the sea. They stood silent 
 for some time, he with his thought on her, and 
 she letting her imagination dwell fearfully on 
 the pitiful tragedies of the spot. Then, with a 
 lover's obliviousness to time and place, he bent 
 above her till his cheek was almost against her 
 hair. 
 
166 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 * * I love you do you know it ? " lie whispered 
 earnestly. She looked up at him suddenly and 
 as quickly let her lids go down. 
 
 1 1 1 have been told so, ' ' she said demurely, and 
 kept her eyes on the ground. He laughed in 
 spite of his vexation that her answer was not 
 what he wished. 
 
 "I know now," he went on eagerly, "why it 
 was that we were both uneasy this afternoon 
 and felt that we must get away. It was because 
 it was the first time since your coming that we 
 had not seen each other all day long." She 
 considered a moment before she made reply. 
 
 "Perhaps," she said doubtfully, "but I did 
 not know it at the time." Her gaze went wan- 
 dering out across the channel and before he 
 could make answer, she moved suddenly back 
 from him and stood looking intently eastward 
 toward the post. 
 
 "Ivan!" she said sharply, "did you not say 
 that at this time it is not safe for any one to 
 cross the draw?" 
 
 "Yes," he responded. "Why?" 
 
 "Then what is that man doing, coming this 
 ;way in a boat?" He looked in the direction 
 she pointed and saw that a canoe with one 
 
IVAN HAS A STEENUOUS DAY 167 
 
 man in it had come into view, moving out from 
 the inner bay. He was all excitement in a mo- 
 ment and went rapidly toward the new-comer 
 as far as he could go along the ledge. 
 
 1 ' I can not understand, ' ' he said slowly, ' * un- 
 less the man has made a mistake about the 
 tide. ' ' Motrya Petrovna had followed close be- 
 hind him, but he seemed to forget her presence 
 and stood with his eyes riveted on the approach- 
 ing boat till he could distinguish the identity of 
 the man within. 
 
 "It is the mad priest!" he exclaimed help- 
 lessly. "It may be that he does not know!" 
 Putting his hands to his lips he shouted lustily 
 a warning to the unsuspecting man. 
 
 "Go back!" he cried, and waved his hands 
 in the direction of the post. The priest did not 
 seem to understand and paid no attention to the 
 warning beyond changing his course slightly as 
 if to come to where they stood. Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch continued to gesticulate and shout, until 
 by the unsteady wavering of the canoe he saw 
 that it was beginning to feel the grapple of 
 the draw. 
 
 "The fool!" he burst out angrily and ran 
 rapidly along the ledge to where he had left 
 
168 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 the rope. Throwing off his coat and boots, he 
 began with feverish haste to tie the free end 
 of the cord about his waist. Motrya Petrovna 
 watched him with horror in her face. 
 
 "Ivan!" she demanded fearfully, "Ivan! 
 What are you going to do?" He did not even 
 look at her, but kept his eyes fixed on the move- 
 ments of the boat. 
 
 "I am going to try to reach him before the 
 current gets too strong a hold," he said me- 
 chanically. The girl moved quickly between 
 him and the water and threw herself impul- 
 sively upon him, clasping both her arms around 
 his neck. 
 
 "You shall not!" she cried sharply. "I can 
 not bear it. I will not let you go!" He did 
 not dare to take his eyes from the channel lest 
 he should miss the proper time to start, and, 
 without looking at her, he unclasped her arms 
 and set her gently to one side. 
 
 "Do not be afraid, dear," he said soberly. 
 "I can reach him without danger and at the 
 worst you will only have to pull me in by the 
 rope." 
 
 The canoe was now quite near, but the cur- 
 rent had begun to draw it appreciably away 
 
IVAN HAS A STRENUOUS DAY 169 
 
 from them to tie other side. Ivan Egorovitch 
 stood holding Motrya Petrovna at arm's length 
 till he judged the best moment had arrived. 
 Then he turned for an instant to her and caught 
 her by the hands. 
 
 "Good-by, dear," he said simply, and let him- 
 self down gently into the sea. The girl stood 
 with her hands clasped convulsively before her 
 and watched his black head as it moved away 
 from her through the waves. Like a sudden 
 vision there stood revealed to her all that it 
 would mean if he should not come back, and she 
 began to comprehend how much she leaned on 
 his regard. 
 
 "Ivan!" she called, "Ivan!" and when there 
 was no answer she burst into tears. 
 
 "I can not bear it," she cried miserably, and 
 resolutely shut her eyes, but in a moment she 
 opened them again and turned tremblingly to 
 look. The current had been with the swimmer 
 and he had easily overhauled the drifting boat. 
 He could not hope to clamber into the tiny craft 
 and Motrya Petrovna could see that he was 
 talking excitedly with the priest and lifting on 
 the rope as if to show him what to do. 
 
 Simeon Gvosdef, however, seemed not to take 
 
170 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 the rescue in good part. He pushed the swim- 
 mer from him with his hands and once he raised 
 a hand as if to strike. The pull of the water 
 increased as the boat drifted nearer to the cen- 
 ter whirl, and the rope grew so taut that it was 
 beyond Ivan Egorovitch's strength to hold back 
 against the growing strain. He made one final 
 effort to lift the rope above the bow of the canoe 
 and, failing, raised himself suddenly at one side 
 and with a swift use of his weight, upset the 
 boat and turned the priest out unexpectedly 
 into the sea. 
 
 There was a frightened cry from Simeon 
 Gvosdef, and the girl saw that Ivan Egorovitch 
 had grappled with the floundering man and was 
 seeking to push him before him to the shore. 
 It was a difficult task, for the suck of the draw 
 was strong and the priest had completely lost 
 his head, so that he struggled wildly all the 
 time. She looked for the canoe, but it had 
 drifted to the center and was gone. 
 
 With eager wish to help, Motrya Petrovna 
 seized on the rope and drew it in cautiously 
 till she could feel the drag of the living bodies 
 on the other end. She put her weight against 
 it and held back and felt with a keen thrill of 
 

 
 The girl saw that Ivan had grappled with the floundering man 
 
 Page 170 
 
IVAN HAS A STEENUOUS DAY 171 
 
 delight that her added strength was enough to 
 turn the tide in favor of the swimmers and 
 that they were moving perceptibly toward 
 shore. 
 
 So far, Ivan Egorovitch had succeeded in 
 keeping Simeon Gvosdef before him so that he 
 could not interfere. He had his hand firmly in 
 the priest's hair and kept him at arm's length in 
 front, but holding him so that his ghastly face 
 was, for the most part, outside in the air. 
 
 But half-way to the shore the priest's hand 
 came in contact with the rope. It gave him 
 an unexpected hold, and in an instant he had 
 pulled himself around and wound his arms 
 about his rescuer in a close, convulsive grip. 
 Ivan Egorovitch struggled wildly to throw off 
 the clutch and, failing, lifted his one free arm 
 and struck the priest blindly with it in the face. 
 
 Simeon Gvosdef 's head went back with a 
 snap, but his hold was unconscious and could 
 not thus be made to yield. There was a mo- 
 mentary struggle between the two men and a 
 wild beating of the sea. Then, without a word 
 or sign, they both went down and the water 
 closed bubblingly above their heads. 
 
 The girl cried out as she saw them disappear 
 
172 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 and pulled with superhuman strength on the 
 rope. They came up promptly like corks, and 
 before they went down again she saw that the 
 priest 's arms and legs were wound around Ivan 
 Egorovitch so tightly that he could no longer 
 swim. Her eyes were so full of tears she could 
 scarcely see and her breath came in dry, rack- 
 ing sobs. But she did not cease to pull on the 
 rope, though she felt herself turn faint each time 
 they went out of sight. Though only a few 
 moments, it seemed an hour to her before the 
 task was done and she had the bodies close 
 against the ledge. 
 
 She could not lift them, now that they were 
 there, but farther on there was a second ledge 
 that shelved down gradually till it was covered 
 by the sea. To this she brought them and with 
 great pains got them up till they rested fairly 
 on the stone. Both were unconscious, but not 
 dead, and Simeon Gvosdef 's resistance was but 
 feeble when she set herself to make him loose 
 his hold. 
 
 She left him where he was, except that she 
 rolled him over on his face with his head on 
 lower ground. But Ivan Egorovitch she tugged 
 and pulled until she got him to the broader 
 
IVAN HAS A STKENUOUS DAY 173 
 
 ledge. She had little knowledge of what was 
 best to do, but she dried his face and smoothed 
 his hair, and rubbed and kneaded him till the 
 life came back and the color slowly gathered in 
 his lips. 
 
 "Ivan!" she cried, "Ivan!" and shook him 
 to drive the impression in. He stirred uneasily 
 and opened his eyes. The movement was uncon- 
 scious and, with a flutter of his eyelids, he let 
 them down again and lay impassive as before. 
 
 But to Motrya Petrovna the action brought 
 the liveliest thrill of joy. She lifted him by 
 the shoulders till he was half-way in her lap, 
 and gathering his head in her arms she held it 
 close against her breast. Her face went down 
 till it was touching his, and she rocked him 
 backward and forward, as a mother might a 
 child. 
 
 "I love you," she said softly, though she 
 knew he did not hear. "I can not wait, Ivan. 
 I want to tell you now. You know I said I had 
 never had the feeling, and truly I did not till 
 to-day. But when I saw you out there in the 
 water it came to me like a flash of light. There 
 is no doubt about it any more, Ivan, for I know 
 now I know!" 
 
CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 VARENKA BECOMES ROMANTIC 
 
 The sun was almost down before help came to 
 Motrya Petrovna and the two shipwrecked men. 
 Then a passing canoe, manned by natives, re- 
 sponded to her call and carried the forlorn 
 party in safety to the post. The heart went 
 out of the girl with the passing of her terror 
 and suspense, and she was almost as limp as the 
 other two when they got her to the camp. The 
 priest was delirious and went unconscious to 
 his bed, but Ivan Egorovitch regained his 
 senses, though he could not walk when he first 
 got ashore. He saw to it that Motrya Petrovna 
 was sent home with proper care and then had 
 himself taken to Mikhail Etolin's house. 
 
 The news of the affair spread in wild rumors 
 through the little camp, and Ivan Egorovitch 
 was hardly in dry clothes when Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch came anxiously to the house and asked for 
 him. "When he saw Ivan Egorovitch sitting on 
 
 174 
 
YABENKA BECOMES EOMANTIC 175 
 
 the edge of the bed, clothed and in his right 
 mind he made a dash at him with a great shout, 
 
 "Then you are not dead!" he cried gleefully 
 and caught him tightly in his arms. Ivan 
 Egorovitch winced at the embrace, though his 
 face lighted up with pleasure that his foster- 
 brother should so care. 
 
 "Easy, man, easy!" he cried entreatingly. 
 "Every muscle in my body is as tender as a 
 boil. And if you make a noise like that you 
 will waken the lieutenant and he will have you 
 put outside." Stepan Dmitrievitch sheepishly 
 let go his hold, and seated himself on the bed 
 beside Ivan Egorovitch. He could not yet, how- 
 ever, rid himself of the affectionate solicitude 
 for his blood-brother, which his thought of him 
 in peril had so unexpectedly aroused, and began 
 feeling him all over cautiously with his hands 
 as if to assure himself that in the accident no 
 pieces had been lost. 
 
 "No bones broken?" he said inquiringly. 
 
 "No. Only the soreness, and a feeling as if 
 there was too much water in the hold. ' ' Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch gave a nod of satisfaction. 
 
 ' ' That is not bad, ' ' he said, ' l for a man who 
 has been in the great draw." 
 
176 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Why, I could not possibly have got hurt!" 
 interrupted Ivan Egorovitch. 
 
 "You are the only man who has ever come 
 out of it alive, ' ' returned the other dryly. ' ' Tell 
 me about it. I only heard that you were dead. ' ' 
 
 "Why, I was not even in danger," said Ivan 
 Egorovitch scornfully. "Simeon Gvosdef was 
 drifting and I went out to him on the end of a 
 rope. When I got him, Motrya Petrovna pulled 
 us in." A shade passed over Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch's face and he spoke with some surprise. 
 
 ' ' Motrya Petrovna ? ' ' he said. ' t Was she out 
 there with you on the ledge f" Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch caught the difference in his tone and 
 looked quickly round at him. 
 
 "Why, yes," he answered, "I took her out to 
 see the draw." Stepan Dmitrievitch consid- 
 ered for a moment and looked thoughtfully 
 down at his feet. 
 
 "Was there any one else with her?" he asked 
 slowly. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "You ought not to have done it," he said 
 deprecatingly. "It was not a place to take her 
 to alone. ' ' Ivan Egorovitch 's eyes twinkled and 
 he patted his blood-brother softly on the back. 
 
VAEENKA BECOMES ROMANTIC 177 
 
 "What would you have done if you had been 
 in my shoes 1" he asked significantly. Then, 
 as if, after all, the thing might rightfully de- 
 mand a reason, he added apologetically, "You 
 know that I have been going with Motrya 
 Petrovna, anywhere and everywhere, since she 
 was a little girl. ' ' 
 
 "That is it!" burst out Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 resentfully. "You treat her as if she were still 
 a child and practise a childish familiarity with 
 her, while all the time you are thinking of her 
 in an entirely different way." 
 
 "What way?" 
 
 "You know as well as I do, and it is not at 
 all the relation of being a brother to her that 
 you have in mind!" Ivan Egorovitch flushed 
 responsively, but he did not let his feelings 
 overthrow his calm. 
 
 "Stepan," he said coaxingly, "you came here 
 to-night to see me and not to talk about other 
 things." 
 
 "I know it," replied the other doggedly, "but 
 I have been thinking about this a long time, 
 and now that we have got to it, I believe we 
 had better thresh it out," He paused and 
 waited in aggressive silence and Ivan Egoro- 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
178 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 vitch, with a little sigh of acquiescence, sur- 
 rendered himself to his mood. 
 
 "I do not see, though, what there is to make 
 so much of," he suggested plaintively. "The 
 girl does not belong to you!" 
 
 "Nor to you!" retorted Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 shortly. "But you act as if you already had 
 her in your hand." Ivan Egorovitch could not 
 resist the chance to make a point. 
 
 "Perhaps I have!" he said softly, and bent 
 forward so that his blood-brother could not 
 see his face. Stepan Dmitrie vitch 's face fell 
 and he rose abruptly to his feet. 
 
 "If that is true, it settles the whole matter," 
 he said huskily, "and I shall have no more to 
 say." He went moodily across the room and 
 stood gazing out of the window into the dusk, 
 while he regained his self-control. Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch watched him with a look of mingled amuse- 
 ment and regret. He made an effort to get up 
 and follow him, but found himself still too un- 
 steady on his legs. 
 
 "Come back here," he said, "and listen to 
 reason. I did not say that I have her." 
 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch turned and looked at him 
 uncertainly, as if trying to decide in his slower 
 
VAEENKA BECOMES EOMANTIC 179 
 
 brain how fa,r the overture was sincere. Then 
 he came back to Ivan Egorovitch's bed and 
 stood in front of him. 
 
 "Tell me the truth!" he cried. "Does she 
 love you has she told you that she does ? ' ' 
 
 "I hope she loves me, God bless her!" said 
 Ivan Egorovitch, "though she has never yet ad- 
 mitted it in words. I suspect she is so young 
 she does not know what love is when she 
 feels it." 
 
 "She knows it well enough," said Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch grimly, and it was Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch 's turn to look up in surprise. For some 
 moments he studied his blood-brother's face 
 curiously as if to gage the particularity of his 
 knowledge of Motrya Petrovna's heart. He 
 was too sure of himself and her, however, to 
 be troubled long, and with a shake of his head 
 as if to clear the matter from his brain, he 
 seized hold of Stepan Dmitrievitch and drew 
 him down beside him on the bed. 
 
 "Come here," he said, "and talk this matter 
 over as a Christian should." Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch allowed himself to be beguiled, but sat in 
 dignified silence and waited for the other to 
 begin. 
 
180 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "It is hard for both of us," said Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch after a moment's thought. "I know you 
 love Motrya Petrovna and I believe I love her 
 just as well as you. She is the first thing we 
 have both wanted that we can not properly di- 
 vide. We can not both have her, and the only 
 way out that I can see is to play fair until 
 she makes up her mind which one of us she 
 wants and agree that the loser shall abide grace- 
 fully by her decision when it comes." 
 
 "But you have not been playing fair!" said 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch impatiently. 
 
 "Yes, I have," returned Ivan Egorovitch 
 earnestly. "I can not help it that I knew her 
 as a child and have her trust and, for that mat- 
 ter, the hardest thing I have to meet is that she 
 has come to treat me so entirely as a brother 
 that I can not persuade her to think of me as 
 anything else." Stepan Dmitrievitch softened 
 visibly and put out his hand. 
 
 "We have been very close to each other, 
 Ivan," he said with a show of affection. "So 
 close that we ought not now to quarrel about a 
 girl. I want her if I can get her and I shall 
 try. But I shall also try not to be jealous of 
 you again and, if I can not have her, there is 
 
VARENKA BECOMES ROMANTIC 181 
 
 no one I would rather see her go to than to 
 you." 
 
 "It is my thought, too," said Ivan Egorovitch 
 soberly, "and I shall not grudge her to you, if 
 she will not come to me. ' ' They clasped hands 
 honestly on the bond, and Stepan Dinitrie- 
 vitch's face cleared of its shadowy cloud. Ivan 
 Egorovitch was tired and showed it in his look. 
 His blood-brother saw it and took his case in 
 hand. 
 
 "You must go to bed," he said authorita- 
 tively. ' ( I have let you talk too much ! ' ' Ivan 
 Egorovitch made no demur and allowed him- 
 self to be settled for the night. Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch saw that he had proper covers and was 
 comfortably placed, and when the thing was 
 finished and there was nothing more to do, be- 
 fore he left the place he stooped and kissed him 
 on both cheeks. 
 
 Mikhail Sergeievitch had failed to waken 
 either when Stepan Dmitrievitch came or when 
 he went, and so it happened that he alone of all 
 the camp remained untold of what had happened 
 at the draw. He slept well on toward morn- 
 ing, and when he opened his eyes, the long rest 
 had worked its miracle with him and possessed 
 
182 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 him with the feeling that his trouble had 
 abated and that he was no longer dominated by 
 his disease. 
 
 His heart was beating regularly and slowly 
 and his throat felt hollow, so that at will he 
 drew in long, satisfactory breaths. He tested 
 these things cautiously and even lifted himself 
 to try his strength. But there was enough of 
 weakness in him to keep alive the embers of 
 his fear, and he could not entirely get out of his 
 mind the conviction that the change was a 
 respite only and not a permanent relief. 
 
 "Damn the priest !" he said under his breath. 
 ' ' If it were not for him, I might get well ! ' ' The 
 impulse, however, was not in him to get up, and 
 turning on his side he lay and listened to the 
 sounds of his awakening world. Through the 
 window he could see that the day was clear and 
 about the casement there was a confusing chat- 
 ter of small birds. He heard the cook get up 
 and make his fire, and found an interest in the 
 cheerful rattle of the dishes as he worked. 
 
 From the world beyond there came no sound, 
 save an occasional shout from the men and the 
 barking of the dogs as they were fed or har- 
 nessed to the sleds. He let these things drift 
 
VAEENKA BECOMES ROMANTIC 183 
 
 idly through his mind and was beginning to feel 
 impatience that his breakfast was not yet at 
 hand, when suddenly he became conscious that 
 something he had been accustomed to, as a part 
 of the usual morning routine, had somehow been 
 left out. 
 
 He could not think for the moment what the 
 lacking detail was, but the sense of difference 
 intruded itself steadily after he had once 
 thought of it, and would not be set aside. He 
 pondered on it vaguely, checking off in his mind 
 the different things to which he had been used ; 
 and then as suddenly it came to him in explana- 
 tion that, though it was long after six o'clock, 
 Simeon Gvosdef had not yet rung his bell. 
 
 He sat bolt upright when he thought of it and 
 listened eagerly to every sound. He knew that 
 he had been awake at the accustomed hour, and 
 it gave him a wild thrill to think that the priest 
 had for once forgotten the warning peal. It 
 put a heart into him he had not felt for days 
 and he hastened to make sure that he had made 
 no mistake. He called aloud and was answered 
 by the cook. The man came in hurriedly, car- 
 rying in his hand a bowl which, with an air of 
 apology, he set down on a table by the bed. 
 
184 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Here is your tea, your Well-born," lie said 
 with a deferential bow. "The remainder of 
 your breakfast is not ready yet, but it will not 
 be long delayed." The lieutenant did not seem 
 to notice his confusion or that his meal had not 
 been promptly served. 
 
 "What time is it?" he demanded eagerly. 
 
 "It is after seven, your Well-born, but the fire 
 was very slow. ' ' Mikhail Etolin knew now that 
 he had made no mistake and there rose up 
 within him an elation that gave him an almost 
 irresistible desire to cry out. 
 
 "Well, well," he said graciously, "there is 
 no harm done. Send Ivan Egorovitch to me at 
 once and bring me the breakfast whenever it is 
 cooked." The man did not go, but stood first 
 on one foot and then on the other, and Mikhail 
 Sergeievitch saw that he was not at ease. 
 
 "I am afraid, your Well-born, that Ivan 
 Egorovitch can not come, ' ' he said respectfully. 
 "He was asleep when I came in and I do not 
 even know if he is well enough to leave his 
 bed." 
 
 "Why, what has happened to him?" 
 
 "It was the accident. Assuredly your Well- 
 born will have heard!" 
 
VAEENKA BECOMES ROMANTIC 185 
 
 "I have heard nothing, " he cried testily. 
 " Go on and tell me what you know. ' ' The man 
 was pleased with his sudden access of impor- 
 tance, and gave the story with full picturesque- 
 ness of detail. The lieutenant listened closely 
 and in the description of the final condition 
 of those concerned found ground for a sudden 
 hope. "The priest then " he interrupted. 
 "Is he already dead!" 
 
 "Not dead, your Well-born, but very near to 
 death. " 
 
 "Too bad," said the lieutenant regretfully. 
 Then, looking around the room, he motioned 
 with his hand. "Bring me my clothes here," 
 he said. "I believe I shall get up." An hour 
 later he came in on Ivan Egorovitch and found 
 him just finishing his morning meal. 
 
 "You did well in a way, my boy," he said 
 wheezily. ' * This morning that devil of a priest 
 was too sick to ring his bell. But when you 
 saw out there that his Master was set to take 
 him, why did you not let him go?" There was 
 a real mournfulness in his tone and he looked at 
 Ivan Egorovitch so reproachfully that the young 
 man laughed. 
 
 "It came so suddenly, Mikhail Sergeievitch, " 
 
186 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 he said in humorous apology, "that it never oc- 
 curred to me that in saving him I was inter- 
 fering with the Lord!" 
 
 "It was blasphemy! It was the unpardon- 
 able sin!" burst out the lieutenant resentfully. 
 "And the worst of it is that I shall have to 
 suffer for it and not you!" 
 
 "Well, at any rate, give me credit for bring- 
 ing you the temporary relief." 
 
 "Yes if it lasts!" responded the lieutenant 
 with a sigh. He ambled over to the door, and 
 stopped meditatively with his hand on the latch. 
 
 "I am decent enough in most things," he 
 said with a little air of shame, "but if I were 
 to tell you the truth that is really in my heart, 
 I should have to say that I am honestly sorry 
 that you did not let him drown!" 
 
 After the lieutenant's departure, Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch found it no easy task to stay cooped 
 up at home. He settled himself as best he 
 might to spend the day in bed, but by ten o'clock 
 his inclination got the better of his prudence and 
 he dressed himself and made ready to go out. 
 
 "I will go and see Motrya," he said to him- 
 self. "Stepan shall not even have the advan- 
 tage of a day." He was still lame and weak 
 
VARENKA BECOMES ROMANTIC 187 
 
 and his progress was difficult and slow. By 
 stopping now and then to rest, however, the dis- 
 tance was accomplished without break; but 
 when he arrived, his distress was very evident. 
 
 Motrya Petrovna was not there, but her sister 
 and Tatiana Vassilievna sat at work just within 
 the door of the latter 's house. The older wornr 
 an was busy looking over a basket of dried 
 pease, preparatory to their being cooked, and 
 Varenka Petrovna had a cloth and needle in her 
 hands so" that she might have at least the ap- 
 pearance of occupation. 
 
 When they saw him, both women rose up with 
 exclamations of surprise. The young man was 
 almost too tired to smile and, after one look, 
 Tatiana Vassilievna laid hold on him with both 
 hands and drew him carefully inside. Under 
 her direction, Varenka Petrovna pulled forward 
 a mattress along the raised platform at the 
 side, and Tatiana Vassilievna pushed him down 
 on it and covered him with rugs. 
 
 "Now," she said severely, blowing out her 
 cheeks, "what are you here for, anyway? You 
 ought to be at home," 
 
 "Motrya " returned the young man weakly. 
 i ' I thought perhaps I might see her if I came. ' ' 
 
188 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "That you can not!" declared Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna promptly. i ' Your slow-moving brother 
 was here this morning on the same errand be- 
 fore he went to work. He stood around like a 
 gloomy owl when I refused him, but he gave it 
 up and went away, as I told him he would !" j - : - 
 
 "Motrya has not yet recovered from the 
 shock," volunteered Varenka Petrovna gravely. 
 "She is asleep now, over at the other house." 
 Ivan Egorovitch turned again to Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna with his most ingratiating air. 
 
 "But you will let me see her when she 
 wakes!" he persisted. Tatiana Vassilievna 's 
 features remained severely fixed and her de- 
 termination seemed as rigid as before. 
 
 "How many berries do you think you are 
 entitled to gather from my bush," she said 
 loftily, ' t after treating me to such a fright about 
 my girl f ' ' The young man grinned sheepishly 
 and let his eyes go down as if abashed. 
 
 "I do not seem to have pleased anybody in 
 this business," he said plaintively. "Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch lectured me last night, the lieuten- 
 ant took a turn at it this morning, and now you 
 will not let me see Motrya because, when it was 
 over, you had an unexpected fright ! ' ' Varenka 
 
VAKENKA BECOMES EOMANTIC 189 
 
 looked at him with ready sympathy, but Tatiana 
 Vassilievna deliberately brushed his plea aside. 
 
 "I suppose Mikhail Sergeievitch would have 
 had you let the man go and drown," she said 
 severely. The young man shrugged his shoul- 
 ders quizzically. 
 
 "From what he said," he answered, "I sus- 
 pect he would have been able to control his 
 grief if I had not got out to him in time." 
 
 "I am glad you did," said the older woman 
 impetuously, ' i if only that he should not get his 
 wish!" Varenka Petrovna had let her work 
 drop into her lap and was looking at him 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 "I am afraid, Ivan," she said, "that there is 
 at least one more reckoning for you yet to 
 come." The young man turned to her in sur- 
 prise. 
 
 "With whom?" 
 
 i ' With the priest. Are you sure that he took 
 the rescue in good part?" Ivan Egorovitch 
 considered the matter quickly in his mind. 
 
 "No," he said, "I am sure, rather, that he 
 did not. He thought that I was trying to drown 
 him when I overturned the boat. ' 9 
 
 "Then you must have a care," she went on 
 
190 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 earnestly. "You know how vindictive he has 
 been toward Mikhail Sergeievitch because he 
 thinks that he killed his son." Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna had finished with her pease and, gather- 
 ing up the things she had been using, she retired 
 with them to the other room. Varenka Petrovna 
 waited till she was well out of sight and then 
 leaned forward to Ivan Egorovitch and put out 
 her hand. 
 
 "I wanted to tell you, Ivan," she said, "that 
 I am glad you went out there and helped the 
 priest. It was a brave thing!" The young 
 man flushed with confusion at the unexpected 
 commendation. 
 
 "It is sweet to hear you say so," he replied 
 gratefully. "But the real credit belongs not 
 to me, but to Motrya. It was she who saved us 
 both." 
 
 "But the impulse came from you. She only 
 did as she was bid." 
 
 "That is true. But it was her strength and 
 not my planning that drew us back to shore." 
 Varenka Petrovna sighed. 
 
 "Motrya is so young," she said, "that even 
 yet I can not understand where she got the 
 strength. I can not think of her as anything 
 
YARENKA BECOMES ROMANTIC 191 
 
 but a child. ' ' Ivan Egorovitch looked up at her 
 with a smile. 
 
 "She is seventeen, " he said. 
 
 "I know," she answered, "but that seems 
 very young." 
 
 "Why," said the young man thoughtlessly, 
 "it is no younger than you were when " He 
 stopped in some confusion and she quietly took 
 up the word. 
 
 "Yes, that is true," she said under her breath, 
 "but it was different then." Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna put her head in at the door and called 
 to Varenka Petrovna. 
 
 "Come and help me with the baby," she said. 
 "I want to get him washed before I start in on 
 the work for noon." 
 
 "But there will be no one to talk to Ivan 
 Egorovitch," objected the younger matron. 
 
 "Ivan Egorovitch can go to sleep. It will 
 do him good." Varenka Petrovna looked at 
 him doubtfully. 
 
 "If I do," asked the young man boldly, "will 
 you let me see Motrya Petrovna when I wake 
 again?" Tatiana Vassilievna gave him a look 
 of mock despair. 
 
 "He has nothing else in his mind!" she said 
 
192 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 with a shake of her head. ' i You go to sleep now 
 and afterwards we will see. ' ' Varenka Petrov- 
 na rose and laid aside her work. But before 
 she went, she straightened the covers and 
 arranged the pillows under the young man's 
 head. 
 
 " There," she said, "you shall be comfortable 
 at least, and I will look in now and then to see 
 that you are all right. ' ' She went out into the 
 other room and he was left alone. But he was 
 not unhappy, for there remained behind her and 
 lingered in the place the comfort of her kindli- 
 ness and the remembered pleasure of her touch. 
 He lay back on his pillow and contentedly 
 closed his eyes. She had given him a feminine 
 care he had not experienced for years and he 
 gave himself up to the delicious recollection 
 of it with a lazy satisfaction. He let his eyes 
 stay closed, though the impulse was not in him 
 really to go to sleep. The air was warm and 
 pleasant and he could hear the low talk of the 
 women and the splashing of the baby in his 
 tub. 
 
 True to her promise, in about ten minutes, 
 Varenka Petrovna came back to see how he had 
 fared. He did not stir or open his eyes and 
 
VAEENKA BECOMES ROMANTIC 193 
 
 she came over to him and lingered for a mo- 
 ment, looking down. He felt her fingers move 
 about his face and she lightly lifted a stray lock 
 of hair from his forehead and laid it gently 
 back. Then she went away, and he found him- 
 self again alone. 
 
 "He did go to sleep/' he heard her say as 
 she went into the other room, and he smiled 
 happily to himself. There was a genuine pleas- 
 ure in thus having her come and minister to 
 his need but it was a pleasure purely innocent 
 in its thought, one that did not at any point 
 reflect on his loyalty to the girl he loved. The 
 subdued chatter went on in the kitchen for a 
 time as before, and he really felt himself be- 
 gin to doze. But finally there was a lull in the 
 women's talk and a momentary quiet and then 
 he heard footsteps once more at the door. 
 
 It was Varenka Petrovna, and through his 
 half-closed eyes he saw that she carried her hat 
 and other things and guessed that she was on 
 her way home. She shut the door behind her 
 as she came in and, with simply an inquiring 
 look in his direction, passed on across the floor. 
 He thought she was gone, but at the outer 
 door she paused again as if in sudden thought 
 
194 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 and stood gazing at him irresolutely with her 
 lips drawn in between her teeth. Then, with a 
 sudden look behind her, she made up her mind 
 to go to him again, and tiptoed over swiftly 
 to his bed. His eyes shut promptly and he 
 waited curiously to see what she would do. 
 There was a moment's pause, when he heard 
 no longer the rustle of her dress and knew she 
 was standing by his side. Then with a touch as 
 light as thistle-down, he felt her fingers laid 
 cautiously on his lips. 
 
 The contact startled him somewhat, but if for 
 no other reason than that she might not know 
 that he was fooling her, he held himself reso- 
 lutely in check and kept the semblance of his 
 acting good. Having satisfied herself that he 
 was really asleep and that the venture she de- 
 sired could be safely made, Varenka Petrovna 
 bent above him lightly till he felt her warm 
 breath pass across his cheek and for an instant 
 her lips lay tremblingly on his. 
 
 ' ' Good-by, ' ' she breathed, and the words were 
 so low he scarcely heard. He forced himself 
 still to breathe regularly and slowly, but as she 
 raised herself again he was conscious that a tell- 
 tale color was flooding all his neck and face. 
 
VAEENKA BECOMES EOMANTIC 195 
 
 She did not notice it, however, for before she 
 had time to stand erect there was a sudden noise 
 in the room and he heard her give a quick cry of 
 dismay. His eyes came open instantly and cen- 
 tered on her face. She was standing near him 
 still, with her hands clasped helplessly in front 
 of her and her face crimsoned by a growing 
 flush of shame. Her eyes were fixed on some- 
 thing beyond him which had evidently disturbed 
 her calm and, following her glance, he saw that 
 Peter Efimovitch had unexpectedly come in and 
 was standing looking at them, just inside the 
 door. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE WOOING OF MOTKYA 
 
 Though brought to the result by widely differ- 
 ing moods, the effect, on Varenka Petrovna and 
 the two men alike, was to hold them for the 
 moment silent where they were. The woman's 
 eyes were fixed on her father's face with the 
 intent watchfulness of a frightened thing 
 brought unexpectedly to bay, and her color came 
 and went in sudden changes as she ran the 
 gamut of her fears. 
 
 Peter Efimovitch made no sign, but his glance 
 traveled suspiciously from Varenka Petrovna to 
 the young man and back again, as if to gage 
 from their confusion the measure of their guilt. 
 Ivan Egorovitch, sure that he had had no pre- 
 determined part in the indiscretion of the girl, 
 found within him no consciousness of wrong- 
 doing and only felt dismay that this retribution 
 should have come to her for a lapse so inno- 
 cent of guile. 
 
 196 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTEYA 197 
 
 Peter Efimovitch was the first to move. He 
 stepped forward into the room and, looking at 
 Ms daughter, motioned toward the doorway 
 with his hand. The girl understood, and, with 
 a glance of shame at Ivan Egorovitch, put down 
 her head so they should not see her face and 
 went swiftly out. Peter Efimovitch watched till 
 she was well away, and then turned accusingly 
 to the young man. 
 
 "So you are at your old tricks again!" he 
 said dryly. There was a covert sneer in his 
 tone, but his upper lip trembled as he spoke and 
 Ivan Egorovitch guessed that behind his bitter- 
 ness of tone was the gnawing fear of family 
 disgrace. He threw off the covers that the 
 women had arranged about him and sat up on 
 the platform's edge. 
 
 "What do you mean by that, Peter Efimo- 
 vitch 1" he demanded sharply, and there was a 
 note of challenge in his voice. The older man 
 did not immediately reply and, though he con- 
 tinued to look at Ivan Egorovitch as steadily 
 as before, his emotions so overcame him that 
 he could not trust himself to speak. 
 
 "Why did you do that?" he cried when he 
 could again control his voice. "Why could you 
 
198 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 not let her go 1 " He was so unhappy that the 
 young man could not but sympathize with his 
 distress. 
 
 "I have done nothing, Peter Efimovitch, ' ' he 
 said earnestly. " There has been nothing that 
 was wrong between Varenka Petrovna and me ! ' ' 
 The old man's irritation increased to anger and 
 his eyes began to blaze. 
 
 "Then God help your standards/' he cried 
 fiercely, "if what you have done appears to 
 you to be the honest thing ! ' 9 Ivan Egorovitch 
 got unsteadily to his feet and went to where 
 the other stood. 
 
 "You are an old man," he said sharply, "but 
 you shall not talk to me like that ! Now, what 
 is it you think I have done?" Stirred even as 
 he was, Peter Efimovitch found it hard to put 
 his attack on his daughter's honor into words. 
 
 "You know well enough!" he declared stern- 
 ly. '"'It is the old pursuit in the old way 
 only that, now, in listening to it, she is no longer 
 an innocent girl!" 
 
 "It is not true!" cried the young man ear- 
 nestly. "No one can say that through word or 
 deed of mine a smirch of any sort has come 
 upon her name." 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTRYA 199 
 
 " Why should I need to ask," responded Peter 
 Efimovitch bitterly, "when the proof of it comes 
 to me through my own eyes?" 
 
 "There was no wrong to-day," persisted the 
 young man earnestly. ' ' Varenka was innocent 
 in what she did, and, except unconsciously, I 
 had no part in the thing at all. ' ' Peter Efimo- 
 vitch 's jaw set obstinately and the corners of 
 his mouth went down. 
 
 "You are more of a cur than I thought," 
 he burst out savagely, "and God knows I had 
 a bad enough opinion of you before ! I suppose 
 what you mean is that you were asleep and the 
 blame, if there is any, rests on her!" Ivan 
 Egorovitch's face went white with anger, but he 
 struggled to control himself that he might make 
 better salvage of her shipwreck for the woman. 
 
 ' ' I was not asleep, ' ' he admitted, ' ' and in that 
 I pretended to be so, I suppose I am to blame. 
 But the thing I want you to understand is that 
 she believed fully that I was asleep or she never 
 for a moment would have shown her heart. I 
 have a better opinion of her than you," he 
 added. 
 
 "I do not believe it!" cried the old man 
 stubbornly. 
 
200 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 " Ask her yourself, then. Yon can easily find 
 ont." 
 
 "I shall," replied the old man grimly. "I 
 shall not rest until I have the truth. " The 
 young man's face lighted and he gave a little 
 nod. 
 
 "That is what I wish, too," he said with 
 quiet eagerness. ' ' There is nothing that could 
 be so good, either for her or me. Be reasonable, 
 Peter Efimovitch," he went on coaxingly. 
 "You must remember that it was long ago I 
 wanted Varenka Petrovna and I have none of 
 that old feeling toward her now. She is mar- 
 ried and belongs to another man, and I am not 
 the sort to want her unless I could have her 
 entirely to myself. Varenka, as you ought to 
 know, is a good woman, and what she did to-day 
 was only a sentimental gratification of her 
 recollection of what had gone before. She had 
 no idea, I know, of reopening the old relation 
 with me, and, for my part, I am equally sure 
 that I had no desire to reopen it with her, be- 
 cause I now have an interest in another girl. ' ' 
 
 "God help that other, then!" burst out Peter 
 Efimovitch solemnly. "I thank Him that she 
 is none of mine!" Ivan Egorovitch's breath 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTEYA 201 
 
 went out with a rush and he made a plunge at 
 the older man. His excitement lent him 
 strength and, seizing Peter Efimovitch by both 
 shoulders, he shook him as a dog might shake 
 a rat. 
 
 "I am not afraid of you any more!" he cried 
 excitedly. "Now, will you listen civilly to what 
 I have to say?" Peter Efimovitch caught his 
 assailant tightly by the wrists and struggled to 
 throw off the hold. But before he could collect 
 his scattered wits and answer, the door that 
 led into the kitchen opened suddenly and 
 Tatiana Vassilievna came hurriedly into the 
 room. She stopped short when she saw the 
 struggling men and looked with open mouth. 
 
 "What is this?" she cried sharply. "Peter 
 Efimovitch, what are you doing to my boy!" 
 Both men let go their hold at the interruption 
 and Ivan Egorovitch turned to her with an 
 apologetic grin. 
 
 "It is nothing, Tatiana Vassilievna," he said 
 deprecatingly. "Peter Efimovitch and I were 
 having a little argument and I was trying to 
 show him I was right." Tatiana Vassilievna 
 fixed her eyes on them with growing disapproval 
 in her look. 
 
202 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "A sick man and an old man!" she cried 
 contemptuously. "And when they get together 
 nothing will do but they must come to blows ! ' ' 
 Ivan Egorovitch put down his face diffidently 
 and went over to her. 
 
 "I am sorry, Tatiana Vassilievna, that I have 
 made trouble in your house. If you will give 
 me my hat I will go away at once. ' ' The wom- 
 an looked doubtfully from him to Peter Efimo- 
 vitch as if willing to learn more before passing 
 judgment in the case, but after a moment she 
 made up her mind and without further query 
 did as he had asked. He took the hat with a 
 smile of propitiatory humility, and said to her 
 under his breath, 
 
 ' ' Talk with Peter Efimovitch after I am gone. 
 I will come back this afternoon and tell you 
 about the affair." When he was gone, Tatiana 
 Vassilievna turned to his antagonist with de- 
 termination in her eye. 
 
 "Now," she said with emphasis, "why is it 
 that you can never learn to be decently civil 
 to that boy!" The old man was still panting 
 from the struggle he had gone through and it 
 did not help his composure to be brought thus 
 to book. 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTEYA 203 
 
 " Civil be damned !" he snarled angrily. 
 "The man is a snake and I have no place for 
 him except under my foot!" 
 
 "You ought to be ashamed, Peter Efimo- 
 vitch," said Tatiana Vassilievna indignantly. 
 "The lad is as good a boy as you could find this 
 side of the sea." 
 
 "Let him keep clear of my girl, then," he 
 declared surlily, "and I will never raise the 
 question of his worth!" Tatiana Vassilievna 
 put her knuckles on her hips and the skin on 
 her cheeks grew tighter with the scorn that she 
 held in. 
 
 "Since God began you a fool, Peter Efimo- 
 vitch," she said caustically, "I suppose it is no 
 use for a woman to try to help it now. But 
 why you should waste your time working to 
 keep those two young things apart is beyond the 
 comprehension of my mind. Where in all Eus- 
 sia could you find a more likely man to 'kiss 
 her under the crown'?" Peter Efimovitch's 
 lip lifted maliciously 
 
 "How many lovers do you think a woman 
 ought to have at one time!" he demanded with 
 a sneer. 
 
 "As many as she likes," responded Tatiana 
 
204 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 Vassilievna promptly, "provided she settles on 
 one only in the end." 
 
 "Well, I do not," declared the old man with 
 conviction. "When a woman marries one man 
 he ought to be enough!" Tatiana Vassilievna 
 looked at him with amazement in her face. 
 
 "What are you talking about, anyway?" she 
 demanded breathlessly. 
 
 "I am talking about Varenka and her rela- 
 tion to this man." Tatiana Vassilievna was so 
 shocked by the surprise, that she stood look- 
 ing at him open-mouthed and crossed herself 
 vigorously before she spoke, as a protection 
 against the evil thought. 
 
 "Varenka!" she cried incredulously. "It is 
 not Varenka, it is Motrya that he wants ! ' ' 
 
 "You know nothing about it," shouted the old 
 man triumphantly. "If it is not Varenka, why 
 did I find them kissing each other here in this 
 very room ? ' ' 
 
 "I do not believe you did. When was it?" 
 she answered bluntly. 
 
 "Just now, when I came in." 
 
 "And he was kissing her?" 
 
 6 ' No, he was lying down and she was bending 
 over him with her lips touching his !" Tatiana 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTEYA 205 
 
 Vassilievna 's practical mind jumped instinct- 
 ively to the truth. 
 
 "Nu!" she said in cheerful contradiction. 
 "If Varenka Petrovna did it she thought he was 
 asleep. " The old man shook his head. 
 
 "Though that be so," he said stubbornly, 
 "she ought not to have done it even then." 
 Tatiana Vassilievna heard him to the end and 
 her face lighted with a smile. 
 
 "Why, that is no crime," she declared breez- 
 ily. "If I had gone in and found him there 
 asleep, I "am not sure but I should have been 
 kissing him myself ! ' ' Peter Efimovitch had no 
 answer ready for this flank attack and contented 
 himself with snorting vigorously. Tatiana 
 Vassilievna was well satisfied with her advan- 
 tage and proceeded at once to a new attack. 
 
 "You are stretching the wrong string, Peter 
 Efimovitch," she said warningly. "You will 
 find no break in Varenka Petrovna, no matter 
 how hard you pull. Why, man, where are your 
 eyes?" she cried with sudden change of front. 
 "If you had half looked you would have seen 
 that he sticks as closely to Motrya as a shadow 
 to a duck. He has no thought for any other 
 woman in the world ! ' ' 
 
206 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 There came to Peter Efimovitch a sudden 
 recollection of the young man's justification of 
 a similar sort and, like a flash, the familiar rela- 
 tions he had blindly observed between the two 
 took on a new and astonishing significance. The 
 knowledge, however, brought little either of 
 comfort or relief. It was no advantage that 
 Ivan Egorovitch had transferred his affections 
 from one to the other of his brood. 
 
 "I will not have it," he protested with an 
 added sense of wrong. "Let him take his ac- 
 cursed wooing somewhere else!" He pressed 
 the palms of his hands together nervously and 
 began walking feverishly up and down. Tatiana 
 
 Vassilievna watched him with increased con- 
 
 
 
 tent. 
 
 "Do not try to bite your elbow, Peter Efimo- 
 vitch," she advised curtly. "It can not be done 
 even if it is near your face. Be reasonable and 
 let the young things have the comfort of their 
 lives." He gave her a look so full of malevo- 
 lent bitterness that she took counsel of her dis- 
 cretion and left him to himself. His anger 
 remained as a possession and he continued to 
 walk the floor like a wild beast, until she called 
 him to his midday meal. 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTEYA 207 
 
 He came mechanically, but was too gloomy 
 and absorbed to eat. The food was sawdust to 
 him, and, after a decent pretense, he got up 
 from the table and, without his usual pipe, went 
 back moodily to his work. The sense of his 
 defeat was strong in him and its taste was 
 not the less bitter that it had been through his 
 own foolish blindness that the young man's 
 later passion had found chance to gather 
 strength. 
 
 That there should be an end at once to the 
 entanglement became an instant predication in 
 his mind. He searched his cunning, not only 
 for means to bring the association to an end, 
 but further, for anything that might prove dis- 
 concerting to the young man by himself. The 
 safest way out lay in bringing about an instant 
 separation of the pair, and, if he did not send 
 the girl away, steps, he decided, must be taken 
 to have the young man removed. In this mood 
 it was a relief to find some one with whom he 
 could agree, and it was therefore with a real 
 sense of pleasure, that, arriving at the ware- 
 house, he came unexpectedly on the priest. 
 
 Simeon Gvosdef had recovered sufficiently to 
 drag himself out into the sun, and sat, a 
 
208 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 shrunken heap, beside the warehouse door. He 
 made no sign of recognition as Peter Efimovitch 
 approached, but kept his eyes bent furtively 
 on the ground. The latter felt no thrill of 
 sympathy over the priest's forlorn estate, but 
 the thought that he, too, had suffered at Ivan 
 Egorovitch's hands weighed with him, so that 
 he stopped and looked curiously at the sitting 
 man. 
 
 "So he did not drown you after all !" he said 
 in his rasping voice. Simeon Gvosdef raised 
 his head slowly and looked at his interlocutor 
 with suspicious eyes. 
 
 "He could not drown me," he said quietly. 
 "God has put me here to carry out a mission, 
 and until that is fulfilled, he would not be al- 
 lowed. It was not my life the young man sought, 
 when he overturned the boat." Peter Efimo- 
 vitch 's lips shut tight together and, in his sur- 
 prise, he blew softly through his nose. 
 
 "Well," he said dryly, "it is a good thing 
 to have faith! But the man must have had 
 some motive in turning you into the sea." 
 
 "Yes," responded the priest softly, "there 
 was a motive without doubt." He broke off a 
 splinter from a beam beside him and began 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTRYA 209 
 
 slowly drawing scratches with it in the ground 
 at his side. 
 
 "He did not think I would know it," he said 
 without looking up. "It was not my life he 
 desired, but the bell." 
 
 "The bell!" 
 
 "Yes, the bell. I had it hanging round my 
 neck." 
 
 "But why should he so want the bell?" asked 
 Peter Efimovitch in astonishment. 
 
 "It was not for himself, but for his master 
 that Mikhail Sergeievitch might be less afraid. 
 The lieutenant set him to steal it from me long 
 before." 
 
 "And it is gone?" asked Peter Efimovitch 
 with growing interest. 
 
 "Yes, since the time I was in the boat." 
 Peter Efimovitch realized that under the cir- 
 cumstances its disappearance was probably one 
 of simple loss, but he made no sign to that 
 effect, in that he saw in the incident a chance 
 to do to Ivan Egorovitch an unexpected harm. 
 
 "This is a serious matter," he said gravely. 
 "Why do you not make the charge and ask for 
 his arrest?" 
 
 "I have thought of it," replied the other list- 
 
210 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 lessly, "but what would be the use? It is be- 
 fore Mikhail Etolin that he would have to bo 
 tried/' 
 
 "But the bell was church property and its 
 stealing was an offense against God as well as 
 you. The lieutenant would not dare to ig- 
 nore the charge if it were made." The priest 
 considered the matter silently for a moment and 
 then shook his head. 
 
 "No," he said, "I will wait till he dies and 
 there is another judge. " Peter Efimovitch felt 
 an uncomfortable chill along his spine at the 
 other's air of conviction. 
 
 "Will it then be so soon?" he asked huskily. 
 
 "Yes, soon enough. I shall not have long 
 to wait." But waiting of any sort was not a 
 part of Peter Efimovitch 's plan, as long as he 
 saw a way to make things go. 
 
 "There would be no delay at all," he sug- 
 gested, "if it were taken to another judge. 
 Shelikof 's title to the company is so infirm just 
 now that he would go far before he would let 
 it be said in Russia that an officer of his had 
 failed to punish a crime against the Church." 
 The priest sighed hopelessly and settled back 
 into his place. 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTBYA 211 
 
 "I have no influence, " he said, "and Eussia 
 is too far away." 
 
 "But why not Yakutat? That is only two 
 days." The priest's eyes lighted with sudden 
 interest and he sat gradually upright. 
 
 "I might write and see," he said under his 
 breath. "How long is it before a letter could 
 be sent out?" 
 
 "The regular mail went out last week, but a 
 special messenger starts to-morrow morning 
 with an unexpected requisition for supplies. I 
 am making out the list of them to-day. ' ' Simeon 
 Gvosdef 's color rose and his hands began to 
 tremble so he could scarcely hold them still. 
 
 "I will do it!" he cried eagerly. "I will 
 make the charge and, if God wills it, there will 
 be the punishment for Ivan Egorovitch that he 
 deserves." Peter Efimovitch's face beamed 
 with his elation and he patted Simeon Gvosdef 
 on the arm. 
 
 "Good!" he said. "Then there will be no 
 delay. Write out the packet to-day and bring 
 it to me here and I will see that it goes to the 
 messenger with our despatch." 
 
 When Ivan Egorovitch went out from the 
 company of Peter Efimovitch and Zakar Med- 
 
212 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 vedef 's wife, he grinned to himself, almost be- 
 fore he was alone. Yet there was an element of 
 ruefulness behind the humor, which served to 
 keep him from more boisterous mirth. He 
 could laugh at the situation and even at the 
 plight in which he had been put. But he could 
 not but be sorry that he had stirred again the 
 fire of Peter Efimovitch's enmity, and, espe- 
 cially, that through him, Varenka Petrovna 
 should have come to shame. 
 
 At thought of her, he turned and looked 
 back intently at the place where she was housed. 
 There was no stir about the cottage to show 
 that any one was there, and he began to wonder 
 if she had told Motrya Petrovna of the hap- 
 penings of the day, and, if so, what the younger 
 girl had said. It took only a moment's thought, 
 however, to convince him that the confidence 
 had not been given and that he had no occasion 
 for alarm. Varenka Petrovna had no special 
 yearning for reproach and it was not likely that, 
 unpressed, she would give avoidable publicity 
 to her disgrace. 
 
 If Motrya Petrovna came to know the truth, 
 it would not be through her sister's confidence, 
 but because her father had told her with an 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTKYA 213 
 
 eye to hurt his suit. It behooved him, there- 
 fore, to see Motrya Petrovna before the dis- 
 closure was brought untimely to her ears, and 
 forestall the trouble by telling her himself. 
 
 He could scarcely eat his dinner through im- 
 patience for his plan, and, the meal once done, 
 he took his hat again and sallied out into the 
 street. He had but one thought to see Motrya 
 Petrovna and talk with her alone but how that 
 purpose was to be accomplished was yet by no 
 means certain in his mind. 
 
 But for her sake and his own, he did not 
 wish to come on Varenka Petrovna again 
 until she had time to recover from her shame. 
 And with her at hand, he knew that he could not 
 open his heart to the younger sister as he would. 
 He decided, finally, to go again to Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna and throw himself on her mercy to 
 help him with his plan. He knew that by this 
 time Peter Efimovitch would be gone again to 
 work and that the chance was good for seeing 
 her alone. 
 
 He found her, as usual, busy with her work, 
 but when he came in, she spared the time to 
 stop and look at him. She did not speak, but 
 stood with hands engaged, and stared and con- 
 
214 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 tinned to stare at him with her head turned 
 quizzically on one side. 
 
 "Do not look at me like that, Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna. You make me nervous!" he said fin- 
 ally. But Tatiana VassiHevna was not so to be 
 beguiled. 
 
 "What are you here for again?" she said 
 [with as stern a pretense of disapprobation as 
 she could muster for the time. 
 
 "To make confession and lay claim to the 
 reward," declared the young man gaily. He 
 came up close to her and stood with his hat held 
 in front of him with both hands. 
 
 "Tell me quick!" he said breathlessly. 
 "Was he very fierce?" Tatiana Vassilievna's 
 eyes began to twinkle, and her face relaxed. 
 
 "Like a bear!" she said with strong convic- 
 tion. "He said you were a snake!" 
 
 "And did he tell you how I was breaking up 
 his home?" 
 
 "Indeed he did, in words that must have 
 burned his mouth." 
 
 "That is why I shook him," interposed the 
 young man apologetically. "He was saying 
 that before I went away." 
 
 "Well, he had no better opinion of you after 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTRYA 215 
 
 you were gone. It was hard work to cool him 
 down. ' ' 
 
 "How did you do it?" demanded the young 
 man delightedly. 
 
 "I told him that he was a fool that it was 
 not Varenka at all, but Motrya, with whom you 
 were in love." The young man's face sobered 
 for the moment and he involuntarily caught his 
 breath. 
 
 "Saint Basil help us!" he gasped. "And 
 what did he say to that?" 
 
 "He intimated that it was sometimes best not 
 to come in to dinner till you had been invited to 
 sit down." Ivan Egorovitch laughed, but Ta- 
 tiana Vassilievna could see that his gaiety was 
 less spontaneous than before. 
 
 "I might have known he would oppose it," 
 he said thoughtfully. "I wonder if he has told 
 Motrya what occurred." 
 
 "No. He went back to his work after dinner 
 without going over to the other house." Ivan 
 Egorovitch 's heart jumped, and he seized his 
 companion with both hands. 
 
 "Tatiana Vassilievna," he said imploringly, 
 "I must see Motrya Petrovna before Peter 
 Efimovitch comes home to-night. Could you 
 
216 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 not get her over here for me so that I could talk 
 to her alone?" Tatiana Vassilievna's face 
 made pretense of taking on its old mask of hard- 
 ness, and she solemnly shook her head. 
 
 "It is not possible, " she said gravely. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "I am sure she is not able to come out." 
 
 i ' Then bring Varenka Petrovna over here so 
 that I can see Motrya there. ' ' 
 
 "Varenka Petrovna," went on Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna pitilessly, "will hardly come over after 
 what happened here to-day!" The young man 
 pressed her hands warmly and bent down so 
 that he could look more closely into her eyes. 
 
 "You will help me, will you not, Tatiana?" he 
 said appealingly. "You do not want to see me 
 suffer just because I am in love!" Tatiana 
 Vassilievna pushed him from her and stretched 
 back her head as if to hold herself further away. 
 
 "It is the way with all lovers," she said hope- 
 lessly. "If you will be a mushroom, you must 
 go into the basket like the rest!" 
 
 "But, Tatiana, could you not get Varenka to 
 go somewhere else?" 
 
 "No," she said, "because she is already 
 gone. I saw her climbing the hill toward where 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTEYA 217 
 
 her husband is at work." The young man 
 fairly gasped in his surprise. 
 
 ' < Why did you not tell me ? ' ' he said reproach- 
 fully. ' ' Then Motrya is alone I ' ' 
 
 "'Yes unless you or some one else intrudes 
 on her. ' ' 
 
 "May an angel pass and brush you with its 
 wings ! ' ' cried the young man joyously. He put 
 both his arms around Tatiana Vassilievna 's 
 shoulders and kissed her heartily on either 
 cheek. She pushed him away from her and mo- 
 tioned with her hands. 
 
 "Oh, go!" she cried. "If you are not more 
 careful, Zakar Alexievitch, too, will be charging 
 you with meddling with his peace. ' ' But Ivan 
 Egorovitch scarcely heard the words. Almost 
 before she spoke, he was across the room and, 
 with a wave of the hand, he went lightly out 
 through the door on his way to the other house. 
 Tatiana Vassilievna gazed after him fondly, 
 with her hands on her hips. When he was out 
 of sight, she threw back her head and let her 
 mouth open in a long, silent laugh. Then with 
 a sigh and a shrug of resignation to events, she 
 turned about and went happily back to her work. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch J s buoyancy of spirit carried 
 
218 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 him across the intervening space between the 
 houses as jauntily as if he trod on air. The 
 door was shut, but he knocked imperiously and 
 scarcely found the patience to await the answer 
 from within. When it came he raised the latch 
 without delay and entering, stood looking 
 eagerly around. 
 
 The girl he had come to see sat on the edge 
 of the platform along the inner wall and did not 
 rise at his approach. She had improvised a 
 couch with pillows and the covers from the beds 
 and, propped against these, she waited for him 
 with a smile on her face. He went at once to 
 where she sat and bent with tenderness above 
 the hand she held out. 
 
 "I knew you would come," she said softly, 
 and lifted her eyes to his. He saw that she was 
 gowned in some loose stuff of soft red and that 
 her hair was not dressed as usual, but braided 
 and caught behind her neck. But besides these 
 differences, he was aware that there was a 
 change in her that ran in some subtle way to 
 every fiber of her being. There was a new droop 
 of her eyelids as she met his glance, and a 
 scarcely perceptible flutter of her breath. She 
 was the same and yet not the same, and he 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTEYA 219 
 
 realized that by some miracle of the night in 
 the time since he had seen her last her girlish- 
 ness had expanded and the flower of her con- 
 scious womanhood come suddenly to bloom. 
 
 "How did you know that I would come?" he 
 said after a little pause. Her glance wavered 
 under his ardent look and her eyelids dropped 
 suddenly down. Then, without a word, she 
 raised her eyes to his again, and her lips parted 
 in a slow, meaning smile. The young man felt 
 his pulse stir as he saw it and the intoxication 
 of success ran over him like fire. 
 
 "Ah, you have come to know!" he cried with 
 swift conviction, and would have taken her in 
 his arms. But she held him from her and let 
 herself sink back against the pillows, the blood 
 rising redly in her cheeks. 
 
 "Yes, I havei come to know," she whispered 
 softly. She bent down her head and bit her 
 lips, for the confession was yet so new to her 
 it still seemed over-bold. The young man did 
 not let her go an instant from his glance and, 
 after a moment, with a quiet air of ownership, 
 he sat down by her side. 
 
 His thoughts went whirling dizzily in a flood 
 of blissful visions, and for the time he sought 
 
220 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 no more than to be near her and know that he 
 had her heart. With the new relation, a sudden 
 shyness fell on them both and they leaned 
 apart from each other with a hitherto unknown 
 reserve. Ivan Egorovitch sought in vain for 
 his usual flow of speech and the girl, finding her- 
 self so near him, remembered the innocent fa- 
 miliarities, which for years had been current 
 between them, with a sudden panic at the heart. 
 This, however, Ivan Egorovitch found the 
 courage for he took up her hand and held it 
 caressingly against his face. 
 
 "When did it come?" he asked, speaking low, 
 as if afraid that some one else might hear. 
 
 "It was last night when you were in the sea,'' 
 she said with some constraint. "It came to me 
 all at once what it would be if you should not 
 come back." Gathering courage, he drew her 
 forward till her hair was almost against his 
 face. 
 
 ' ' Then you are sure f ' ' he cried. ' ' And after 
 this there will be no mistake ? ' ' 
 
 "So sure," she said, "that it seems now that 
 it could never have been a different way." He 
 drew her more closely to him, but she pushed 
 him back. 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTEYA 221 
 
 ' l Wait ! " she said breathlessly. ' ' Let me ' ' 
 He yielded to her wish and, taking his face be- 
 tween her hands, she drew it down till it was al- 
 most against hers. Then with a touch as light 
 as air, her lips brushed swiftly across his fore- 
 head and settled for an instant on his eyes. 
 
 "I have been thinking I would do that," she 
 said very softly, and hid her face bashfully 
 against his sleeve. He gathered her to him till 
 he could feel the beat of her heart against his 
 breast. 
 
 "And now that you have done it," he whis- 
 pered, ' i do you not find it sweet ! ' ' For answer 
 she clung to him with sudden closeness, and 
 nodded without lifting up her head. 
 
 "It was a consecration," she said solemnly. 
 "I wanted it first that way." 
 
 "But now "'he persisted. "When may I 
 have the rest?" 
 
 "When you like," she answered under her 
 breath, and their lips met in their first lovers' 
 kiss. Her joy in surrender was so complete 
 that Ivan Egorovitch felt a pang whenever he 
 thought of what he had come primarily to tell. 
 He tried to screw his courage to the sticking- 
 point, but each time failed to find the heart to 
 
222 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 destroy in smallest part the pretty fabric of her 
 trust. 
 
 "You are sure of yourself," he said finally. 
 * ' How do you know that you are sure of me 1 ' ' 
 She smiled at him without a waver of suspicion 
 in her eyes. 
 
 "Why should my trust be less than yours?" 
 she said steadily. "I know that you believe 
 in me." 
 
 "But," said the young man soberly, "this is 
 the only time you have been in love." There 
 was a shade of seriousness in his tone and Mo- 
 trya Petrovna responded to it. She drew back 
 a little and looked at him with an air of wonder- 
 ing search. 
 
 6 1 Do you mean, Ivan, that you have something 
 to tell me that I ought to know?" 
 
 "Yes," he said, "if I could find the way to 
 tell it to you now. ' ' She watched him narrowly 
 while her mind went over the evil possibilities 
 of which she was aware. 
 
 "Is it about Varenka?" she asked suddenly, 
 and felt her heart-beat quicken as she awaited 
 his reply. 
 
 " Yes, " he admitted. " It is about her. ' ' 
 
 "And there is nothing else?" 
 
THE WOOING OF MOTEYA 223 
 
 "No, outside of that, my record sheet is 
 clear. ' ' 
 
 "Then I will not hear it," she decided posi- 
 tively. "I have seen you with her and I am not 
 afraid. ' ' 
 
 "God bless you!" he cried involuntarily. 
 "You are better to me than I deserve." 
 
 "Perhaps better than you have deserved be- 
 fore, ' ' she answered gently, ' ' but not than what 
 you will deserve from this time on." 
 
 "Then," he said, "your faith is strong 
 enough to believe in me henceforward, no matter 
 what you hear 1 ' ' 
 
 "I love you," she answered simply, "and I 
 would not believe evil of you except from your 
 own mouth." 
 
 There was a cautious tap at the door and Ta- 
 tiana Vassilievna put in her head. 
 
 "I am coming in," she said warningly. "I 
 have been doubtful this whole hour whether you 
 two young things should be left alone." The 
 lovers sat more decorously apart, but Ivan 
 Egorovitch still held stoutly to Motrya Pe- 
 trovna's hand. 
 
 " It is all right, Tatiana Vassilievna, ' ' he cried 
 joyously. "I knew it would be if you would let 
 
224 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 me see her alone !" The girl's eyes dropped 
 shyly at the unexpected announcement and Ta- 
 tiana Vassilievna came promptly over to her 
 and gathered her in her arms. 
 
 "That is good!" she declared with satisfac- 
 tion. "I am glad that it is so. He does not 
 deserve to have you, but somehow he has fingers 
 for milking favors from the Lord that the rest 
 of us could never coax Him to give down. I 
 will help you all I can with your father and the 
 rest, and when you are married " she added, 
 bending down so that she whispered in the 
 other's ear, "I will myself see that the cart- 
 wheel is forthcoming to set up for the stork." 
 The girl flushed furiously and bent down her 
 head; and Tatiana Vassilievna turned to the 
 young man and beckoned with her hand. 
 
 ' ' You had better go now, ' ' she said. ' ' I came 
 in) to tell you that it is almost six o'clock, and 
 that Os sip and Varenka are coming down the 
 hill." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PETEE LAYS A PLOT 
 
 The afternoon had been sultry and oppres- 
 sive. The sky was clear at dawn, but the clouds 
 had risen steadily all day and over the high 
 land to the east there had been for some time 
 premonitory rumblings of a storm among the 
 trees. Beyond this, it was absolutely still, but 
 as Ivan Egorovitch came out of Motrya Pe- 
 trovna's house there was a rustle of nearer 
 branches and a sudden wind went by that sent 
 little puffs of dust running all across the slope. 
 Then it was still again until, here and there, 
 with distinct splashings, great single drops of 
 rain began to fall. 
 
 The young man stopped and looked dubiously 
 up at the sky. He pulled up his collar so that 
 it would protect his neck, and, in the delay, 
 caught sight, not only of Varenka Petrovna and 
 her husband, but also of Peter Efimovitch as he 
 returned home from his work. 
 
 225 
 
226 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 The old man was eager to arrive before the 
 breaking of the storm and was walking swiftly, 
 with his whole thought bent on his desire. Ivan 
 Egorovitch saluted him as he passed, but Peter 
 Efimovitch vouchsafed no answer further than 
 a scowl. The finding of the young man at this 
 place so far impressed itself on him, however, 
 that after he had passed, he stopped short and 
 looked back at him and then around suspiciously 
 at the house Ivan Egorovitch had just left. It 
 needed only the discovery of his older daughter 
 with her husband in the distance coming home, 
 to make it plain to him that the young man had 
 stolen a march on him while he was away and 
 had obtained an interview with Motrya Pe- 
 trovna alone. 
 
 With the common parental instinct, he quick- 
 ened his pace as if even yet, by hurry, the loss 
 might be retrieved. But more than this, the 
 sense of bitterness and anger began to seethe 
 and boil within him and stir him to decisive 
 action. Varenka and her husband, however, 
 arrived almost as he crossed the sill, so his de- 
 sired opportunity of questioning Motrya Pe- 
 trovna was of necessity deferred. 
 
 He watched her closely, however, in the inter- 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 227 
 
 val before he was called for supper to the other 
 house. She seemed to have recovered entirely 
 from her indisposition and was intensely, al- 
 most hilariously, gay. Her cheeks were bright 
 with color and her eyes sparkled with anima- 
 tion as she talked. 
 
 Varenka Petrovna, on the contrary, was si- 
 lent and depressed, and when her eyes met her 
 father's, they turned aside with the frightened 
 look which they had shown when she became 
 conscious that he had been a witness to her in- 
 discretion with Ivan Egorovitch earlier in the 
 day. Had she been less reticent and absorbed, 
 it is probable that Motrya Petrovna would have 
 let out to her her secret, for her heart was so 
 full of it that it trembled constantly on her 
 tongue. But the older sister shrank from an 
 exchange of confidences and kept her husband 
 by her so that no chance of them should occur. 
 
 When Peter Efimovitch returned from his 
 meal, Ossip Pavelovitch and his wife were busy 
 in the house and Motrya Petrovna sat by herself 
 in the dusk, on a bench, outside the door. He 
 seated himself absently beside her and, taking out 
 his pipe, filled it and settled himself to smoke. 
 
 The girl smiled up at him affectionately as he 
 
228 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 took his place, and put out her hand so that it 
 rested on his knee. But she was so wrapped 
 up in her dreaming that she did not care to talk, 
 and they sat in silence for some moments while 
 Peter Efimovitch considered what he would 
 better do. 
 
 The little shower had passed and the air was 
 deliciously fresh and cool. The sun had long 
 been down, but the twilight was still strong 
 enough so that he could see clearly his daugh- 
 ter 's face. It was a more difficult thing than 
 he had deemed it, to come by question to the 
 understanding he desired, and before he was 
 ready to begin the girl herself spoke out. 
 
 "Simeon Gvosdef must be still quite ill," she 
 said suddenly. "It is long past six and he has 
 not yet rung his bell." 
 
 "He will not ring it," said the old man sig- 
 nificantly. " It is gone. ' ' 
 
 "Gone?" she echoed with a mild surprise. 
 Then, as the effect of its being silenced im- 
 pressed itself on her mind, she added thought- 
 fully: 
 
 "I do not believe that Mikhail Sergeievitch 
 will be sorry that it is so." 
 
 "There is no doubt of that," replied Peter 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 229 
 
 Efimovitch dryly, " for it was he who set Ivan 
 Egorovitch to take the bell away." The girl's 
 interest was roused at once by the mention of 
 her lover's name. 
 
 "What do you mean?" she demanded with 
 renewed attention. "What has Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch done?" 
 
 "I do not know, myself," said the old man 
 cautiously, "but Simeon Gvosdef says he took 
 the bell from him when he had him in the sea. ' ' 
 The girl's loyalty woke at once to Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch 's defense. 
 
 "Well, I know," she cried impulsively, "that 
 he did not do anything of the sort. He had no 
 thought in going out to Simeon Gvosdef except 
 to save his life." 
 
 ' ' No doubt ! No doubt, ! ' ' replied Peter Efim- 
 ovitch hastily, "but the bell was around the 
 priest's neck when he went in and when Ivan 
 Egorovitch got through with him it was gone. 
 At best it is one man's word against another's 
 how it occurred. ' ' 
 
 "Any one but Simeon Gvosdef," replied the 
 girl scornfully, "would have made very sure of 
 his charge before imputing evil to a man who 
 had just saved his life." 
 
230 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "That is true," replied the old man with an 
 ingratiatory nod, ' l but how do you know he did 
 not have orders from Mikhail Sergeievitch to 
 watch his chance to take the bell?" 
 
 ' ' Because, ' ' she burst out excitedly, ' 'if it had 
 been so, I should have known ! ' ' 
 
 "Does he, then, tell you everything he 
 thinks?" Motrya Petrovna saw the point to 
 which her father was leading her, but in her 
 eagerness she did not care. 
 
 "Indeed, he does," she declared confidently, 
 "and in this case his sympathy is entirely with 
 the priest." 
 
 "It may be it may be!" said Peter Efimo- 
 vitch tentatively, "but how does it happen that 
 he confides so much in you ? ' ' Motrya Petrovna 
 did not immediately reply, and, putting his arm 
 around her, he drew her toward him till she was 
 close against his side. 
 
 "Tell me honestly," he said with unaccus- 
 tomed gentleness. "I think I have a right to 
 know. ' ' 
 
 "I suppose," she said with such courage as 
 she could muster, "it is because he is fond of 
 me and we have been together for so long." 
 
 "Then you have come to care for him as 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 231 
 
 well?" The girl put her head against his coat 
 so he could not see her face. 
 
 "Yes," she said defiantly, "and I have told 
 him that I do." 
 
 "When!" demanded the old man laconically. 
 
 "This afternoon." He put her from him 
 abruptly with a well-assumed exclamation of 
 surprise. 
 
 "Not to-day!" he cried, holding her at arm's 
 length so he could look into her eyes. 
 
 "Yes, to-day." 
 
 "God help us!" he exclaimed. "It does not 
 take the young man long to change his tune ! ' ' 
 
 "What do you mean?" she demanded breath- 
 lessly. Peter Efimovitch shook his head and 
 made as if he were about to rise. 
 
 ' ' No ! No ! " he said, ' i I have no more to say. 
 It was only that you took me by surprise that I 
 spoke of it at all. ' ' He pushed her gently away 
 from him, but she held him and would not let 
 him go. 
 
 ' ' No, ' ' she cried, * ' I will not have it so ! Tell 
 me why he should not have spoken to me to- 
 day?" Peter Efimovitch felt a glow of satis- 
 faction that she should rise so readily to the 
 bait. 
 
232 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 ' ' What is the use ? " he asked coolly. ' 'I have 
 been telling you about him for a long time, and, 
 unless I praise him, you simply believe that I 
 am prejudiced toward him, and unfair." But 
 the girl had in her much of his own firmness of 
 disposition, where this quality became a need. 
 
 "Tell me," she insisted. "I shall not rest 
 until I know." ' He hesitated long enough to let 
 her anxiety grow really warm and then said 
 slowly : 
 
 "You have full faith in him, of course?" 
 
 "Yes," she said, and hated herself that she 
 could not control her voice. 
 
 The old man smoked in silence and without 
 being able, seemingly, to formulate satisfacto- 
 rily his thought. Finally, he took his pipe from 
 his mouth and looked around at her with medi- 
 tative gravity. 
 
 "It is a long story, if I told it all to you," 
 he said slowly. "He is so changeable that I 
 never liked him from the first. You think 
 he tells you all that is in his heart. I, for my 
 part, am sure that he does not. For instance, 
 he has made you believe that his whole desire 
 is to help the priest, but all the time behind your 
 back he has been rummaging Simeon Gvosdef 's 
 
PETEE LAYS A PLOT 233 
 
 things and moving Heaven and earth to take 
 away his bell." Motrya Petrovna did not at 
 once reply. It was a new thing to her to doubt 
 her lover, and the experience was not one that 
 she enjoyed. 
 
 "There is some mistake, " she cried resent- 
 fully. ' i He has never told me a falsehood in his 
 life!" 
 
 "Perhaps," said her father doubtfully. 
 "But there is another side. You surely have 
 not forgotten that before he left Eussia it was 
 your sister and not you that occupied his 
 thought." The girl's courage wavered and she 
 gave a little sob. 
 
 "That was long ago," she said tremulously. 
 "I am not afraid about it now. He does not 
 love Varenka any more." 
 
 "How do you know?" he demanded search- 
 ingly. "Has he said that he does not?" Mo- 
 trya Petrovna 's desire to give the answer that 
 would clear her lover struggled strenuously 
 with her wish to tell the truth. 
 
 "If he has not," she said proudly, "it is be- 
 cause I would not let him talk about the matter 
 more." 
 
 "You are sure of him, then," he went on piti- 
 
234 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 lessly, "and feel that he is keeping nothing 
 back!" 
 
 "As sure as I am of myself, " she declared 
 eagerly. "There is nothing for him to tell.' 7 
 Peter Efimovitch puffed at his pipe for some 
 moments, and when he spoke again it was in a 
 lower tone. 
 
 "I suppose you know," he said slowly, "that 
 he and Varenka have been holding secret meet- 
 ings, both here and in the other house ! ' ' In her 
 astonishment the girl sat upright and looked at 
 Peter Efimovitch with wide-opened mouth. 
 
 "Be careful, father!" she cried warningly. 
 "It is Varenka 's honor, as well as mine, you 
 touch when you say that ! ' ' The strain of hold- 
 ing back the bitterness that was in him was be- 
 ginning to tell on Peter Efimovitch and he re- 
 lapsed into something of his old snarl. 
 
 "Grod knows I know it!" he cried harshly. 
 "But for all that, it is true!" The girl strug- 
 gled bravely against her suspicion and tried to 
 show a steady front. 
 
 "There is some mistake," she cried again 
 piteously. "It could not possibly have oc- 
 curred!" But Peter Efimovitch would not let 
 her off. 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 235 
 
 "It began, " he said with insidious persist- 
 ence, ' ' here, in this house, the first day that she 
 came. It was repeated for the last time to-day, 
 at noon, two hours, perhaps, before he came to 
 you ! " It was growing so dark that he could no 
 longer see her face, but he was aware that she 
 still sat rigidly in her place, forgetful of every- 
 thing but the blow he had just dealt her. 
 
 "Oh!" she cried. "Oh!" as if her trouble 
 were too deep for words. Peter Efimovitch 
 waited till his disclosure had time to take full 
 effect, and presently the reaction came. The 
 girl's hands went up to her face, she bent for- 
 ward in a huddled heap, and he could hear that 
 she was crying softly to herself. 
 
 "Ivan!" she said, "Ivan! I can not believe 
 it!" The old man laid down his pipe delib- 
 erately and put his arm sympathetically across 
 her shoulders. 
 
 "There! there!" he said. "You must not 
 cry. He is not worth it." She did not resent 
 his attempt at comfort, though it brought her 
 small relief. 
 
 "You are sure that they were there?" she 
 said finally. 
 
 "Yes, I found them alone together when I 
 
236 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 came in at noon. ' ' Motrya Petrovna caught at 
 a straw to sustain her unbelief. 
 
 "But that does not prove anything !" she de- 
 clared with forlorn eagerness. "Even if they 
 were alone together, it does not show there 
 was anything wrong. ' ' She looked at him with 
 such pathetic hope that he would decide the 
 truth to lie in the direction she wished, that, 
 anxious as he was to bring her enterprise to 
 wreck, he could not but be sorry for her pain. 
 
 "It is a hard road, little fish," he said sym- 
 pathetically, "and I only wish that I could make 
 it easy for you as you go. But is it not best that 
 I shouldtell you the truth now, rather than let 
 you go on unconsciously until you further 
 bruise your feet?" 
 
 "Yes," she whispered breathlessly, "it is Let- 
 ter that I should know ! ' ' 
 
 "And shall I tell you, then, the rest?" She 
 was curiously silent for a moment and he could 
 guess at the conflict that was going on in her 
 between her anxiety and her pride. 
 
 "Yes, tell me," she said finally, and there was 
 a threatening hardening of her voice. "But I 
 warn you that if it is not adequate, I shall tell 
 you what I think!" 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 237 
 
 "So be it," lie said simply, and took up his 
 pipe. The fire in it had gone out while it was 
 on the bench and, in the waiting, Motrya Pe- 
 trovna could hear the whistle of the air in it as 
 he sucked unconsciously at it while he thought. 
 
 "It was just at noon," he began moodily, 
 * ' and I had come home as usual to eat. I went 
 in by the front doer and found them alone to- 
 gether in the room. He was lying on the bed, 
 and was covered as if for night. She was bend- 
 ing over him and as I looked I saw them kiss 
 each other as lovers do upon the lips!" The 
 girl stood up hastily and pushed away his arm. 
 
 " It is enough ! ' ' she said brokenly. ' ' Do not 
 tell me any more. I can not bear it!" She 
 stood in the same stiff pose, looking unseeingly 
 out into the night. The suddenness of the 
 calamity that had come upon her numbed her 
 mercifully for the moment, and she knew only 
 that she was being buffeted by the whirlwind, 
 without strength to make clear estimate of her 
 loss. But almost at once the kindly anaesthetic 
 began to lose its power and a heartache took 
 her with such sharpness that she could not re- 
 main still. 
 
 "I can not bear it!" she repeated sharply. 
 
238 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Oh, what shall I do?" She covered her eyes 
 with her hands, as if by shutting out the sight of 
 outward things to limit the poignancy of her 
 distress. Her father watched her closely and, 
 putting out his hand, drew her to him again 
 upon the bench. 
 
 "What did they say?" she demanded sud- 
 denly. ' i Did they give no reason for what you 
 saw?" 
 
 "What could they?" returned the old man 
 dryly. ' ' I had seen it myself/ ' 
 
 "But Varenka " cried the girl protestingly. 
 Peter Efimovitch shrugged his shoulders and 
 gave a sigh of resignation to the facts. 
 
 " She has made me no explanation," he said 
 sorrowfully. ' ' She avoids me and will not talk 
 with me alone. As for the young man, he 
 laughs and admits the thing, and says there was 
 no wrong." The girl's eyes blazed and she 
 grasped Peter Efimovitch tightly by the arm. 
 
 "You talked with him, then!" she panted. 
 "Did you tell him what you thought?" 
 
 "Yes," said the old man fiercely, "and he 
 struck me because I said he was a cur ! ' ' There 
 was no need now for him to act a part. He was 
 moved by the sense of his own wrongs, and his 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 239 
 
 eyes flashed and his chest swelled indignantly as 
 he remembered them, 
 
 "If I were not so old," he cried regretfully, 
 "he would not have to wait for God to punish 
 him. ' ' Then he came back to the scheme he had 
 in hand, 
 
 "I did what I could/' he said apologetically, 
 "and yet now I have to hear you say that you 
 are in love with him and are going to be his 
 wife ! ' ' The girl shuddered and pressed herself 
 closer to his side. 
 
 ' ' Oh, no ! Not now ! ' ' she cried in eager pro- 
 test. "I did not know this when I promised 
 that. I never want to see the man again!" 
 With an effort, she rose unsteadily and stood 
 with the palms of her hands pressed convul- 
 sively together. "What shall I do !" she added 
 bitterly. ' ' Oh, what shall I do ! " Peter Efim- 
 ovitch watched her without effort to lighten her 
 distress. 
 
 "You are well rid of him!" he growled with 
 curt conviction. "God grant you may never 
 look at him again!" The girl heard him with- 
 out comment and remained with averted face 
 while she wrestled with the rebellious pain that 
 was in her heart. Then, with a quick motion, 
 
240 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 she turned and made a sudden little rush, into 
 her father's arms. 
 
 "Why did you tell me?" she cried reproach- 
 fully. "I was so happy in it all before I 
 knew!" Peter Efimovitch drew her tightly to 
 him and comforted her as best he could. 
 
 "Have courage!" he said soothingly. "You 
 will not have to see him again. As soon as the 
 time serves, I will take you to another place." 
 
 ' ' How soon ? ' ' she demanded. ' ' I must oh, 
 I must get away ! ' ' 
 
 "As soon as there is a boat. To-morrow if 
 you like. ' ' 
 
 "Yes! Yes! To-morrow!" she assented 
 breathlessly. "It can not be too soon." She 
 was still crying, but, after a little, she put off 
 her father's arms and pushed him away from 
 her, toward the house. 
 
 "Go," she said, "and leave me here a little 
 while. I wish to be alone." He was reluctant 
 to abandon her, and stood trying to soothe her 
 and holding to her hands. And so it happened 
 that he did not see Tatiana Vassilievna ap- 
 proaching, till she came on them suddenly like a 
 ghost, out of the night. 
 
 "Are you making love to her, Peter Efimo- 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 241 
 
 vitch," she called gaily, "that you are so ten- 
 derly holding her hands?" Peter Efimovitch 
 promptly let go his hold and Motrya Petrovna, 
 with a great sob of relief, turned swiftly to 
 Tatiana Vassilievna and threw herself into her 
 arms. The older woman asked no questions, 
 but gathered the girl to her bosom, and moth- 
 ered her as if she had been a child. 
 
 "Never mind, dearie," she said soothingly. 
 "It will be all right, I know." When she had 
 quieted her somewhat, she turned to Peter 
 Efimovitch, who still stood idly by. 
 
 "What have you been saying to her?" she 
 demanded sharply. 1 1 Have you been poisoning 
 her with tales of what happened at my house 
 to-day I" Peter Efimovitch shrugged his shoul- 
 ders and put out his hands. 
 
 "I have told her nothing but the truth!" he 
 answered sullenly. 
 
 "Yes," she returned mockingly, "the kind of 
 truth that thumps well on top, but has a bad 
 spot on the underside. It is not the first time 
 I have seen you do it!" She looked at him 
 with a scorn that might have withered him 
 where he stood. 
 
 "You have done enough!" she added. "Go 
 
242 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 inside and leave her now to me. ' ' The old man 
 obeyed her with reluctance, fearful that in his 
 absence she might undo the crafty work he had 
 begun. But without further notice of him, she 
 drew the girl out into the dark, and, after a 
 moment's irresolution, he cursed softly to him- 
 self and went slowly into the house. 
 
 Tatiana Vassilievna continued her ministra- 
 tions till Motrya Petrovna became more com- 
 posed. Then she gave a final smoothing to her 
 hair and patted her gently on the cheek. 
 
 "I knew that it would come all right," she 
 whispered. ' t Did he make you think that Ivan 
 was wholly bad?" The girl nodded vigorously, 
 but did not raise her head. 
 
 "Well, your father does not know every- 
 thing," went on Tatiana Vassilievna bluntly. 
 Motrya Petrovna sorrowfully shook her head. 
 
 "I wish I could believe it," she said faintly. 
 "But, oh, Tatiana, he saw them with his own 
 eyes ! ' ' 
 
 "Well, I do not believe it for all that," re- 
 turne'd Tatiana Vassilievna stoutly. The girl- 
 raised her head with a sudden gleam of hope. 
 
 "Were you there?" she demanded breath- 
 lessly. 
 
PETEE LAYS A PLOT 243 
 
 "No," admitted the other reluctantly, "but 
 I am sure of it just the same." Motrya Pe- 
 trovna let her head fall back dejectedly. 
 
 "Oh, dear," she said, "why is there not some 
 way by which I could be certain, too?" 
 
 ' ' There is, ' ' said Tatiana Vassilievna prompt- 
 ly. "Send for Ivan Egorovitch and let him 
 tell you the truth, himself. ' ' The girl drew has- 
 tily back and there was a look that was almost 
 horror on her face. 
 
 "Oh, I could not!" she said positively. "I 
 would not talk to him about it for the world!" 
 
 "But you will have to, sooner or later," 
 urged Tatiana Vassilievna practically. l ' He is 
 not the sort to give you peace until you do. ' ' 
 
 "I am going away," returned the girl, "and 
 it will not matter for the short time I am here. ' ' 
 Tatiana Vassilievna 's jaw dropped in her sur- 
 prise. 
 
 "When do you go?" she demanded. 
 
 "To-morrow, if possible, with the special 
 boat." The older woman recognized instinc- 
 tively the plot that Peter Efimovitch had 
 hatched up, and saw that if it was to be met, 
 there was need for strenuous and immediate 
 action. 
 
244 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 ' ' Come over to my house with me, ' ' she urged 
 solicitously. "It will be quieter and I believe 
 you will sleep better there. " The girl made no 
 demur and they went in silence across the in- 
 tervening space. Tatiana Vassilievna waited 
 on her charge as if she had been her own and, 
 having established her on a couch and given her 
 a light, she slipped away softly by the rear door, 
 and with determined haste made her way along 
 the roughly-worn paths to Mikhail Etolin's 
 house. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch, when she found him, lis- 
 tened with absorbed interest to what she had to 
 say. She told him nothing of Motrya Petrov- 
 na's threatened flitting to the north, but gave 
 him graphic particulars of the tales that had 
 been told, and of Motrya Petrovna's sorrow and 
 distress. 
 
 He fell at once into her plan and went with 
 her without an instant of delay. He was so 
 sure of himself and of the girl he loved that he 
 had not a moment's fear as to the result, and 
 only felt regret that she should suffer from the 
 prick of a so unnecessary pain. When they 
 reached the door, he stopped and laid his hand 
 on Tatiana Vassilievna 's arm. 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 245 
 
 1 ' Wait here ! " he said. l ' Let me go in alone. ' ' 
 
 She obeyed him reluctantly and stood aside, 
 and, after a moment's pause, with his head 
 down, as if collecting himself for the fray, he 
 opened the door abruptly and passed in out of 
 sight. 
 
 Motrya Petrovna 's face was turned away and 
 she did not see him till he was well inside. 
 Then, with a sudden spring, she landed on the 
 floor and ran quickly back till there was a table 
 between him and her. 
 
 "What do you want?" she panted, her eyes 
 dilated widely with her fear. Ivan Egorovitch 
 had the good sense to remain where he was, 
 though it gave him a sudden pang that she 
 should be afraid of him. 
 
 "I want you," he said. "I want to talk to 
 you about what Peter Efimovitch has said to 
 you to-night." She had been thinking so con- 
 stantly of him that it did not appear unnatural 
 that he should seem to know what was in her 
 mind. The one emotion that moved her was 
 dread of the explanation that she felt must 
 come, and she was possessed with a wild desire 
 to escape. 
 
 "Go!" she cried angrily. "How could you 
 
246 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 think you had the right to come?" He went 
 nearer till only the table was between. 
 
 "Is it really true," he said incredulously, 
 ' ' that you believe of me such evil things ! ' ' She 
 met his glance unwaveringly, and a spot of 
 color began to burn in either cheek. 
 
 "How can I help it," she said defiantly, 
 "when I find you have deceived me as you 
 have 1 J ' Ivan Egorovitch grew red in turn and 
 his quick temper brought a momentary sparkle 
 to his eyes. 
 
 "You have evidently not been difficult to con- 
 vince!" he said scornfully. Her lips quivered, 
 but she returned bravely to the attack. 
 
 1 ' Do you think it was an easy thing for me ? ' ' 
 she demanded. ' l Be sure I did not accept it till 
 there was no further room for doubt, ' ' 
 
 "But there is no truth at all in it!" cried the 
 young man earnestly. "I have never deceived 
 you about anything in my life." It was sweet 
 to her to hear his strong denial and her heart 
 gave a treacherous flutter of hope. She was 
 too bitterly fixed, however, to be moved easily 
 from her belief. 
 
 "Take care!" she said, with a mournful 
 shake of the head. ' ' My father does not lie. He 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 247 
 
 lias told me only what he saw with his own 
 eyes." Ivan Egorovitch's heart ached as he 
 looked at her and he yearned to take her in his 
 arms. But she was poised like a startled hird 
 and he knew that, at the first movement on his 
 part to advance beyond the barrier that held 
 them now apart, she would be instantly up and 
 away in final flight. It was hard to plead with 
 her at the longer range, but, making virtue of 
 necessity, he leaned across the table as far as he 
 could reach, and stretched out to her his hand. 
 
 "Motrya," he said pleadingly, and his voice 
 reflected the earnestness that looked out 
 through his eyes, "it is scarcely four hours 
 since you said you would never believe evil of 
 me unless you heard it from my own mouth. 
 You can not have forgotten it so soon. Will you 
 not be fair to me and tell me surely what it is 
 that I have done?" She did not move at his 
 appeal, except that at his gesture she put her 
 hands hastily behind her back. 
 
 "What is the use?" she said hopelessly. 
 "You could not change the facts." 
 
 "Tell me," he insisted. "It is my right to 
 try." She stood uncertain and devoured him 
 with her appealing eyes. 
 
248 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Oh, if you could !" she cried, and turned 
 away her face. When she looked at him again 
 he saw that her eyes were wet, and she spoke 
 in a gentler tone. 
 
 "I will tell you," she said, and with all her 
 effort, she could not hold her voice so that it did 
 not shake. "You shall know all that he told 
 me and the accusations that he made." She 
 stopped for a moment and then added wistfully, 
 "I think you know that I shall be glad, indeed, 
 if you can show me that they are not true." 
 
 "You will be happy then, dear heart," he 
 answered with conviction, ' ' for there is no fault 
 of mine that should come between us in this 
 way. ' ' 
 
 She stood so long, considering how she should 
 begin, that he grew anxious. 
 
 "Go on," he said impatiently. "I want it 
 now." She lifted her eyes to his in serious 
 questioning, and labored to speak clearly what 
 she had to say. 
 
 "You were honest with me, were you, Ivan, 
 when you told me you were doing what you 
 could to help the priest?" 
 
 "Why, certainly," he said, with new astonish- 
 ment. Her inquiry was along a line he had not 
 
PETEE LAYS A PLOT 249 
 
 thought of, and he scarcely knew what to ex- 
 pect. 
 
 ' * Then why have you followed him, behind his 
 back, and searched his things that you might 
 steal his bell? You did not tell me that!" 
 The question was so different from what he had 
 expected she would ask, that, for the moment, 
 he was puzzled what to say. It was scarcely a 
 positive hesitation, but she saw it and the light 
 went out of her eyes. 
 
 "It is true, then!" she cried bitterly. "My 
 father was not wrong.' 
 
 "It is true and it is not true," he answered. 
 "I did search Simeon Gvosdef's things, but it 
 was not because I wanted to, but that, as an offi- 
 cer of the company, I was given it to do. I 
 have told you honestly how I feel toward him 
 myself, and if I kept the other matter back from 
 you it was because it was a private order and 
 the thing was not my own to tell." Her lip 
 drew up, as she listened, into a scornful little 
 smile. 
 
 "Then you' were not quite candid with me," 
 she insisted, ' i since you let me think that I knew 
 all your heart. ' ' 
 
 "You did," he declared doggedly. "I have 
 
250 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 kept nothing from you that I had a right to 
 tell." 
 
 "It is just the difference that counts, " she 
 answered, "for you made me believe in trusting 
 you that I had it all." He did not know how 
 to answer her and stood silent with his eyes 
 on the floor. 
 
 "That is enough of that," she said with bit- 
 terness that was almost contempt. ' i Now I will 
 ask you another thing. Why did you not tell 
 me that you had a secret meeting with Varenka, 
 the first day that she came?" The young man 
 recognized Peter Efimovitch's malice in the. 
 adroitness of the attack and felt, in spite of him- 
 self, his courage slip. 
 
 "Your father has been cunning in his plan," 
 he said. ' ' He has told you as truth things that 
 are almost false and yet have enough truth 
 about them so that I can not say they are 
 wholly lies. I did meet with Varenka Petrovna 
 and we did talk that day. I did not tell you 
 about it because there was nothing in it at all 
 that could be construed in derogation of your 
 right, and, aside from that, I was not sure that 
 to tell it would be fair to her." The girl's ex- 
 cited mind grasped nothing but the final words. 
 
PETER LAYS A PLOT 251 
 
 ' l There it is again ! ' ' she cried with a gesture 
 of despair. " There is always the reservation 
 where I should have the whole ! ' ' 
 
 ' i It was only common decency ! " he burst out 
 hotly. "Do you think that I could ever tell to 
 any one what has happened between us two?" 
 The protest brought to Motrya Petrovna only 
 another pang. 
 
 ' ' Then if you could not tell me about her, you 
 do care for her still as you do for me!" she 
 cried wildly. ' i Oh, I might have known that it 
 was so ! " She covered her face with her hands 
 and her shoulders began to shake with the con- 
 vulsive tremor of her sobs. 
 
 "Was it also because it was too sacred," she 
 went on with caustic slowness, ' ' that you did not 
 tell me about her this afternoon when you came 
 to me with her kisses still on your lips?" 
 
 "I tried to tell you," he broke in protestingly, 
 "but you would not let me speak. And as to 
 the other, you are cruelly unjust. I have not 
 kissed Yarenka Petrovna since she has been on 
 this side of the sea." 
 
 "My father saw you!" she interrupted. 
 "Why do you tell me an untruth?" 
 
 "I have not lied to you. I did not do it." 
 
252 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "You did not kiss her?" she asked. 
 
 "Upon my honor, no! I was lying on the 
 bed and your father saw her stoop down and 
 kiss me." The girl shivered and gave an ex- 
 clamation of disgust. 
 
 "It is a fine distinction!" she cried mock- 
 ingly. "What possible difference is it, since 
 the thing was done, which one of you began it 
 first!" The injustice of her taunts was too 
 much for the young man and momentarily he 
 lost his head. 
 
 "You shall not be so unfair!" he cried, and 
 ran swiftly round the table to the other side. 
 He did not, however, find her wholly unpre- 
 pared. She screamed as she saw him coming, 
 as if he had been some dangerous sort of beast, 
 and, with wild abandon, swept round the table 
 by the other side and like a flash fled across the 
 room and out through the open door. 
 
CHAPTEE XI 
 
 THE PKIEST VISITS THE SICK 
 
 'After a first mad moment of pursuit, Ivan 
 Egorovitch made no effort to follow Motrya 
 Petrovna in her flight. She had vanished into 
 the darkness before he reached the door and, 
 while he knew that her course had been laid for 
 the other house, he found within him no wish to 
 come to her in that haven, where he must talk, 
 if at all, under the eye of Peter Efimovitch and 
 the others of her kin. 
 
 He stepped aside till he was no longer visible 
 in the lighted background of the open door and 
 stood listening irresolutely while he decided 
 what to do. The sky was cloudy and shut out 
 the stars, and the darkness hung around him 
 like a veritable pall. It was so still that as he 
 listened he could hear Motrya Petrovna 's foot- 
 steps as she fled away. Then there was a mo- 
 mentary gleam of light and the sound of a door 
 shut to, and he understood that she had arrived 
 
 253 
 
254 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 at her destination and for the time, at least, was 
 safe from his pursuit. 
 
 He moved farther away lest Tatiana Vassi- 
 lievna should spy him out and demand an ac- 
 counting at his hand. There was anger rather 
 than sorrow in his heart. He felt that he had 
 been badly treated and his pride cried out 
 against the hurt. He remembered the spirit of 
 confidence that he had shown before Tatiana 
 Vassilievna and which had been proved unwar- 
 ranted by the outcome. He did not wish to see 
 her again till he had settled the matter some- 
 how between Motrya Petrovna and himself a 
 thing which clearly could not be done before the 
 following day. There was nothing to be gained 
 by further waiting and so, moving slowly at first 
 and then with impatient quickness as he came 
 fully to the thought, he left the spot and re- 
 turned to Mikhail Etolin's house. 
 
 The place was dark when he reached it, ex- 
 cept for the lamp, fed with fat, that hung in 
 front of the entrance door, and, deeming its oc- 
 cupants retired, Ivan Egorovitch went in on tip- 
 toe so as not to disturb them in their sleep. He 
 groped his way cautiously into the great room, 
 and was feeling ahead of him with his hands, the 
 
THE PEIEST VISITS THE SICK 255 
 
 better to sense his way, when suddenly there 
 was a noise behind him, an arm was passed con- 
 vulsively about his shoulders and he felt a 
 trembling hand laid on his lips. 
 
 "Be still! 7 ' said a voice in his ear. "Come 
 over here with me, where you can see the door 1 ' ' 
 The young man had grappled instantly with the 
 intruder, for the interruption, coming thus un- 
 expectedly out of the silence, brought a distinct 
 sense of shock. But at the first note of the 
 wheezy verbal caution he recognized the lieu- 
 tenant and submitted quietly to be pulled across 
 the room. 
 
 Mikhail Etolin seemed to be under great ex- 
 citement and pushed his captive down abruptly 
 on a bench. He was trembling as if he had 
 the ague and his breath came and went in short, 
 spasmodic gasps. Ivan Egorovitch insisted 
 vigorously on freeing himself and threw off 
 Mikhail Etolin 's hands. 
 
 "Let me alone!" he said under his breath. 
 "I am not going to run away." The lieuten- 
 ant slackened in the tension of his grasp and 
 Ivan Egorovitch breathed more at his ease. 
 
 "What is it, your Well-born!" he demanded 
 in a whisper. "Why do you not have a light?" 
 
256 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 Mikhail Etolin's hold on his arm tightened 
 again suddenly and he leaned over till his mouth 
 was at the young man's ear. 
 
 "Wait and you will see!" he breathed ex- 
 citedly. Ivan Egorovitch's curiosity was 
 aroused and he set himself to attend with pa- 
 tience the happening of the event. He sat in 
 alert silence and listened eagerly to every pass- 
 ing sound. 
 
 For some time, however, nothing occurred 
 and he grew impatient of the delay, but the lieu- 
 tenant seemed certain of what was about to 
 come and, with a timidity that was almost eager- 
 ness, kept himself so close to his companion that 
 he could touch him continually with his hands. 
 
 Finally there was a slight, almost impercepti- 
 ble noise, and Ivan Egorovitch felt the lieuten- 
 ant's fingers tighten on his arm. He looked 
 instinctively in the direction from which the 
 sound had come, and was convinced that outside 
 the door there was a stir in the shadow to one 
 side. It was at first a motion purely, with no 
 definite form or shape, and the young man, lean- 
 ing forward, with his eyes fixed on the point of 
 interest, felt himself grow rigid with the fixity 
 of his regard. The lieutenant began to trem- 
 
THE PEIEST VISITS THE SICK 257 
 
 ble again and his hand on Ivan Egorovitch's 
 arm twitched as if suddenly it had become pos- 
 sessed. 
 
 After moments that seemed interminable, the 
 formless shadow crystallized and took shape, 
 and, out of the darkness, there was projected 
 across the open space of the doorway the head 
 and shoulders of Simeon Gvosdef, the priest. 
 
 His black coat and hair made him, even under 
 the lamp, little more than an indefinite ma- 
 terialization of the darkness, but his white face 
 stood out with startling distinctness against the 
 shadowy background, and swayed and stirred in 
 the flickering light, like a ghost come back to 
 life. 
 
 For a moment the vision persisted, and the 
 two watchers saw that the head was thrust out 
 and the eyes big with eagerness in the effort to 
 pierce the darkness that lay inside the room. 
 Then, as suddenly as it had come, the apparition 
 disappeared, and Ivan Egorovitch felt the grasp 
 of Mikhail Etolin's hand grow lighter and his 
 breathing become more calm. 
 
 ' ' What does he want ? ' ' he whispered. ' ' Has 
 he been here before?" 
 
 "Yes," answered the lieutenant faintly. 
 
258 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 ' l This is the fourth time to-night. ' ' The young 
 man gave a little exclamation of surprise. 
 
 "What does he mean?" he cried. "Has he 
 done nothing more than look in at the door?" 
 Mikhail Etolin had grown fairly quiet, though 
 he still trembled nervously as he sat. 
 
 "No more, thank God!" he answered. "He 
 came only to see if I was dead. ' ' 
 
 "But," said the young man in astonishment, 
 "why should he come so specially to-night?" 
 The lieutenant waited a moment before answer- 
 ing, and then said slowly : 
 
 "They told him, I suppose, that I was at the 
 barracks and became ill and they had to bring 
 me home. He is trying to find out if it is really 
 the end." Ivan Egorovitch's hand went out 
 to him in ready sympathy. 
 
 "Then you could not hold it back!" he said 
 regretfully. The touch and the kindly word 
 were too much for the other's self-control. He 
 seized the proffered hand with both of his own 
 and began to cry like an hysterical child. 
 
 "Oh, I tried! I did try!" he answered 
 brokenly. "But this time it was not the same. 
 It was because I was a fool. I was sure I could 
 hold it down and I went to the barracks because 
 
THE PRIEST VISITS THE SICK 259 
 
 it was the regular gathering of the men and I 
 did not want them to think it strange I was not 
 there. There was no trouble at the start, but 
 suddenly I thought of it and grew nervous, and 
 then they began to look at me curiously and it 
 all came with a rush ! It was not a heavy one, 
 though," he added plaintively. The young 
 man's heart went out to Mikhail Etolin, but he 
 was embarrassed how best to voice his sympa- 
 thetic thought. 
 
 "And since then you have been all this time 
 alone!" he asked. "I did not know it or I 
 surely would have been here. ' ' 
 
 ' * The priest has been my company ! ' ' said the 
 lieutenant with a nervous laugh. "He began 
 looking in almost at once." Ivan Egorovitch 
 considered hastily what it was best to do. 
 
 "I wonder if he will come back," he said. 
 
 "Why not?" returned the lieutenant de- 
 spondently. "He has not found out what he 
 wants to know." The young man asked no 
 further questions but, leaning down, began 
 quietly to take off his boots. When this was 
 done, he set them noiselessly aside, and leaned 
 over to the lieutenant till he could whisper in 
 his ear. 
 
260 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 i ' Do not move, ' ' he said. ' ' If he comes again 
 I will see what I can do." The lieutenant re- 
 mained mute, and Ivan Egorovitch tiptoed cau- 
 tiously across the floor and took up his station 
 just inside the door. 
 
 There was a time of waiting that was harder 
 to him to bear than what had gone before. He 
 started with every sound and made ready for 
 encounters that did not come. It was so late 
 in the evening that there were few human 
 sounds outside, but in spite of Mikhail Etolin's 
 attempt at silence, he could hear his labored 
 breathing and his restless movements as he 
 shifted his arms and legs. 
 
 This time, Ivan Egorovitch heard the priest 
 before he came in view and, standing on the 
 alert, waited impatiently for him to show his 
 face. Simeon Gvosdef kept in the shadow till 
 he was close to the building, as he had done be- 
 fore. When he had reached his place, he leaned 
 forward from his cover so that only his head 
 and shoulders came in the opening as he looked 
 cautiously in through the door. 
 
 His face was so close to Ivan Egorovitch 's 
 that it seemed the priest must see, and, fearing 
 lest the recognition would startle him and make 
 
THE PEIEST VISITS THE SICK 261 
 
 him immediately draw back, he reached forward 
 with a sudden lunge, and, seizing the astonished 
 priest by the collar, jerked him headlong into' 
 the middle of the room. 
 
 Simeon Gvosdef was small, but he was wiry, 
 and his desperation lent him strength. He 
 fought for his liberty like a cornered beast and, 
 in the struggle for control, both he and his cap- 
 tor went rolling in a confused scramble all 
 across the floor. The lieutenant was beside 
 himself with excitement and, in the darkness, 
 went dancing wildly round the combatants and 
 shouted out directions for the fray. 
 
 "Kill him!" he cried. "Kill him!" and 
 rained down blows on friend and foe alike. 
 Then, as a sudden turn brought the contestants 
 nearer to the door, the light shone on their faces 
 so that Mikhail Etolin could distinguish them, 
 and with an insane cry of rage, he swept 
 Ivan Egorovitch back with a sudden motion of 
 his arm, and dropped with his whole weight 
 upon his enemy, his knee pressed down on the 
 other's breast. 
 
 "Kill him!" he cried wildly, and beat the 
 priest with his fists. Under the tremendous im- 
 pact, Simeon Grvosdef 's breath went out of him 
 
262 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 with a rush. His arms dropped limply to the 
 floor, and he lay and took his beating without 
 attempt at avoidance or defense. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch recovered himself and, 
 throwing his weight as best he could against the 
 lieutenant's heavy bulk, pushed him away 
 from his victim, to the floor. Mikhail Etolin's 
 strength had come entirely from his rage and, 
 brought to his senses, he leaned back against a 
 chair, trembling with his weakness and gasping 
 pitifully for breath. Ivan Egorovitch took 
 down the lamp from outside the door and held 
 it so that ne could see Simeon Gvosdef 's face. 
 The priest's eyes were closed and he lay so still 
 that the young man turned to the lieutenant 
 without a closer look. 
 
 1 ' You have your wish ! " he said grimly. ' ' I 
 believe he is dead!" Mikhail Etolin made 
 no reply, but there was a responsive gleam in 
 his eye which showed that the wild beast in him 
 was still awake. The young man lighted a 
 larger lamp and set it on a table to one side. 
 Then he lifted Simeon Gvosdef and rolled him 
 over on his back. 
 
 The movement was good for the priest, who 
 was not dead, but unconscious from the shock 
 
THE PRIEST VISITS THE SICK 263 
 
 of Mikhail Etolin 's interference with his breath. 
 He sighed deeply once or twice, opened his eyes 
 confusedly, carried his hand in a dazed fashion 
 slowly across his face, and ended by raising 
 himself till he sat waveringly upright. Once 
 there, he remained rigidly erect, with his eyes 
 tightly closed, while he awaited the clearing of 
 his swimming head. 
 
 Mikhail Etolin watched him with something 
 that was akin to panic in his look. The priest 
 found no interest in life till his brain ceased 
 going round, but that point reached, he opened 
 his eyes and looked stealthily about. Almost 
 at once, his glance fell on Mikhail Etolin, sitting 
 opposite to him on the floor, and he made an 
 unconscious movement to put more distance be- 
 tween himself and him. A second look assured 
 him that it was beyond the power of the lieu- 
 tenant just then to do him harm, and his eyes 
 began to burn with their old insane intensity as 
 he studied his enemy's condition and saw the 
 ravages that disease had wrought. His manner 
 grew to one of triumphant certainty and his 
 face took on a look of solemn joy. 
 
 Then, as if moved by a sudden thought, he 
 looked into his hand and, finding it empty, let 
 
264 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 his eyes run here and there around him on the 
 floor. Between him and the door there was a 
 slip of paper, folded so as to hide what was 
 within, and with an effort he reached and drew 
 it to him with his hand. He looked around al- 
 most guiltily to see if he had been observed, and, 
 encountering the eyes of Ivan Egorovitch, his 
 own went promptly down. The young man 
 waited till he should raise them again, and, 
 when he did not, after a decent interval, ad- 
 dressed him as if he had his eye. 
 
 "What were you here for, anyway, looking 
 in in that way through the door?" His voice 
 sounded loud in the stillness and startlingly dis- 
 tinct. The priest kept his head bent down and, 
 without reply, busied himself in feeling tenderly 
 the place on his breast where Mikhail Etolin's 
 knee had come. He thought better of the mat- 
 ter, however, on reflection, and, fingering ner- 
 vously the paper he had taken up, he said : 
 
 "I heard that Mikhail Etolin was about to 
 die, and I came to bring him a passport before 
 it was too late." Despite his bodily weakness, 
 the lieutenant's mind remained bright and 
 clear. He understood the sort of passport he 
 was likely to get at Simeon Gvosdef 's hands and 
 
THE PEIEST VISITS THE SICK 265 
 
 his eyes fixed with fearful fascination on the 
 paper the priest held. 
 
 "I am not dead yet, Simeon Gvosdef !" he 
 cried in a thin, dry voice that was scarcely above 
 a whisper. "You keep the passport for your- 
 self! If God lets me get out to-morrow, it is 
 you, and not I, who will come to death!" The 
 priest gave no sign that he had heard the an- 
 swer, beyond lifting up his eyes so that their 
 steady gaze rested on Mikhail Etolin's face. 
 
 "It is you who will die, Mikhail Etolin," he 
 said with impressive calmness. "You will not 
 live long enough to do me harm." He showed 
 such confidence in his belief that Mikhail Eto- 
 lin's jaw dropped and his heavy bulk began to 
 shake. But he held himself together as well as 
 his weakened condition would permit, and re- 
 turned defiantly the other's calculating look. 
 
 "You have done your worst," he piped tri- 
 umphantly, "and you have not killed me yet!" 
 The priest's face lighted diabolically and he 
 pointed a significant finger at the lieutenant as 
 he replied : 
 
 "Why are you so broken, Mikhail Serge ie- 
 vitch? Did I not tell you it would come?" 
 Between .the excitement and the suggestion, the 
 
266 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 lieutenant was dangerously near to a collapse. 
 His lips grew purple and his breath began to 
 whistle in his throat. He turned to Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch with a glance of quick appeal. 
 
 6 i Put him out ! " he cried in a voice that was 
 almost a shriek. The young man went at once 
 to Simeon Gvosdef and took him by the arm. 
 
 "Come," he said, lifting him to emphasize 
 his words, "it is time now for you to go. You 
 can see for yourself he is not dead." Simeon 
 Gvosdef hung back in his place and stubbornly 
 shook his head. 
 
 "I will not take the chance," he declared. 
 "It is too near and he might die while I was 
 gone." Another look at Mikhail Etolin con- 
 vinced Ivan Egorovitch that, if the priest re- 
 mained, the catastrophe he" desired was more 
 than sure to come. 
 
 "You have to go! You have no choice!" he 
 cried and lifted Simeon Gvosdef with both 
 arms. The priest resisted strenuously and 
 strove to shake his assailant off. He had prac- 
 tically recovered his strength and fought, like 
 the maniac he was, to prevent the threatened 
 thwarting of his plan. Mikhail Etolin watched 
 them with hungry eyes, his fingers clawing ner- 
 
THE PRIEST VISITS THE SICK 267 
 
 vously at the floor in Ms desire to be of help. 
 In his excitement, he slipped away from the sup- 
 porting chair behind him and slid down limply 
 to the floor. 
 
 ' t Kill him ! " he cried in his high, weak voice, 
 and strove to raise himself by his hands and 
 knees. Once, the struggling men fell on him 
 and he clawed at them savagely like a cat. 
 When Ivan Egorovitch began to get the upper 
 hand, the lieutenant eased a little in his effort 
 and lay face down on the floor, with his head 
 turned to one side so he could see the fray, and 
 continued to repeat, as often as his scant breath 
 would allow, his vengeful, murderous cry. 
 
 The young man worked with the priest till he 
 got him near the entrance at the front. Then, 
 with a final effort, he lifted him and threw him 
 bodily out into the dark. Slamming the door, 
 he put up the bar and came back to the lieuten- 
 ant panting, and with his hands pressed to his 
 sides. 
 
 "He is gone," he said breathlessly. "Come, 
 I will get you into bed. ' ' Mikhail Etolin braced 
 himself for the effort, and, with the young 
 man's help, accomplished the distance out to his 
 sleeping-room, and ultimately to his mattress 
 
268 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 on the platform bench. He was subdued and 
 quiet, and very much depressed. 
 
 "He has got me," he said plaintively. "It 
 is* the beginning of the end. I am glad, though, 
 that you threw him out. I do not mean that 
 he shall see me die. ' ' 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch divested him of his boots 
 and saw that he was covered for the night. 
 Then he put out the larger lamp and, taking up 
 the other, went back for a last look at the lieu- 
 tenant before going to his own place. Mikhail 
 Etolin lay perfectly still and seemed quite at 
 peace, but his mind was still running on the 
 probabilities of his fate, and, as Ivan Egorovitch 
 turned again to go away, he caught him by the 
 sleeve. 
 
 "Promise me," he whispered earnestly, "that 
 you will not let him in here when I die. I have 
 no mind to have him in the house, and I will 
 come back and haunt you if you let him put a 
 passport into my hand!" 
 
 It was after midnight before Ivan Egorovitch 
 finally settled to his sleep. It had been the 
 most strenuous day of his career, and his head 
 was full of the exciting occurrences of the time. 
 But, so great was his fatigue, that no sooner 
 
THE PRIEST VISITS THE SICK 269 
 
 was he down, than his eyes went shut, the world 
 dropped back behind him and he knew no more 
 until the sun had long been on its way again. 
 
 Then the whole panorama of yesterday's 
 events came back to him with a rush, and he 
 dressed himself in a very melancholy mood. 
 He found the lieutenant in better condition 
 than he had reason to expect, and saw that he 
 was made ready and then fed, before he allowed 
 himself his morning meal. It was plain that 
 Mikhail Etolin must stay in bed and he re- 
 mained with him for an hour, bringing him his 
 papers as he called for them, and listening while 
 he rearranged his plans. 
 
 "You will have to make the rounds for me to- 
 day, " said the lieutenant. " There is little to 
 attend to beyond making sure that all the men 
 are out at work. You can report to me again 
 at noon. ' ' The young man was glad to get out- 
 side and his mind grew busy, striving to formu- 
 late some plan by which he could get a view of 
 Motrya Petrovna while he was on the road. 
 The trouble between them seemed less formid- 
 able in the full light of day, and he found him- 
 self impatient to try again at patching up a 
 peace. 
 
270 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 He arranged his detail so that its last duty 
 would bring him out at the two cottages on the 
 flat, and began by going to the beach where the 
 men were drying fish. The boats had come in at 
 dawn and the catch had been bountiful and 
 good. The fish were being brought in in great 
 baskets to be cleaned, and the cloths laid on the 
 sand were already largely covered with the pink 
 strips of flesh. 
 
 Everything seemed to be progressing as it 
 should, and he went leisurely on to where his 
 blood-brother sat, keeping tally of the catch as 
 it was portioned out. Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 seemed in lively humor and greeted him with a 
 smile. 
 
 1 1 Were you asleep," he asked, "that you did 
 not come down to see the little lady go ? " Ivan 
 Egorovitch looked at him in quick surprise. 
 
 "What do you mean?" he said. Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch in turn looked back at him with 
 sudden inquiry, and his lips drew up in a quiz- 
 zical whistle of surprise. 
 
 "Did you not know, really," he said, "that 
 Motrya Petrovna and her father went out to 
 Yakutat this morning with the courier in the 
 special boat?" He had no doubt, before he fin- 
 
THE PEIEST VISITS THE SICK 271 
 
 ished speaking, that Ivan Egorovitch had been 
 ignorant of their start. The light went out of 
 his face and he put out his hand in incredulous 
 surprise. 
 
 "It can not be!" he cried. "I saw her last 
 night and she said nothing of it then ! ' ' 
 
 "Perhaps she did not want you to know it," 
 returned Stepan Dmitrievitch slowly. "I did 
 not know of it myself, until I saw her here to- 
 day." 
 
 "What did she say?" asked Ivan Egorovitch 
 faintly. Stepan Dmitrievitch smiled at the 
 recollection and went boldly on. 
 
 "She was more than kind," he said com- 
 placently. "Kinder than she has been for 
 some time back. And when she went, she told 
 me that she was really sorry that she had to 
 go." Ivan Egorovitch had become so palpably 
 disturbed that Stepan Dmitrievitch grew 
 alarmed for him. Slipping his arm through his 
 blood-brother's, he led him away till they were 
 hidden from the others by a sheltering drift of 
 sand. 
 
 ' ' Tell me, ' ' he said sympathetically, ' ( are you 
 then so hardly hit?" 
 
 "It is the whole world!" rejoined Ivan Egor- 
 
272 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 ovitch with something that was almost a sob. 
 ' ' I had her in my hand and her father came be- 
 tween us and persuaded her that I had not been 
 honest toward her as I should." Stepan Dmi- 
 trievitch lifted his shoulders in an expressive 
 shrug. 
 
 "What did you expect?" he said. "He did 
 the same thing for you once before. ' ' 
 
 "But to have her go off like this without 
 a word!" protested Ivan Egorovitch mourn- 
 fully. Stepan Dmitrievitch put his arm around 
 him and patted him softly on the back. 
 
 "Is it any worse for you than it is for me?" 
 he asked gently. "You know that I have 
 wanted her for myself." 
 
 "Did she say that she was coming back?" 
 asked Ivan Egorovitch suddenly. 
 
 "No, I asked her and she said she did not 
 know her father's plans." 
 
 "Well, I have lost her, I suppose," said Ivan 
 Egorovitch bitterly. "I might have known it 
 was too good to last!" Stepan Dmitrievitch, 
 whose chances had not been so good, was not 
 so strongly moved by the event. 
 
 "Cheer up," he said. "We have still each 
 other yet. I shall see more of you than I have 
 
THE PRIEST VISITS THE SICK 273 
 
 been doing, and I am not sure but I have 
 been a little jealous of her, ever since she came." 
 He threw his arm again around Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch, and flushed girlishly as he looked into his 
 eyes. Ivan Egorovitch was pleased that he 
 should so greatly care, and putting his arms 
 around him, kissed him on both cheeks. 
 
 "No matter how much I love Motrya," he 
 said chokingly, "she will never crowd you out 
 of my heart. " He was afraid to stay longer 
 lest his great agitation should betray him into 
 expressions outside of his control, and, break- 
 ing away from Stepan Dmitrievitch 's em- 
 brace, he went rapidly away from him along the 
 beach. 
 
 But though he had found comfort in the tie 
 thus sentimentally renewed, the consolation was 
 not strong enough to drive his trouble from his 
 mind. He went the full length of his round and 
 carried out with feverish accuracy the tasks he 
 had been set to do. But his attention to his 
 work was perfunctory at best, and when, at 
 the last, he came to where he had earlier planned 
 to find Motrya, his inclination set his duty fairly 
 to one side and he stopped to talk with Tatiana 
 Vassilievna and see what she would say. The 
 
274 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 consolation she was pleased to offer brought 
 him small relief. 
 
 "It is your own fault!" she said bluntly. 
 "Why did you not come back last night and tell 
 me you had failed? Here I was up till mid- 
 night, skimming my brains to keep them clear so 
 I could help you, and not a sign of you was 
 there to be seen. I lost my sleep and lost my 
 temper, and that to me is worse than it is to you 
 to lose your girl ! ' ' 
 
 "But, Tatiana," he persisted appealingly, 
 "what shall I do about it now?" 
 
 "Oh, sit down and cry for her!" she an- 
 swered crossly. "It may be that weeping will 
 bring her back!" She was so palpably un- 
 sympathetic that the young man went discon- 
 solately away. 
 
 He drooped so visibly and was so absent- 
 minded as he worked, that Mikhail Etolin could 
 not but notice. The sudden departure of Peter 
 Efimovitch and his daughter furnished him the 
 necessary cue and he questioned the young man 
 with such kindness and sympathetic tact that he 
 forgot his pride and laid bare the inmost re- 
 cesses of his sore heart. 
 
 "That is not so bad," said the lieutenant 
 
THE PRIEST VISITS THE SICK 275 
 
 when he had heard it all. "It will look differ- 
 ent to her when she has had time to think. I 
 have an extra interest in this, in that the father 
 seems to have been in league with the devil- 
 priest to try to bring me down, and I should 
 like to checkmate him if I could. You will 
 have to wait till I can get about, but after that 
 I think we can find some pretext for sending 
 you along to Yakutat," 
 
 Cheered by this promise, Ivan Egorovitch 
 turned with new courage to his work. As much 
 as possible, he put the thought of his trouble 
 behind him and gave his whole mind to what 
 he had to do. But the pleasure of life was 
 gone for him and he lived to all intents on 
 his hope. Stepan Dmitrievitch, magnanimously 
 forgetful of the rivalry between them, shadowed 
 him day and night in large-minded effort to 
 assuage his grief. Varenka Petrovna looked at 
 him with wistful eyes, but he had taken unrea- 
 sonable dislike to her as the author of his 
 trouble with her sister, and kept himself re- 
 sentfully aloof. Tatiana Vassilievna was still 
 sulky and inclined to scorn, and the lieutenant 's 
 condition showed no promise of immediate 
 change. 
 
276 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 Four days passed thus, while his impatience 
 grew and then, all unexpectedly, he found relief 
 in a way of which he had not thought. The 
 regular boat from Yakutat arrived, and, though 
 he had hoped for it longingly, it brought no 
 word for him from the girl he loved. But when 
 Mikhail Etolin opened the despatches that it 
 brought, he called for Ivan Egorovitch with a 
 thoughtful face. 
 
 "My friend, the priest, has been having a 
 thrust at you," he said, "and your friend who 
 has run away has put him in the way of its ac- 
 complishment. He has formally complained to 
 Aleksander Nicolaievitch, the commandant at 
 Yakutat, that you have stolen his bell!" 
 
 "But I did not!" cried the young man in 
 astonishment. "I could not find it when I 
 looked." 
 
 "I know that," replied the lieutenant with 
 a grin, i ' but since it has been put as it has, you 
 will have to stand trial for it." Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch 's hope warmed up at once. 
 
 "Here or there?" he demanded breathlessly. 
 
 " It is entirely within my right to hold it here 
 and I am jealous, on the whole, of my preroga- 
 tive. But the fact that the complaint was filed 
 
THE PKIEST VISITS THE SICK 277 
 
 at Yakutat is proof that they did not intend it 
 should be tried by me. You see it is my case 
 as well as yours. They could not go behind the 
 judgment that I gave, but they would surely 
 talk about the punishment I should award and, 
 on the whole, I think you had better let them try 
 you there." It was the first time Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch had been brought to pause by the restrain- 
 ing arm of the law, and the gravity of the situa- 
 tion was reflected in his face. The lieutenant 
 saw it and pretended to misunderstand. 
 
 "I will try you here, though, if you do not 
 want to go," he said teasingly. 
 
 "No, I will go," returned the young man 
 hastily. ' i I was only thinking what would hap- 
 pen when I was brought up before a stranger at 
 the other end. You know the facts, but there 
 the accusers will be two." 
 
 "I will arrange that," said the lieutenant. 
 "I know Aleksander Nicolaievitch personally, 
 and he will take my word. I will write a letter 
 to go with you that will tell all the truth. ' ' The 
 young man's face lighted and he gave a little 
 impatient move. 
 
 "When can you send me out?" he demanded 
 eagerly. 
 
278 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 " If I am well enough, you can go to-morrow, 
 but I should feel better about it if you would 
 wait for the regular boat. ' ' 
 
 "You are good to me, your Well-born, " said 
 the young man gratefully. "I will, of course, 
 wait till the big bidarka goes." Nevertheless, 
 his heart chafed under the delay, and he exerted 
 himself so assiduously in seeing that no service 
 was omitted that might restore the lieutenant 
 to health, that Mikhail Etolin watched him in 
 the performance with sardonic chuckles of 
 delight. 
 
 His hopes, however, of immediate departure, 
 were doomed to disappointment in the end 
 Mikhail Etolin left all the details of his regu- 
 lar work to the young man, that he might reap 
 the full reward of rest. The only thing with 
 which he charged himself was the preparation 
 of the letter Ivan Egorovitch was to take to 
 clear his skirts. Even this excitement proved 
 too much for him in the end. He had scarcely 
 finished it, when he began to show symptoms of 
 a return of his complaint. This time, there 
 was the added burden of a sharp pain in the 
 heart, and by midnight he was distinctly worse. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 
 
 It is a saying of the peasants that the man 
 who can not die by daybreak must wait until 
 noon, and this, like other proverbs, has roots 
 that spring from truth. Souls seem to slip more 
 freely in the hour that just precedes the dawn, 
 while always with the sun there springs a stir of 
 hope that warms the spirit into a new hold on 
 life. When, therefore, the morning whitened 
 and the lieutenant was still alive, the watch- 
 ers round him felt that he had passed his crisis 
 for the time, and had perhaps another chance 
 to mend. 
 
 It had not been an easy struggle in the night. 
 With the first symptom of collapse, Ivan 
 Egorovitch had summoned Tatiana Vassilievna 
 and his blood-brother to his aid, and the three 
 by turns had sat beside the sick man and min- 
 istered to his needs. 
 
 There was really small service to be done. 
 
 279 
 
280 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 The pain, which at the first had brought out the 
 beads of sweat on Mikhail Etolin's face, had 
 lasted only a little time, and then had passed 
 away. At least, if it came again, it was after 
 the lieutenant had gone beyond the point of 
 showing outwardly the suffering he felt, and so 
 remained to all appearances callous to its 
 pangs. 
 
 They had brought him on his mattress out to 
 the larger room and there he lay and fought for 
 air all through the lingering watches of the 
 night. There was no one of his attendants who 
 to this time had had the care of one so wholly 
 sick, and the lieutenant's great weakness 
 came to them as the sign of a dissolution sure 
 and ready at the door. It did not seem that any 
 man could slip so far from the safe heights of 
 health and hope to climb again back to his first 
 estate. 
 
 Ivan EgorovitcH was perhaps the one the 
 least disturbed. He had seen the lieutenant 
 in like straits before and had found the experi- 
 ence trying to his nerves. But he had seen, too, 
 recovery follow the attack, and so was now 
 prepared to face the crisis with a philosophy 
 that favored hope. 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 281 
 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch made no pretense but 
 that he was disturbed. With hands pressed to- 
 gether, he stood helplessly about and listened 
 with a look akin to fear to the stertorous 
 breathing of the sick man on the bed. Where 
 he was told, he performed the task imposed with 
 awkward readiness. But all the remaining 
 minutes found him anxious in his mind, so that 
 when he met the eyes of his associates, he was 
 embarrassed and confused, and stood repeat- 
 ing with a mournful shaking of the head : 
 
 "Akh! It is dreadful! Something must be 
 done!" 
 
 Tatiana Vassilievna found her femininity a 
 resource, and was perhaps the most composed 
 and helpful of the three. It was a shock to her 
 when she first looked at Mikhail Etolin and saw 
 the changes his disease had wrought. He had 
 grown haggard in the days he had been in bed, 
 and his skin hung flabbily about his face and 
 neck, like a garment that was too large. But 
 her heart was touched that he should lie so 
 helpless and depressed, and she set herself 
 busily to add to his comfort as she could. 
 
 She sent Ivan Egorovitch for water and the 
 proper cloths, and commissioned Stepan Dmi- 
 
282 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 trievitch to renew the coals in the samovar and 
 blow it till it boiled. 
 
 "He should have care," she said. "There is 
 no harm in being comfortable when sick." 
 When Ivan Egorovitch returned, she had him 
 stand and hold the wooden dish while she bathed 
 the lieutenant's face and neck and straightened 
 the disorder of his hair. 
 
 "There," she said with satisfaction when she 
 had finished with the work, "if we can make 
 him over to be as different inside as we have 
 out, there will be hope of him at once!" 
 
 As a means to this inner regulation, she took 
 a cup of boiling water into which vodka had 
 been poured and fed him the mixture slowly 
 with a spoon. The lieutenant's eyes grew 
 brighter under the stimulation, and a trace of 
 color began to flutter in his cheeks. His mind 
 was clear, despite the failure of his bodily pow- 
 ers, and, though he did not speak, he fixed his 
 eyes on Tatiana Vassilievna in grateful recog- 
 nition of her help and followed her movements 
 continually with his solemn gaze. She took a 
 real delight in his rejuvenation and cried out 
 eagerly at each symptom of advance. 
 
 "He will do well," she said, "now that he has 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 283 
 
 made up his mind. See how easily he moves his 
 hands !" Mikhail Etolin caught a sudden cour- 
 age from the contagion of her hope and picked 
 up heart to make a stronger fight. 
 
 At midnight, the two men urged on Tatiana 
 Vassilievna that she lie down and sleep, and 
 after a pretense of refusal, she reluctantly 
 agreed. Whether the withdrawal of her touch 
 and word took from the lieutenant the sup- 
 port required to hold firm his grasp on life, or 
 else that, in its progress, the disease that held 
 him gripped more strongly at different times, 
 there is no doubt that when she left the scene his 
 interest in life declined. And so, when Ivan 
 Egorovitch wakened her after some three hours' 
 rest, she knew at once by his look that the sick 
 man had not prospered in the time. 
 
 The rousing had come through a touch on the 
 shoulder, and she had sat up promptly and 
 stretched to bring herself awake. Then, catch- 
 ing the serious expression on the young man's 
 face, she became suddenly attentive and fixed 
 him with her eyes. 
 
 "Is Mikhail Etolin worse ?" she asked 
 abruptly. He nodded silently with compressed 
 lips. She rose without further question and 
 
284 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 tiptoed over so that she could see. A glance 
 sufficed to show her how greatly the lieutenant 
 had changed. Her brows knit compassionately, 
 and she crossed herself as she took cognizance 
 of the ashy pallor of his face, his pinched fea- 
 tures and the pitiful expression of his mouth. 
 
 "You must go for the priest," she said de- 
 cisively. "He must have communion, and it is 
 too great a risk to wait." 
 
 "I dare not," returned Ivan Egorovitch posi- 
 tively. "It was Mikhail Sergeievitch's strict 
 orders that Simeon Gvosdef should not be al- 
 lowed to come." Tatiana Vassilievna consid- 
 ered for a moment in perplexity, and then 
 turned aside. 
 
 "I will pray for him, then," she said softly. 
 "There does not seem to be anything else to 
 do."' 
 
 She went across to where the dark ikon 
 hung on the wall, and, going down on her 
 knees, began to repeat in sibilant undertones 
 such supplications as she knew. Her nature, 
 though, was not one to find a permanent relief in 
 prayer, and in a few moments she was up and 
 back again beside the bed. 
 
 With as much care as if she thought he was 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 285 
 
 asleep, she laid her hand on Mikhail Etolin's 
 chest above his heart and waited breathlessly to 
 feel it beat It moved so feebly and with such 
 palpable delay that the fear was strengthened 
 within her that he was entirely beyond human 
 aid. 
 
 She bent above him and spoke to him, but he 
 did not open his eyes. She remained thus close 
 to him for several minutes and smoothed his 
 hair sympathetically with her hand. Then she 
 straightened herself and the two men saw that 
 her cheeks were wet with tears. 
 
 "It is hard, indeed/' she said tremulously, "to 
 die without a priest, But as there is no church 
 and Simeon Gvosdef can not come, God surely 
 ought to listen when we speak for Mikhail Ser- 
 geievitch here, just as well as if we knelt before 
 the holy gates. ' ' 
 
 Under the ikon on the wall there was a cruci- 
 fix hung by a metal chain. She took this down 
 and carried it to Mikhail Etolin's bed. 
 
 "Kiss this and God will know you trust your 
 soul to Him," she said, and pressed it to his 
 lips. The touch of the cold metal roused the 
 sinking man, and he opened his eyes and fixed 
 them inquiringly on her face. He understood 
 
286 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 at once her action and her tears, and how ex- 
 treme, in doing it, they must have guessed his 
 strait to be. But his brave soul was not content 
 yet to give up the fight. A wavering gleam of 
 defiance came into his eyes, and with a supreme 
 effort he turned away his head. Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna gave a low cry and snatched away the 
 cross. 
 
 ' t He is not ready, ' ' she said in a tone that was 
 almost awe. She put the crucifix behind her 
 and stood watching him with kindling eyes. 
 Then, stooping down so that he should surely 
 hear, she spoke to him with the thrill of conflict 
 in her voice. 
 
 1 < Hold to your fight ! ' ' she cried. ' ' You will 
 win yet if your courage keeps." The lieuten- 
 ant made no answer beyond a momentary flut- 
 ter of his eyelids, but the determination of his 
 stubborn spirit had entered into the woman's 
 heart and she set herself with renewed energy 
 to bolster up his lagging body so that it should 
 not prove unworthy of his soul. 
 
 She found his feet were clammy to the touch 
 and wound them in hot cloths so they would 
 be warmed. His hands were blue and she 
 rubbed them till the blood began to move. And 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 287 
 
 when he could not take the stimulant she of- 
 fered, she forced it drop by drop between his 
 unwilling teeth. 
 
 Her two companions scarcely caught the fire 
 of her enthusiasm, but they bent themselves 
 cheerfully to her assistance and spared no pains 
 to make their service good. The sick man lay 
 inert and his uplift toward recovery was so slow 
 that even Tatiana Vassilievna, despite her stout 
 assertion, grew a whit dismayed. 
 
 ' ' If it were any other time of night ! ' ' she said 
 dejectedly. "He could not choose a harder 
 time to try." But there is an end even to the 
 slow-moving darkness. While they hoped and 
 labored the shadows about them softened and 
 grew less distinct. The color seemed to go out 
 of things around them, and they could see the 
 familiar objects of the room, pallid and gray, 
 like ghosts of their real selves. 
 
 They welcomed the light with friendly eyes, 
 and Tatiana Vassilievna, tiptoeing quietly to a 
 window, opened it and let in the fresh morning 
 air. It was a relief to her after the close silence 
 of the room to hear the increasing stir of nature 
 awakening outside. She stood for a long time 
 gazing out into the dawn, and when the first 
 
288 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 rays of the sun broke in through the window and 
 made a yellow streak across the floor, she 
 turned to her companions with a face that 
 seemed to have caught illumination from its 
 light. 
 
 "We have beaten death!" she cried with a 
 queer note of triumph in her voice. The two 
 men stirred responsively in their places and, 
 moved by the infection of her restlessness, 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch stretched himself, and ris- 
 ing, began to drift aimlessly about. There was 
 a knock at the door, and being the nearest, he 
 opened it and found Varenka Petrovna waiting 
 to come in. Tatiana Vassilievna went to her at 
 once. 
 
 "It is you, is it I" she said. "I was think- 
 ing you would come. I can not go, though. 
 You will have to bring him here. ' ' 
 
 "How is Mikhail Etolin?" asked the younger 
 woman in a whisper. 
 
 "Come in and see. If he is here at all it is 
 because we have held him with our hands!" 
 Varenka Petrovna ? s curiosity tempted her in- 
 side, and keeping close to the older woman, she 
 crossed the room and, pausing beside Mikhail 
 Etolin's bed, stood still and looked at him. It 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 289 
 
 was not a pleasing vision, and she drew down 
 her eyebrows and pressed her fingers to her 
 lips. 
 
 "Do you think he will die?" she whispered. 
 Tatiana Vassilievna's sense of triumph stirred 
 in her like wine. 
 
 "He does not dare!" she said sententiously. 
 ' ' I should just like to see him try ! ' ' The girl 's 
 curiosity was quickly satisfied and she retreated 
 to the door. 
 
 "I will bring Grinya," she said, as if in apol- 
 ogy for her haste, and, without apparent notice 
 of the two others present, slipped silently away. 
 When she returned, Tatiana Vassilievna took 
 the child, and seating herself on the lieuten- 
 ant's bench outside the door, she suckled it 
 while she talked with Varenka Petrovna in low 
 tones. When she had finished, she sent the 
 child away, but remained, herself, seated outside 
 in the sun, without a motion to go in. When 
 she did return to the sick chamber it was evi- 
 dent to Ivan Egorovitch that she had something 
 on her mind. 
 
 "You told me, did you not," she said to him, 
 "that this trouble came to Mikhail Sergeievitch 
 because he was afraid?" 
 
290 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Yes," said the young man tentatively, "but 
 what of that*" 
 
 "This," she said, "that since there is no doc- 
 tor at the post and no priest that can be called, 
 it falls to us to do what should be done. Would 
 it not be worth while for me to try and 'pour out 
 fear'?" Ivan Egorovitch raised his eyebrows 
 and considered before he spoke. 
 
 ' ' What is the use f " he said at last. ' l Mikhail 
 Sergeievitch knows already who it is that has 
 brought him harm." 
 
 ' ' That does not matter. If he recognizes the 
 figure the fear will go away. ' ' 
 
 "Perhaps," said the young man doubtfully, 
 "though I have small faith in it myself. And 
 besides," he added, "even if it makes a figure 
 at the last, he is too weak to speak its name." 
 
 "Well," returned Tatiana Vassilievna with 
 some heat, "he certainly will not speak it if the 
 pouring is not done, and I can not see that it 
 would do harm to try." 
 
 "No, I suppose not," assented Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch reluctantly. "But can you do it as it 
 should be done?" 
 
 "Of course. I have done it more than once 
 at home." 
 
THE P^^NGUQF MIKHAIL 291 
 
 "Very well," he answered, giving up the 
 fight, "I hope it will do good. What will you 
 need beside the wax and stone?" Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna examined the samovar carefully before 
 she spoke. 
 
 "Nothing but a copper dish," she answered. 
 "We can use these coals here for a fire." 
 
 "I will get the stone," said Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch with sudden interest. ' * There is one near 
 the boat-house that is large enough and flat." 
 He went at once about his errand and Tatiana 
 Vassilievna continued with the other arrange- 
 ments for carrying out her plans. 
 
 She drew a bench up near to the platform on 
 which Mikhail Etolin lay and covered it neatly 
 with a cloth. Then, turning over the tray of 
 the samovar she placed it on the improvised 
 table and poured out on it the heap of coals. 
 Beside it she laid a knife, a cake of wax and the 
 copper basin that Ivan Egorovitch had supplied. 
 Beyond these, then, by direction, was deposited 
 the stone when Stepan Dmitrievitch brought 
 it in. 
 
 When all was arranged the two men stood 
 back and Tatiana Vassilievna, with the com- 
 posure of full confidence, made ready to begin. 
 
292 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 With much: gentleness, she raised the lieuten- 
 ant and propped him up with pillows so that he 
 could see. Then, after standing a moment in 
 silent self-communion, she lifted the cake of wax 
 and, holding it above her head as the priest 
 holds the host, she turned with it to Mikhail 
 Etolin's bedside, and pushing open his clothing 
 laid it directly on his breast. 
 
 "The fear is yours and the fight is yours," 
 she said solemnly, "and if this is to tell the 
 truth at last, it must first catch its warmth from 
 the courage you have within." She paused in 
 her apostrophe and waited with her hands 
 clasped round the yellow lump, as if to keep 
 within it the heat it should acquire. Mikhail 
 Etolin displayed no interest in what she did, 
 beyond an uneasy movement, as if even the 
 slight weight put upon him by it were for the 
 time a pain. She said nothing more while she 
 waited, and, after a little space, lifted the cake 
 again, and, holding her hands jealously around 
 it, turned with it quickly to the bench and de- 
 posited it in the shallow copper pan. Taking 
 up the knife, with two swift strokes she cut the 
 cake into four even parts. 
 
 ' ' Two for the north and south and two for the. 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 293 
 
 east and west, ' ' she announced in a clear steady 
 voice. "As all are even and of no choice, so 
 from no single point shall error come." She- 
 lifted the basin by its long handle as she spoke 
 and set it carefully upon the coals. Then, fall- 
 ing back a pace, she stood and watched it with 
 expectant interest, and for the moment there 
 was silence in the room. 
 
 The wax softened with the heat, and from un- 
 der it liquid streams began to spread out un- 
 evenly across the pan. She followed them in- 
 tently, bending forward with absorbed interest 
 to watch them as they moved. As they ap- 
 proached the edge, the hotter surface of the pan 
 lifted them into motion and' the mass began to 
 simmer and stir with a dry crackling sound. 
 
 At the first note Tatiana Vassilievna 
 straightened herself stiffly and stood with lips 
 parted, as if awaiting an expected sign. What 
 it was no one heard besides herself, but when it 
 came she recognized it, and, lifting up her head 
 so that her throat was free, she drew in a little 
 sobbing breath and began to sing. 
 
 The first note was tremulous and uncertain, 
 and had an impersonal quality as if she were 
 a listener to it rather than the one by whom 
 
294 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 it was made. It had a startling effect on Ivan 
 Egorovitch and Stepan Dmitrievitch, though 
 they had known beforehand what she was going 
 to do, and, moved by its vibrant thrill, Mikhail 
 Etolin stirred uneasily and opened his eyes. 
 
 The first tone was followed by another, 
 stronger and more resonant, but still like the 
 sound of a wind-instrument rather than a hu- 
 man voice. Then the notes began to come 
 faster, growing in intensity and depth until 
 they merged into a stately sort of tune. 
 
 "There was a fear at heart, a bitter fear!" 
 she sang, and the charge was like a solemn ar- 
 raignment of the world. Her voice was a low 
 contralto, full and sweet. It was hoarse in the 
 lower register and never ventured high. But 
 it was charged with a dramatic intensity, a 
 pulse of feeling that carried it irresistibly to 
 the hearts of those who listened. 
 
 It was a melancholy strain at first, somber 
 and pathetic, as she declared the trouble of 
 Mikhail Etolin 's soul. It had sympathy in it 
 and fear, and a pathetic sadness that bordered 
 on appeal. Ivan Egorovitch and Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch glanced uneasily at each other and 
 the lieutenant, moving nervously, punctuated 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 295 
 
 his acute attentiveness with a long responsive 
 sigh. 
 
 Tatiana Vassilievna heard it, and looked 
 hastily around. Her eyes brightened signifi- 
 cantly, and she threw herself with renewed 
 spirit into the rendering of her song. It 
 changed to a firmer measure and a more per- 
 sistent note. There was no longer the plaintive 
 melancholy with which it had begun. Instead, 
 there began to breathe in it a defiant strain, a 
 self-assertion that reached out boldly and took a 
 steadying grip on the soul. There was the 
 courage of effort in it, and a passionate insist- 
 ence that was almost insolent in its parade of 
 power. 
 
 Tatiana Vassilievna, leaning over the melting 
 wax, had forgotten her audience entirely, and 
 was pouring out her soul in the delivery of her 
 song. Ivan Egorovitch sat rigidly upright, his 
 hands clasped in his lap and his face illuminated 
 with the fire of awakened feeling. Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch looked steadily out through the 
 open window without change of pose, and Mik- 
 hail Etolin, nervously picking at his covers with 
 his hands, devoured the singer fiercely with his 
 solemn eyes. 
 
296 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 The tension was too great to be for any time 
 sustained. The song was fitted to a purpose, 
 and when that was fulfilled it came promptly to 
 an end. Tatiana Vassilievna, looking down, 
 saw that the last particle of wax had melted and 
 run down, and, lifting her hands as if in invoca- 
 tion, she brought the singing to a close. 
 
 It stopped abruptly, on a high plaintive note, 
 and before her breathless audience fairly real- 
 ized that it was done she stooped, and, lifting up 
 the copper pan, poured the liquid wax slowly 
 out upon the stone. She shut her eyes as she 
 did so that she might in no way influence the 
 shape in which it cooled. And when it was all 
 out she set the pan aside, and turned with eager 
 interest to see what it had made. 
 
 The two men, waking from the spell that had 
 held them bound, tiptoed eagerly to her side, 
 and fhe three stood with their heads close to- 
 gether, studying the outline of the cooling mass. 
 It needed but one glance to show Tatiana Vas- 
 silievna that her pouring had resulted in suc- 
 cess. With a little cry of triumph she stood 
 upright, and with her finger on her lips as a cau- 
 tion to the necessary silence, she looked at the 
 two men the question she did not wish to speak. 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 297 
 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch was slow of intuition, 
 and returned her inquiry with a puzzled stare, 
 but Ivan Egorovitch caught her meaning almost 
 as she looked. He nodded sympathetically, and 
 stooping, ran with his forefinger the outline 
 around the wax to call attention to the resem- 
 blance he had guessed. Tatiana Vassilievna 
 nodded in her turn, and then, with a sudden 
 sobering of her features, looked confidently at 
 Mikhail Etolin as he lay. 
 
 "He will see it, too," she whispered, "if only 
 he can find the strength to speak." Picking 
 up the stone, she carried it carefully to Mikhail 
 Etolin 's side and held it up so that he could 
 see. 
 
 "Tell me," she said, "what is there pictured 
 here that has served to bring you fear?" The 
 lieutenant's solemn eyes went to her face and 
 then slowly descended to the stone. He took 
 but an instant to his scrutiny, and .when he 
 raised them again she saw in them the answer- 
 ing intelligence that she had wished. 
 
 "Speak it!" she commanded. "It is neces- 
 sary it should be said in words." Mikhail 
 Etolin 's lips moved faintly, but he made no ar- 
 ticulate sound. Tatiana Vassilievna set down 
 
298 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 the stone gently and came more closely to Ms 
 side. 
 
 "Try it again," she said encouragingly, and 
 bent so that her ear was almost against his 
 mouth. The lieutenant gathered himself for 
 the effort, and strove earnestly to make himself 
 heard. She remained hent over him for fully a 
 minute listening for his words, and then lifted 
 up her head, and, looking at the others, laughed 
 a contented happy laugh. 
 
 "He will get well," she said simply. "He 
 said it was Simeon Gvosdef's bell." Mikhail 
 Etolin heard her, as well as the others, and her 
 confidence invested him with new life. His face 
 warmed out of its ghastly pallor, and he began 
 to exert the conscious balance of the muscles 
 that is the outward measure between life and 
 death. 
 
 By ten o'clock he bade so fair to live that Ivan 
 Egorovitch, leaving the care of him to Tatiana 
 Vassilievna and his blood-brother, went out for 
 a hasty round among the men. Stepan Dmitrie- 
 vitch, stretching himself full length upon a 
 bench, went promptly off to sleep. Tatiana 
 Vassilievna, herself, sitting where she could see 
 the sick man if he stirred, had to force her hands 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 299 
 
 to move vigorously at her knitting to keep 
 awake. Between the quiet and the growing 
 heat, she found it even then no easy task. 
 There was a monotony in the sights and sounds 
 around her that insidiously tempted to repose. 
 The long, even breathing of the sleeper on the 
 bench, the rhythmic swaying of the shadows cast 
 by the sunlight on the floor, and the unvarying 
 song of a bird somewhere outside that repeated 
 endlessly three notes at differences of minor 
 thirds, all served to work on her imagination so 
 that, without her will, at times her eyes shut 
 unconsciously. 
 
 The lapses were not total, for at no time did 
 she wholly cease to knit. But the motion 
 through long practice had become largely auto- 
 matic, and for moments at least she missed 
 what happened in the room. 
 
 Awaking guiltily from one of these, she stole 
 a look at Mikhail Etolin to see if he had seen, 
 and was startled into full consciousness by the 
 expression of his face. He was still propped 
 on his pillow so that he was half upright, but his 
 head had fallen forward on his chest, his jaw 
 had dropped so that his lips were drawn apart, 
 and he was gazing out into the room behind her 
 
300 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 witli a hopeless look of utter terror and de- 
 spair. 
 
 With a little exclamation of astonishment, she 
 rose swiftly and turned in the direction marked 
 out by his eyes. There was no trouble then in 
 fixing on the reason for his fear, for just in- 
 side the door, where he had come while she was 
 dozing, she saw Simeon Gvosdef, the priest. 
 
 He was in his full robes and carried the ele- 
 ments of the sacrament in his hands. He stood 
 gazing doubtfully round with his shifty glance, 
 with an eye first on the sick man and then on the 
 door, so that should occasion demand it, he 
 might take refuge in flight. 
 
 Tatiana Va&silievna was uncertain what to 
 do. She saw that the priest 's presence was ter- 
 rifying to Mikhail Etolin, but she had no certain 
 order to refuse him entrance, and not only did 
 she feel the pressing need of priestly comfort 
 for her patient, but in her heart there moved 
 unconsciously the feminine impulse of submis- 
 sion to a priest. She stood irresolute and 
 found herself thinking vaguely how the light 
 from the door behind Simeon Gvosdef brought 
 out the color of his lilac robe. 
 
 The priest took instant advantage of her inde^ 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 301 
 
 cision and stepped boldly forward into the room. 
 Setting on the table the emblems of the host, he 
 came nearer to the bed, his hand outstretched 
 in the usual priestly blessing. 
 
 " Peace be to this house, " he said with unctu- 
 ous softness. He had lost his timid air and 
 spoke with the calm assurance of his cloth. 
 Tatiana Vassilievna bent her head and crossed 
 herself in answer to the greeting, but when he 
 came nearer and made as if he would pass by 
 her to Mikhail Etolin's bed, she stepped in front 
 of him and checked him in his advance. 
 
 "Wait," she said with a show of authority. 
 "What are you going to do 1 " The priest gave 
 back at once with fawning submissiveness, and 
 stood with his eyes cast down. 
 
 "There is the need that he be shrived," he 
 said in a low voice. "Without it he is not fit to 
 die." 
 
 "Wait till it is time," she responded scorn- 
 fully. "He is not going to die now." 
 
 "How do you know?" he demanded search- 
 ingly. Tatiana Vassilievna 's red face grew 
 redder, but she held steadily to the truth. 
 
 "We have poured out fear," she said de- 
 fiantly, "and the answer left no room for 
 
302 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 doubt.!' The priest's little eyes narrowed as 
 they searched her face. They studied her 
 keenly for a moment, and then, wandering away 
 in search of evidence elsewhere, lighted prompt- 
 ly on the wax-covered stone. He bent to it 
 eagerly and studied it with feverish query in his 
 eyes. He saw in it at once the resemblance that 
 the rest had found, but the recognition seemed 
 to bring to him a different thought from theirs, 
 for he raised himself with a look of triumph on 
 his face. 
 
 "You read well," he said with, quiet scorn, 
 "but you do not read it rightly or enough." 
 Then, turning away from Tatiana Vassilievna, 
 he addressed himself directly to the man on 
 the bed. 
 
 "Do you believe, Mikhail Sergeievitch, that 
 because you found the strength to recognize the 
 outline on the stone that it will serve to add a 
 further license to your miserable days f Do you 
 not see that in that figure it was God who spoke 
 and that He let you see it, not as a respite, but 
 to remind you that He was about to carry out 
 His words?" Mikhail Etolin did not answer, 
 but his eyelids quivered spasmodically and he 
 stirred uncomfortably in his place. Simeon 
 
I am here to give you this before you go." Page joj 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 303 
 
 Gvosdef watched him eagerly for a moment and 
 then turned sharply to the woman at his side. 
 
 " Stand back! 7 ' he cried almost fiercely. 
 " Would you take it on your soul to come be- 
 tween him and God!" Tatiana Vassilievna re- 
 treated involuntarily, and again crossed herself 
 against harm. Simeon Gvosdef, with his head 
 held high, passed by her without a further word, 
 and came so close to Mikhail Etolin that he 
 could have touched him if he would. 
 
 "It is the end," he said solemnly. "It has 
 come, and, as I told you, I am here to give you 
 this before you go. ' ' His face was lighted with 
 his old fire of possession, and he smiled as he 
 put his hand inside his gown. When he took it 
 out again he had in it a folded passport, which 
 he held up for the lieutenant to see. 
 
 "You thought to slip away alone, Mikhail 
 Sergeievitch, "he said accusingly, ( i but in 
 spite of all you will have to go with your ar- 
 raignment in your hand. If you are innocent, 
 you need fear no harm. But if you are guilty, 
 God will know what punishment to give you for 
 your crime." He stood for a moment holding 
 up the slip. Then, with a movement that was 
 almost imperceptible, his hand began to 
 
304: THE CHALLENGE 
 
 stretch toward that of the man lying on the 
 bed. 
 
 Mikhail Etolin had never for a moment taken 
 his eyes from his tormentor's face, and as he 
 watched him the look of fascinated horror in 
 them deepened and grew more intense, and his 
 lips drew back until he showed his teeth like a 
 wild beast brought to bay. The silent duel 
 lasted till the two hands met. Simeon Gvosdef 
 gave a little shudder at the contact and pushed 
 the paper fiercely down into the other's hand. 
 
 "Moissei!" he cried sharply. "Moissei!" 
 and his tone was almost a sob. He remained 
 bent down above his enemy, his eyes fixed de- 
 vouringly on him in anticipation of the com- 
 ing change. Behind him, Tatiana Vassilievna 
 was crying hysterically to herself, and Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch, undisturbed by the drama about 
 him, snored noisily on his bench. 
 
 For some minutes the lieutenant's eyes re- 
 turned defiantly Simeon Gvosdef 's stare, but 
 little by little the light went out of them, and at 
 last the lids went down. The priest began 
 praying audibly to himself, but he did not move 
 nor take away his eyes till he was sure, from the 
 dropped jaw and sunken head, that Mikhail 
 
THE PASSING OF MIKHAIL 305 
 
 Etolin was surely dead. Then lie reached for- 
 ward and drew out the paper from the lieuten- 
 ant's hand. Straightening himself, he turned 
 with a bitter smile and held it open so that 
 Tatiana Vassilievna could see. 
 
 "It was his fear that killed him," he said 
 quietly. ' ' See ! The page is blank ! I make no 
 accusation of him on it there at all!" 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 
 
 Two days after Mikhail Etolin's death, Ivan 
 Egorovitch shook from his feet the Ltua dust 
 and went out by the regular boat to Yakutat. 
 The intervening time had served to see the 
 lieutenant put safely under ground, though, 
 through protest of the priest, he found asylum 
 on the mainland instead of on the island, where 
 Moissei Gvosdef had been placed. 
 
 By virtue of his association with the lieuten- 
 ant, it fell naturally to Ivan Egorovitch to take 
 up his work. But there was love in his heart, 
 and his blood was young, and the sober promise 
 of the advancement to be gained by staying on 
 in Mikhail Etolin's shoes weighed lighter with 
 him than the desire to look again into Motrya 
 Petrovna's eyes. 
 
 "You can look after things as well as I," he 
 said to Stepan Dmitrievitch. "We are both so 
 young that it is sure neither of us will be 
 
 306 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 307 
 
 billeted permanently in the place. But you will 
 have a chance to show what you can do and to 
 make a record that will help you later on." 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch listened to the plan with 
 less satisfaction than his blood-brother would 
 have wished. 
 
 "I am not so sure," he said cautiously. "I 
 had been thinking, perhaps, that if you stayed 
 here, I should take a run up to Yakutat myself. ' ' 
 Ivan Egorovitch's face flushed and he drew up 
 his upper lip. 
 
 "I think that I am entitled to first chance," 
 he said with some rigidity. "And, besides, I 
 have been ordered to go up for trial, and there- 
 fore have no choice." Stepan Dmitrievitch 's 
 face clouded, and he yielded the point with ill- 
 concealed discontent. 
 
 "How long shall you be gone?" he asked 
 moodily. 
 
 "If I succeed, it may be some time. If I fail, 
 I shall be back by the next boat." The older 
 brother kept his eyes averted and stood rubbing 
 the palms of his hands together slowly, while 
 he gathered the courage to speak what was in 
 his mind. 
 
 "I do not quite know why I stand aside for 
 
308 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 you as I am doing in this matter," lie said 
 finally. "I suppose it is because you have al- 
 ways been quicker and more decided in things 
 than I am, and it has got to be a habit with me 
 to give up my own opinion and follow in your 
 lead. I am not complaining now about the com- 
 pact that we made, though I have a feeling 
 somehow that in making it you were not quite 
 candid, in that you knew you had the advantage 
 at the time. You certainly have come nearer to 
 success than I, and though I am a fool, I sup- 
 pose, to do it, I am going to give you this one 
 more chance. I will stay and let you go to 
 Yakutat but you have got to promise me this 
 one thing. You will remember that it was 
 agreed between us that if either one found 
 he could not get what he desired he would help 
 the other in such way as he could. I am help- 
 ing you now, and I wish you to promise that if, 
 when you see Motrya Petrovna, you find she is 
 not for you, you will help me cheerfully to push 
 my claim." Ivan Egorovitch's hand came out 
 at once and his affectionate sympathy shone out 
 through his eyes. 
 
 "You did not need to ask," he said quickly. 
 "If I fail, I will send or bring you word." 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 309 
 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch shook his head. 
 
 "That is not enough, " he said. "The word 
 would take time in coming, and it might then be 
 too late. I am going to write in a letter what I 
 want to say, and you shall take it with you un- 
 der promise that, if you fail, you will put it in 
 her hand. 9 ' Ivan Egorovitch had come so near 
 to certainty with Motrya Petrovna that uncon- 
 sciously he thought of her already as his own. 
 
 "You might as decently ask a man to carry to 
 his wife a letter from a lover, " he said resent- 
 fully. "I could not do it!" 
 
 "Very well," said Stepan Dmitrievitch with 
 quiet dignity. "Then I shall either send it by 
 some one else or go with you and make my plea 
 myself." 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch thought quickly of the 
 chances in the case. It gave him a queer feel- 
 ing at the stomach to think that any man, 
 even his blood-brother, should address Motrya 
 Petrovna in the terms- he knew this letter would 
 contain. And yet if he refused to carry it, 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch was capable of taking ac- 
 tion that might seriously disarrange his plans. 
 The advantage of keeping matters in his own 
 hand was so palpably apparent that he swal- 
 
310 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 lowed his resentment with a gulp and slapped 
 Stepan Dmitrievitch smartly on the back. 
 
 "Forgive me!" he cried. "I forgot for the 
 moment she was not already mine. Write your 
 letter, and, on my honor, I will hold your cause 
 next only to my own." 
 
 They talked no more about it, but when the 
 hour for sailing came, Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 brought the letter properly addressed and con- 
 fided it to his unwilling messenger, without 
 further instruction as to how it should be used. 
 Ivan Egorovitch placed it with the document 
 given him by Mikhail Etolin, which contained 
 the statement of his case, and strove to put its 
 possession from his mind. But he never felt it 
 inside his coat without a little angry thrill, and 
 more than once the resentful impulse came to 
 him to lose it by dropping it secretly overboard 
 into the sea. 
 
 His thought of his coming trial was with- 
 out fear for the result. Simeon Gvosdef went 
 up on the same boat as himself, ordered no 
 doubt to come and give substantiation to his 
 charge. But the priest was a changed man, now 
 that his self -constituted mission had come suc- 
 cessfully to an end. He sat in the bow of the 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 311 
 
 boat in absent-minded self-communion and 
 scarcely seemed to see or hear those who were 
 around him in the craft. The sailors on the 
 boat avoided him. There was something un- 
 canny to them about his connection with 
 Mikhail Etolin's death, and for the most part 
 they were content to leave him to himself. 
 
 When the boat arrived he was the first man 
 ashore, and went at once to the house of the 
 commandant. Ivan Egorovitch was not long 
 behind, and, waiting till Simeon Gvosdef was 
 done, found Aleksander Nicolaievitch just fin- 
 ishing his work before his midday meal. 
 
 The commandant was a short man, spare in 
 build, with a kindly eye and a long beard that 
 was already turning white. He looked up in- 
 quiringly as Ivan Egorovitch came in, and see- 
 ing that he was a stranger, bowed to him with 
 friendly ceremony and motioned him to a 
 seat. 
 
 "Where are you from?" he asked with evi- 
 dent curiosity. "I do not remember to have 
 seen you here before. ' ' The young man bowed 
 respectfully, but remained standing in his 
 place. 
 
 "I am Ivan Egorovitch Nilof," he said. 
 
312 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "You will perhaps remember thai; you sum- 
 moned me here from Ltua to answer to 
 a charge." The commandant's eyes lifted 
 abruptly to his face, and he looked at the young 
 man searchingly as if, by this means, he ex- 
 pected to read out of him the truth. 
 
 "Ah!" he said. "You are the young man 
 who was accused by the priest." He continued 
 to look his visitor over curiously, with an air of 
 puzzled interest. 
 
 "How does it come then," he said, "that you 
 are here without a guard?" Ivan Egorovitch 
 smiled and lifted his shoulders deprecatingly. 
 
 "Mikhail Sergeievitch knew me so well 
 that, when the order came, he did not put me 
 under arrest. After his death the command 
 devolved on me, and I was sufficiently sure of 
 myself, that I did not think it necessary to ap- 
 point a guard to bring me in." There was an 
 answering gleam of humor in Aleksander Nico- 
 laievitch's eyes, but he kept his gravity of face 
 and went on impassively. 
 
 "I have just now heard from Simeon Gvosdef 
 that Mikhail Etolin is dead," he said, "and if 
 the priest is to be believed, the end was due to 
 a strange visitation of God." Ivan Egorovitch 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 313 
 
 took a quick step forward and his hands went 
 out in eager denial of the charge. 
 
 "It was not God, but Simeon Gvosdef that 
 brought Mikhail Etolin to his end!" he cried 
 excitedly. "He did it to punish him, because 
 he thought the lieutenant had killed his son. 
 Mikhail Etolin had trouble with his heart 
 and could not breathe, and the priest made shift 
 to bring on the attacks until he wore him to his 
 death. He is a fiend," he added with convic- 
 tion. The commandant turned up his long 
 beard with his hand, and bit the end of it ab- 
 sently as he listened. 
 
 "And the death of the priest's son," he said 
 after a little pause, "was it really a murder as 
 was claimed?" 
 
 "No! It was a legal execution for a just 
 cause. Mikhail Etolin 's only connection with it 
 was that, as a judge, it came to him to order the 
 thing done." Aleksander Nicolaievitch consid- 
 ered the statement in silence for some moments 
 before he spoke. 
 
 "And you," he said, "did you take the 
 priest's bell as he has charged?" 
 
 "No!" replied the young man indignantly. 
 "It was lost in the water while I was trying to 
 
314 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 save him from being drowned." The com- 
 mandant's keen eyes fixed themselves on Ivan 
 Egorovitch's face with a gravity that was al- 
 most accusation. 
 
 ' i Have you any proof of this besides your 
 own word?" he demanded sternly. 
 
 "Yes," said the young man. "There is this 
 letter that Mikhail Etolin wrote the day be- 
 fore he died." He put the packet in Aleksan- 
 der Nicolaievitch 's hand and waited impatiently 
 while it was being read. The commandant made 
 no sign until he had reached the end, and even 
 then, for some moments, he sat thinking silently, 
 as if trying to arrange the details of the matter 
 in his mind. When he turned to Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch, it was with a less severe expression on 
 his face, and he waved his hand again toward 
 the seat he had pointed out at first. 
 
 "Sit down," he said, "and let us talk this 
 matter over as we should." 
 
 The young man accepted gratefully the prof- 
 fered courtesy, and awaited in silence what 
 Aleksander Nicolaievitch would do next. The 
 commandant folded up the letter carefully and 
 filed it in a compartment of his desk. He leaned 
 back in his chair, so that his glance went directly 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 315 
 
 out above the young man's head, and with the 
 balls of his fingers he drummed lightly on the 
 wood. 
 
 "It is a curious thing, " he said finally, "and 
 a strange one. When the priest first made the 
 charge I had the feeling that there was some- 
 thing behind it that had not yet appeared." 
 He paused for a moment and then added ir- 
 relevantly, "Mikhail Etolin was a good man." 
 Ivan Egorovitch remained silent, though he 
 bowed a respectful assent. The commandant 
 continued in his reverie, and seemed to have 
 forgotten the young man was there at all. 
 When he did speak it was as if he were answer- 
 ing a question put to him by some one else. 
 
 "There is the trouble," he said impatiently. 
 ' l Whichever way I decide it, some one is going 
 to complain. If I punish you, you are going to 
 think it unjust. If I do not punish you, there 
 will be a scandal with the church, and every one 
 will hear of it from here to Russia. No ! " he 
 said with a sudden shake of the head. "There 
 must be a punishment of some kind. Not be- 
 cause you are guilty and deserve that it should 
 be imposed, but because otherwise they will al- 
 ways say I was unjust. I'll tell you what we 
 
316 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 will do," he cried with sudden animation. 
 "You do not know any one, do you, here in 
 Yakutat?" 
 
 "No!" said the young man with astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 "Then it will not hurt you to stand on the 
 stump. That is as easy a punishment as I could 
 give. The customary fasting I shall not require. 
 You shall come and eat with me this noon, and 
 then go about your penance until dark." 
 
 It was an easy compromise, and while in his 
 heart Ivan Egorovitch resented punishment at 
 all, he brought himself obediently to agree to it. 
 But it was a trial to him, that he must give up 
 so many hours before beginning search for the 
 girl he had come to find, and the inner disap- 
 pointment showed like a shadow on his face. 
 The commandant saw it, and rising, laid his 
 hand upon his arm. 
 
 6 ' I know it is hard, ' ' he said kindly, ' ' but I be- 
 lieve it is the easiest way to bring the matter to 
 an end. Will it help you to say that Mikhail 
 Etolin has asked, and I am going to grant, that 
 you shall go back to Ltua in his place? This, 
 of course, is only temporary, but I shall ask at 
 Arkangelsk that the appointment be confirmed. 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 317 
 
 No. No words about it. Come. It is time for 
 us to go and eat." He drew the young man 
 gently away and began to talk of other things. 
 When the meal was finished the commandant 
 went with him to the door. 
 
 "I am going to do by you as well as you have 
 done by me," he said with a smile. " You came 
 and delivered yourself without a guard to bring 
 you in. Give me your word that, having found 
 a stump, you will not leave it until dark, and I 
 will trust you to go to punishment without crier 
 or restraint or guard to set you out. I think; 
 you will find a stump yonder by that further 
 house, which is cut so low that when you stand 
 on it no one would know that you were off the 
 ground. Eeport to me when you are done, and 
 I will find you a place to sleep." The young 
 man laughed and turned to him with grateful 
 eyes. 
 
 "You are very good to me," he said. "You 
 have my word that in all things I will carry out 
 the sentence as I should." 
 
 He went out into the sunlight and moved 
 leisurely across to the place the commandant 
 had pointed out. He found the stump without 
 difficulty, and recognized how careful Aleksan- 
 
318 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 der Nicolaievitch had been in choosing it to pro- 
 tect him from unpleasantness in the task he had 
 imposed. The tree had been cut off a few 
 inches above the ground, and was large enough 
 so that he could change position on it and move 
 from side to side. More than that, it com- 
 manded a full view both of the post and the har- 
 bor at its foot. 
 
 Ivan Egorovitch took his place on it with a 
 sense of amusement rather than of shame. He 
 looked back at Aleksander Nicolaievitch 's 
 house to note if the commandant watched to 
 see how 1 his order was being carried out. But 
 there was no one there in sight, and he felt a 
 thrill of pride as he realized the trust that 
 had been placed in him. 
 
 As the commandant had promised, he found 
 much to see. The place was far more preten- 
 tious than the post that he had left, and, with- 
 out the native village near the sea, must have 
 sheltered nearly three hundred souls. The har- 
 bor, too, was full of great and small canoes, and 
 a two-masted ship lay in among them with sails 
 unloosed for drying, so that they hung in long 
 festoons. A constant stream of smaller boats 
 moved back and forth between the vessel 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 319 
 
 and the shore, and, in the clear air, he could 
 hear from it the orders as they; were shouted to 
 the men. 
 
 Near-by there was more quiet, and less to oc- 
 cupy his mind. No one in the hamlet seemed to 
 guess why he remained so steadfastly in the one 
 small space. The native boys discovered him 
 and paused, wide-eyed, to watch him where he 
 stood. Once, a woman, moved by his unfamil- 
 iarity, stopped and regarded him with so fixed 
 a gaze that he thought his secret surely pub- 
 lished to the world. But her interest passed 
 without a close approach, and after some dis- 
 turbing moments she went quietly away. 
 
 For an hour his attention brought enough to 
 occupy his mind, but after that the spectacle 
 began to pall. There commenced to stir within 
 him the impatient longing to be again about his 
 search. And he found himself running with his 
 eyes from house to house all over the little 
 place, in the hope that somehow the recognition 
 would come to him in which one Motrya 
 Petrovna had found place. 
 
 It was a fruitless quest, however, and grad- 
 ually he ceased to watch closely the things that 
 passed about him and allowed himself to be- 
 
320 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 come more and more preoccupied with what was 
 passing in his mind. 
 
 And so it happened that when Motrya 
 Petrovna did come out he did not see her and 
 had no premonition of her presence until she 
 was near at hand. She saw him first and stood 
 still and looked at him without a word. Her 
 first instinct seemed to be for flight, but, seeing 
 that he was not conscious of her presence, she 
 stood her ground and watched him intently. 
 
 He saw her after a minute and moved as if 
 to go to her. But the recollection of his parole 
 rose up in him and he checked himself and 
 waited in his turn. She saw the struggle in him 
 and misinterpreted it, and, after waiting a little 
 time for him to come, lifted up her head proudly 
 and went on as if about to pass him without 
 recognition. He delayed until she was fully op- 
 posite him and her intention could not be mis- 
 understood. Then with an effort he put down 
 his pride and called to her. 
 
 "Motrya," he said, "are you not going to 
 speak to me?" She stopped at once and turned 
 to him and, as he had noticed before when she 
 was excited, the color began to rise swiftly in 
 her cheeks. 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 321 
 
 ' ' Oh, it is you, then ! ' ' she said coolly. ' i You 
 did not come to me and I thought it must be 
 some one else." 
 
 "I could not come," returned the young man 
 humbly. "I have given my word that I will 
 stay here in this place." She listened with 
 curiosity, and after a moment's hesitation came 
 nearer, till she was within arm's length of where 
 he stood. Then she saw the stump and com- 
 prehended. 
 
 "You are a prisoner," she said with the air 
 of one interested simply by the fact rather than 
 by any instinct of surprise or sympathy. 
 
 "Yes," he answered with constraint as rigid 
 as her own. "I was brought here from Ltua to 
 answer to the charge that I had stolen Simeon 
 Gvosdefs bell." The girl's face clouded and 
 she let her eyes go down. 
 
 "Oh," she said vaguely, "that is why you 
 came!" Ivan Egorovitch felt his heart stir, 
 for slight as the change in her was, it carried to 
 him that she had been looking for his coming, 
 though she had not owned the feeling as a real 
 hope. 
 
 "That is the reason why I am a prisoner 
 here," he said with such quietness as he could 
 
322 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 command. "But I think you know the reason 
 that, with you here, has made it impossible for 
 me to stay away." She lifted her eyes to him 
 in one quick glance, and then as quickly let them 
 down again. 
 
 "The whole thing was foolish, I suppose," 
 she said slowly, "but it seems to have served as 
 well as another to bring punishment to you." 
 He gave a little exclamation and nodded a vig- 
 orous assent. 
 
 "Punishment?" he cried. "There has been 
 punishment for me every moment since you 
 went away!" Motrya Petrovna did not look at 
 him, but she made an impatient movement with 
 her head. 
 
 "That is not what I meant," she said. "I 
 was thinking of Simeon Gvosdef and the accusa- 
 tion that he made. ' ' 
 
 "But what I said is true, too," insisted the 
 young man earnestly. "So true that I came 
 all this way after you, because I was sure that 
 when you had time to think it over, you yourself 
 would feel it was a mistake." The girl's atti- 
 tude remained as uncompromising as before and 
 she resolutely turned away her face. 
 
 "Why were you not truthful with me, as you 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 323 
 
 made me think ? ' ' she said, and there was an em- 
 phasis that was resentful in her voice. "I 
 think I could have forgiven the things them- 
 selves that happened, but the fact that you de- 
 ceived me is not so easy to forget. ' ' It was on 
 the young man's tongue to deny strenuously the 
 charge she made. But he remembered vividly, 
 how far, before, the same denial had set him 
 from success, and so was chary of venturing on 
 it now. He came as near to her as the limit of 
 his prison would allow and bent forward eagerly 
 to make appeal. 
 
 "Motrya," he said, "in all these long days, 
 have you not had time to think what it will mean 
 for us both if we allow ourselves to drift 
 apart!" 
 
 "Yes, I have thought of it," she answered 
 quietly. "Did you think it would be an easy 
 thing for me to forget!" 
 
 "No! No! You could not!" he cried impul- 
 sively. "We have been too near! Ah, I knew 
 you would remember," he added softly and put 
 out his hands. 
 
 "Wait!" sh'e said. "I did remember, Ivan. 
 In these dreadful days I think there has come 
 back to me every word and deed that ever 
 
324 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 passed between us. I have thought of our 
 promise and the happiness that was to come 
 but always at the end, Ivan, I have had to think 
 what the prospect for that happiness really was, 
 so long as between you and me there was not 
 perfect trust. " 
 
 "But you love me!" he broke in eagerly. 
 
 "Yes, that is true," she said. "I do love 
 you but that is not enough." 
 
 "Oh! It could be enough!" he cried wist- 
 fully. 
 
 "Yes," she answered. "I suppose that I 
 could give it all, but would not that be rather 
 hard on me?" 
 
 ' ' But I would give so much ! " he said. ' ' Can 
 you not believe that even if it were true that I 
 failed you that one time, I have had my lesson 
 and my punishment, and the thing would never 
 occur again?" She considered a moment and 
 slowly shook her head. 
 
 "You do not know yourself, Ivan," she said. 
 "If you had it to do over again, it would be just 
 the same." 
 
 ' ' Try me, ' ' he insisted sturdily. ' ' I hold you 
 before everything else in life." She looked at 
 him curiously with searching eyes. 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 325 
 
 X 
 
 "What would you do for me," she said, "if I 
 should ask it ? " 
 
 "There is nothing I would not attempt. 
 What is it that you wish?" She waited again 
 as if deciding whether, in the asking, she was 
 yielding him too much. Then, with a face that 
 was frankly troubled she turned to him. 
 
 ' ' My father is going to send me back to Rus- 
 sia," she said. "If I should ask it, would you 
 help me to get away and take me to my sister in 
 Ltua ? ' ' The young man could have shouted in 
 his joy that she should wish to stay. 
 
 "Will I help you?" he declared radiantly. 
 ' ' The whole thing shall be arranged for you to- 
 night." 
 
 "No," returned the girl quickly, "if the start 
 is to be made it must be done this afternoon ! ' ' 
 
 "But I can not!" he said in some dismay. 
 "Until dark I have been set here on parole." 
 The girl's face hardened and she made a con- 
 temptuous motion with her hands. 
 
 "Did not I tell you, Ivan?" she said ironi- 
 cally. "It was the old promise that you made, 
 of more than you are willing to perform. ' ' 
 
 "But what difference can it make !" cried the 
 young man protestingly. 
 
326 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "This at least/' she said, "that as a test you 
 invited me to ask of you that which I would 
 most rather have you do. It is the one thing on 
 which I have set my heart. " Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch's face grew graver and he fairly wrung 
 his hands. 
 
 "You are asking me to do as a reparation, " 
 he said scornfully, "the very thing which, when 
 you thought I had done it toward you, you found 
 an unforgivable offense. I have never broken 
 my word with any one, and how can I do it now 
 with Aleksander Nicolaievitch, who has been to 
 me so very kind?" 
 
 The girl's wilfulness began to sparkle into 
 anger under his continued opposition to her 
 will. There was a touch of her father's ob- 
 stinacy in her disposition, and while in testing 
 his love she had only thought to make him 
 suffer becomingly before yielding to his suit, she 
 found this sudden obstacle make the way to 
 reconciliation much more hard. 
 
 "There is another reason, and a good one," 
 she said loftily, "but I took your word that to 
 have you do a thing I had only to express it as 
 a wish. ' 9 
 
 "That is true," he said doggedly, "but, be- 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 327 
 
 lieving that you loved me, it never occurred to 
 me in promising, that in the asking you would 
 not hold my honor as your own." The girl's 
 face crimsoned, and he could see the tears start 
 in her eyes. 
 
 "Then you will not do it!" she said, speaking 
 scarcely above a whisper. 
 
 "I have no choice, " he answered simply. 
 "If it were to help another it might perhaps be 
 done. But where the benefit would be for my- 
 self it would be for me a crime ! ' ' 
 
 ' l Oh, you must do it ! You must ! ' ' she cried 
 with sudden passionate abandon. "You will 
 lose me, Ivan, if you do not take me away this 
 afternoon. ' ' 
 
 "God help me, then!" he said. "I can not 
 do it !" She gave a little sob and turned away 
 from him. He thought she was going without a 
 word, but after a moment she came back to him 
 and stretched out her hand. 
 
 "Good-by," she said, with tremulous softness. 
 
 "Good-by," he answered mechanically, and 
 waited dully to see what she would do. For all 
 her preparation, she could not bring herself to 
 go, and lingered irresolutely with her hand in 
 his. The fear began to grow in her that, after 
 
328 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 all, she could not bend him to her will, and the 
 fierce necessity of doing this, if she were not to 
 lose him for all time, stirred her to something 
 near to desperation. 
 
 "Ivan," she said after a moment's silence, 
 "if it were to help another, would it make it 
 easier for you to break your word and go ? " 
 
 "That would depend,", he said cautiously, 
 "both on the person and the need." She drew 
 closer to him and put her other hand caressingly 
 upon his breast. 
 
 "Is it not enough that it is my happiness that 
 is in the balance ? ' ' she entreated. ' ' Surely you 
 would do for me what you would do for an- 
 other." The young man groaned in his em- 
 barrassment and lifted her fingers reverently to 
 his lips. 
 
 "I would do anything for you that was 
 right," he said brokenly. "But can you not 
 see that in helping you to your happiness I 
 should only be helping myself to my own 1 ' ' She 
 was manifestly disappointed and hastily drew 
 away her hands. 
 
 "Why are you so sure of that!" she said 
 with well-assumed coolness. "You are not the 
 only one in Ltua who would be glad to see me 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 329 
 
 back." Ivan Egorovitch 's face darkened and 
 he shut his teeth together with a snap. 
 
 "Then it was true," he said sneeringly, "that 
 you encouraged Stepan Dmitrievitch the day 
 you came away!" 
 
 "Perhaps," she said demurely. "Why 
 should I not, if I chose?" 
 
 "Because," he almost shouted, "you belong 
 to me, and I will not have you looking at any 
 other man!" She listened to his pronounce- 
 ment with a little sigh of content She was 
 surer of her ground now and waited gravely till 
 he was in calmer mood. 
 
 "Softly," she cried. "You forget that just 
 this moment you gave me up and were going to 
 let me go away. ' ' He looked at her in bewilder- 
 ment, and then sat down and covered his face 
 with his hands. 
 
 "Go!" he said; "go! You are tempting me 
 beyond my strength." The girl's eyes glis- 
 tened with a sudden access of tenderness, but 
 with an effort she held herself in check. 
 
 "Stepan Dmitrievitch," she demanded, "was 
 he at Ltua when you came away?" Ivan 
 Egorovitch nodded without raising his head. 
 
 "Why dM he not come to Yakutat? He told 
 
330 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 me tliat lie would." The young man writhed 
 under the examination, but he was honest 
 enough to tell her the whole truth. 
 
 "We could not both come," he said sullenly, 
 "and he was the one who stayed." 
 
 ' l Then he stood aside for you? ' ' she persisted. 
 
 "Yes," he admitted. "He stood aside for 
 me." 
 
 "Poor Stepan!" she said softly, and watched 
 to see how he would take the words. "Was 
 there no message?" she continued. "Did he 
 send no word to me ? ' r Ivan Egorovitch waited 
 before answering, till he could hold his voice 
 under command. 
 
 "Yes," he admitted, "there was a letter." 
 
 "A letter?" she repeated with genuine sur- 
 prise. "Why then have you not given it to 
 me?" 
 
 "Because," he answered moodily, "there are 
 things in it I could not bear to have you see ! ' ' 
 
 "You know then what is in it?" she asked 
 with increased surprise. 
 
 "Yes," he said doggedly, "he told me what 
 was in it before he put it in my hand." 
 Motrya Petrovna felt a curious resentment as 
 she listened to his words. She was so sure in 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 331 
 
 her heart that she belonged to him, that it came 
 as a dishonor, that he should let another even 
 think to send her messages of love, and for a 
 moment she forgot entirely the part she had in 
 hand. 
 
 "You let him give you a letter that you knew 
 made love to me ! ' ' she cried, and there was al- 
 most horror in her tone. "And you have kept 
 it in your pocket for two days?" Her change 
 of tone was so compelling that Ivan Egorovitch 
 raised his head. 
 
 "Yes," he said dully, "it was the only way I 
 could get him to stay behind." Motrya 
 Petrovna recovered herself almost instantly and 
 held out her hand. 
 
 "Well, give it to me!" she said with a little 
 hysteric laugh, but Ivan Egorovitch shook his 
 head. 
 
 "No," he said drearily, "I was not to give it 
 to you, till I had surely lost all hope." Again 
 there was the gleam of pity in Motrya Petrov- 
 na's eyes and she made an involuntary move- 
 ment as if to go to him. But the game was 
 too near the end now to be abandoned for a 
 whim and she steadied herself for the closing 
 scene. 
 
332 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Then surely," she said at last, "there is no 
 longer reason for delay." He made no move- 
 ment toward compliance, but sat dumbly star- 
 ing at the ground. 
 
 "Give it to me at once!" she commanded, 
 stamping her foot to emphasize her claim. "I 
 demand it as a right!" 
 
 He hesitated a moment longer and then, put- 
 ting his hand inside his blouse, he drew out the 
 packet and gave it to her without a word. Then, 
 rising, he turned his back to her and went as far 
 away as possible, that he might not see her as 
 she read. She stood with the letter in her hand, 
 as she had taken it, and watched him with her 
 eyes wet with tears. She made no effort to open 
 the packet and, after a moment, with a stealthy 
 movement, as if in fear that he would see her, 
 placed it unread within the bosom of her dress. 
 Then, after a brief interval, she spoke to the 
 dejected figure on the stump. 
 
 "Ivan," she said, and in spite of her, her 
 voice trembled so that she was fearful he 
 would understand. "If I should ask you to 
 keep your promise to Stepan Dmitrievitch and 
 take me to him to-day, would you do it?" 
 
LOVE AND GOOD FAITH 333 
 
 He gave a little sob at the question, but did 
 not turn around. 
 
 " I could not," he said huskily. "And be- 
 sides, where is the need?" 
 
 "Listen," she said. "I wish to tell you now 
 my other reason. The vessel there sails to-day 
 at six o'clock and unless I go before that time it 
 will be too late." He straightened himself as 
 if he had been struck and turned to her at once. 
 
 "Why did you not tell me that at first?" he 
 demanded resentfully. She felt her pulses leap 
 as she saw how her diplomacy was bringing her 
 success. Her impulse was to tell the truth and 
 trust his heart to overcome his head. But 
 there still lingered in her the warning dread lest 
 all his scruples should not yet be set aside and 
 she found strength to go on with her deception 
 to the end. 
 
 "What matters it," she said, "now that you 
 know the need?" 
 
 "If I had known it," he returned resentfully, 
 ' ' I might have taken you for myself. ' ' She held 
 up her hand in interruption. 
 
 6 1 Do not mistake, ' ' she cried warningly. ' ' It 
 is not for you that I am, seeking it. Will you 
 for Stepan Dmitrievitch's sake and mine 
 
334 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 take me to Ltua as I have asked ?" He hesi- 
 tated a moment only and then stepped down 
 from the stump. 
 
 ' ' I am beaten ! " he said querulously. * ' I will 
 go with you where you will. ' ' 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE FLIGHT 
 
 She took him by the hand and drew him back 
 among the thicker growth of trees and, skirting 
 round the little group of houses so that no one 
 in the settlement might see, they came presently 
 to the edge of the timber and the beach. Ivan 
 Egorovitch moved as in a dream and let her lead 
 him anywhere she would. 
 
 She had chosen a point of refuge out toward 
 the southern headland, at the farthest end of 
 the sharp bight that limits with its curve the 
 inner harbor line. Her eyes were full of the 
 elation of her victory and she assumed control 
 with the certainty of one whose authority is 
 generously assured. Arrived at the water, she 
 stood for a moment looking up and down, and 
 then drew back to a sheltered place against a 
 little bluff. 
 
 66 Wait here," she said, "I think I know a man 
 who will furnish us a boat." He sat down on 
 
 335 
 
336 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 the ground without a word, and with a smile of 
 encouragement, which failed to bring from him 
 equivalent response, she left him and went 
 swiftly off along the beach. 
 
 He watched her dully, till she was out of sight, 
 and then drew in his glance in passive apathy, 
 until it compassed a field of vision no wider 
 than the sand- waves at his feet. He had come 
 to the end of his tether for the time and, with 
 the restraint of it dragging unremittingly at 
 his heart, felt that the strings of his activity 
 were loosened so he could touch them, for the 
 present, to no harmonious accord. 
 
 But though the warm sunshine, the play of 
 light on the blue levels of the bay and the cheer- 
 ful noises of the loading ship brought no stir of 
 interest to his light-blinded eyes, within him, 
 like the settings in a play, there ran and shifted, 
 with kaleidoscopic swiftness, the tragic group- 
 ings of the events of the last few days. 
 
 He felt again the soft touch on his lips that 
 had betrayed him into Motrya's father's hands. 
 He saw the girl's wild flight in the madness of 
 her first unreasoning distaste. He burned with 
 the recollection of Stepan Dmitri evitch's un- 
 welcome love. But, most of all, in the very 
 
THE FLIGHT 337 
 
 porches of his ears, there stirred, like a whir of 
 bees, the cut and play of that last dialogue that 
 had stripped away the shams of hope and happi- 
 ness that he had so carefully built up and left 
 him, after it had passed, high stranded above 
 the sea of active purpose, with nothing but his 
 bits of wreckage round him in the sand. 
 
 He had lost the woman he loved that 
 was the staggering weight which was holding 
 down the world. And it was an irony to him, 
 that for all his struggle to comprehend why the 
 catastrophe had fallen as it had, there still re- 
 mained to him a baffling sense of ignorance as 
 to how it all had come about. It was a further 
 irony, too, that, having lost Motrya Petrovna 
 for himself, chance should have put on him the 
 bitter burden of saving her simply that she 
 might make a Heaven for another man. 
 
 And yet, in all his blind lashing out at fate, 
 it did not come to him to think that he could 
 fail her in her need. To the engrossing fond- 
 ness of his passion it seemed better to be near 
 her even when she proved unkind, rather than 
 somewhere else -where her face would be hid- 
 den from him and he could no longer catch the 
 inspiration of her look. And more than this, 
 
338 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 down in the inner holy of his heart, there 
 burned, like a sacred fire, that real love for the 
 mate whom he had sought, which made it bind- 
 ing on him to seek happiness for her, no matter 
 at what trouble to himself. 
 
 Over and over, he went groping round the 
 walls of this black mental prison, feeling with 
 eager hands each bar and stone, in pathetic hope 
 that he would find some turning slab, some 
 loosened bolt, some unexpected outlet toward 
 escape. He was still moving blindly in the per- 
 plexing round, when he felt a touch on his 
 shoulder, and, rising with a start, saw through 
 his confusion that she had come back and was 
 standing at his side. Behind her was a short 
 man, half of native blood, who stood looking 
 from her to him with an air of shrewd good 
 humor that was at once quizzical and kind. 
 
 "This is Piotr Ivanovitch Shakhof," she said, 
 "and he has found for us a boat." The new- 
 comer bowed low to. Ivan Egorovitch, lifting his 
 cap with both hands. 
 
 "It is a ticklish business," he said out- 
 spokenly, ' i and one which, like as not, will bring 
 me under the law to say nothing of the loss, 
 if by any chance, you should fail to return the 
 
THE FLIGHT 339 
 
 boat. But sympathy is stronger than prudence 
 in a man, and if I were in your place I should 
 ask no less myself. ' ' 
 
 He bowed again to Ivan Egorovitch with a 
 sidewise sweep in the direction of Motrya Pe- 
 trovna, so as to include her in the expression of 
 his respect. Then, as the young man did not 
 answer, but continued to stand and look at him 
 with abstracted eyes, his expression changed 
 to one of curiosity and he turned inquiringly to 
 the waiting girl. 
 
 "You know your own taste, panna," he said 
 with appalling frankness, "but if I had been 
 choosing for you, I should have picked a lover 
 with more fire." The girl gave a mischievous 
 glance at Ivan Egorovitch and made answer 
 with a laugh. 
 
 "Appearances are deceitful, Piotr Ivano- 
 vitch, and I am very well satisfied with my com- 
 panion as he is. He will tell you, however, that 
 he is not my lover, but is taking me to my sister 
 at the Ltua post." The man looked doubtfully 
 at Ivan Egorovitch and once again with open 
 admiration at the girl. 
 
 "It is a handsome service for a friend to 
 give," he said bluntly. "If I did it, I should 
 
340 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 surely ask for more reward. ' ' Ivan Egorovitcli 
 awoke to sudden animation and with rough di- 
 rectness set the man's pleasantries aside. 
 
 " Where is the boat?" he demanded abruptly. 
 "Have you seen that all things are prepared?" 
 
 "Yes," answered Motrya Petrovna. "The 
 boat is below there at the beach. But, for fear 
 of interruption, Piotr Ivanovitch is to take it 
 out to the very point yonder and we will go by 
 land until we meet him there." 
 
 She sent the man on his errand and stood 
 read for the start. She did not take her com- 
 panion's hand as when they had first set out, 
 but, assuring herself by a glance that he had 
 caught the impulse and was close at her heels, 
 she plunged into the covert and, like a gray 
 shadow in the deep greenery around her, went 
 flitting on before him, choosing the way. 
 
 Twice, when she had gone so quickly that the 
 pace had carried her too far ahead, she stopped 
 and waited, watching him with wistful eyes. 
 But more than once, when some delaying de- 
 tail had held her till he came up close behind, 
 a sudden panic took her lest he should fail in 
 his control and seize her with a detaining hand, 
 and with fluttering heart she hastened to put 
 
THE FLIGHT 341 
 
 space again between her and him. They found 
 the boatman punctual at his post and all things 
 ready for a propitious start. 
 
 "I have brought covers and food and water, " 
 said the man, with a gesture toward the boat, 
 ' i and there is an extra paddle should the other 
 break/' Motrya Petrovna drew him to one 
 side and pressed some silver coins into his hand. 
 
 "You have done me great service, " she said 
 earnestly, "and I shall not forget you all my 
 life. ' ' The man looked awkwardly at the money 
 in his hand. 
 
 "It was not for that I did it," he said with 
 some constraint, "but because you have been 
 kind to me and mine. I wish you well with all 
 my heart, but I should feel easier about you, if 
 God would touch your man yonder to make him 
 quicker with his wits." 
 
 "Perhaps he will," she said softly, with a 
 sudden dewy compunction in her eyes, "though 
 I do not find him hopeless as he is. ' ' The man 
 held the canoe firmly while she arranged herself 
 in comfort at the bow; and further till Ivan 
 Egorovitch had knelt in the paddler's place. 
 
 ' i God keep you ! " he cried, ' l and be sure and 
 return the boat." He pushed them from the 
 
342 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 shore and stood and felt his measure of the de- 
 parting man enlarge, as he watched his back 
 bend to the work and saw the clean dip of the 
 paddle that betrayed the practised hand. It 
 was only for a moment, however, that he saw; 
 for a score of strokes carried the voyagers out 
 to the rocky point and, with a sweep that 
 marked a long white circle on the sea, they 
 swung around it and were out of sight. 
 
 There is a balm of healing in familiar toil 
 that brings a real restorative to troubled 
 hearts. Ivan Egorovitch, bending fiercely to his 
 work, felt its amenities relax the tenseness of 
 the cords that bound his soul and send the warm 
 blood tingling through the half-numbed chan- 
 nels of his nerves. The firm pull of the paddle 
 in his hand, the flash of the blade, the sense of 
 exhilarant motion, the lap of the water under- 
 neath his feet, and, perhaps more than all other 
 things, the feeling of escape, of freedom, that 
 came with the swift dash out into the open sea 
 all touched his spirits with an anodyne that 
 cured his pain and led him all unconscious back 
 toward peace. 
 
 He did not speak to the girl in the bow 
 and she, with a great sympathy in her heart, sat 
 
THE FLIGHT 343 
 
 silent and watched his fight to seize again his 
 former soul-serenity. It had not been her plan, 
 when she began, to hold him at a distance from 
 her long. But now, when his surrender was an 
 accomplished fact and there was no longer need 
 to let him think he had lost her love, a sudden 
 shyness came to stop her mouth and make her 
 ponder on the disclosure of her deception with 
 a feminine alarm. 
 
 "I will delay, " she said almost aloud. "It 
 will be time when he has brought me home." 
 But this panic aside, she found no shadow set on 
 her content. The air was warm, the wind of the 
 going moved pleasantly about her hair, the 
 peace of all the ages seemed gathered down 
 on the silent sea and the long lane of silver 
 light, which the slanting sun sent shimmering 
 across the waves, was like an open path to 
 Arcady. 
 
 She lost herself in the dreams that held her 
 thoughts and, with her hand drawn idly in the 
 water at her side, went out along her airy road 
 with a sublime carelessness and faith. How far 
 she wandered there, no man can tell, but sud- 
 denly, through her dreaming, she was aware of 
 something that broke in on the illusion she had 
 
344 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 spun, and brought her rudely back to the real 
 facts of life. 
 
 At first she felt it vaguely and only as a shock. 
 But gathering force of it to more enduring 
 clearness, she perceived that the man in front 
 of her had ceased to paddle and was leaning 
 forward to gaze at her with a face radiant with 
 hope. So sure he was and so urgent of his 
 claim, that her mind, dismayed, fled back into 
 itself to question if in any way it could have 
 given him the ground. And like a guilty flash, 
 it came to her that in her reverie her face had 
 caught reflection from the thought that was 
 within and that, unconscious, she had looked at 
 him with wooing eyes. 
 
 "Motrya,," he whispered huskily, "is it 
 really true?" She stirred with a sudden thrill 
 of her old panic and looked at him aghast. 
 
 "I must have been asleep," she said. "Why 
 have you ceased to row!" He kept his eyes on 
 her unsteadily and made some inarticulate re- 
 sponse. But, catching from her face that he had 
 made mistake, he let his eyes go down and 
 turned to his work again with passionate in- 
 tensity. 
 
 They went on steadily and swiftly in their 
 
THE FLIGHT 345 
 
 course and the sun sank down till with a sudden 
 dip it dropped into the sea. The girl began to 
 be tired with the long sitting in one place, and 
 slipping down she lay at full length on her cov- 
 ers and stretched herself to ease the stiffness 
 in her limbs. Her feet almost reached Ivan 
 Egorovitch where he knelt and she felt a wild 
 desire rise in her to touch him and see what he 
 would do. But before the thought had crystal- 
 lized into act, he noted her change of place and 
 moved so that the drip of the paddle as he 
 passed it back and forth, should not, in going, 
 fall on her feet. 
 
 She abandoned her madcap thought and, set- 
 tling herself in comfort in her place, lay back 
 and watched the soft outgoing of the day. 
 There were no high-riding clouds above her 
 head to catch the colors and give back gorgeous 
 sunset hues. Here and there small orange 
 patches no larger than a hand glowed bright 
 against the sallow sky. Along the horizon to 
 the west, the mist, low-lying, caught a hard gild- 
 ing from the sun and flamed and burned with 
 royal prodigality. The whole air seized the 
 impulse and grew full of the soft yellow light, 
 and off to the east, even the somber mountains 
 
346 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 of the mainland caught the kindliness of the 
 benediction and warmed and softened into 
 pleasant tints. 
 
 The evening wind began and breathed with 
 slight premonitory chill. She felt, rather than 
 saw, that Ivan Egorovitch leaned forward and 
 drew a wrap across her as she lay. The sunset 
 faded, how she scarcely knew, and when she 
 woke again the canoe was beached on a low spit 
 of land and Ivan Egorovitch was calling her to 
 come ashore. The night had settled blackly and 
 the hills, drawn close, went sharply up like 
 a threatening shad;ow, indistinct and vague. 
 Some steps away she saw the flash of a little 
 fire, and the wind brought to her pleasantly the 
 homelike smell of smoke. 
 
 She let him help her to her feet and went 
 stumbling out upon the beach. Still heavy-eyed 
 with sleep, she was confused and lost in the 
 strange shadowy darkness, and, pressing her 
 hands to her eyes, she stood still and waited 
 till her power of judgment should again be clear. 
 
 "Come to the fire," he said. "It is only a 
 little way." His voice supplied the human 
 touch that was needful to harmonize her dis- 
 turbed sense with the unusual scene. He, at 
 
THE FLIGHT 347 
 
 least, was a reality, on which her necessity 
 might lean and with an unconsciousness that 
 showed how natural the gesture was, she turned 
 to him and put her hand in his. 
 
 The intimacy of the action stirred him almost 
 beyond his strength. It was the first kindness 
 Motrya Petrovna had shown him since the day 
 when everything had been his own and, though 
 he knew the trust was all unconscious, it was 
 encouragement enough to set his pulse a-thrill. 
 
 "Do not be afraid," he said with a new note 
 in his voice. ' t The way is steep, but it is wholly 
 clear." She let him lead her up the short in- 
 cline and came with him to a cup-shaped de- 
 pression with a floor of turf in which the fire 
 had been placed. 
 
 The blaze was larger, seen close at hand, and 
 served to light acceptably the little level of 
 the valley floor. She saw that he had been 
 some time before her in the place and that, 
 within the circle of the blaze, were set the vari- 
 ous articles of food that Piotr Shakhof had so 
 thoughtfully supplied. Ivan Egorovitch paused 
 beside them, but still held her hand. 
 
 "This is the place where the boats always 
 stop, ' ' he said. ' ' There is water yonder, by that 
 
348 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 little bush. I will go down and bring the other 
 things, and by that time I think yon can have 
 some tea. ' ' There did not seem to be need for 
 speech and she stood and smiled at him and 
 waited till he should let go her hand. When 
 he was gone, she watched him out of sight, and 
 then went to the little stream that he had 
 pointed out and washed and dried her face and 
 arranged her tumbled hair. 
 
 He found her by the fire, awaiting him with 
 kindly eyes. He placed on the ground the cov- 
 ers he had brought and arranged a pile of them 
 against a convenient rock. 
 
 "Sit here," he said, "where you will not be 
 cold." 
 
 "You must come, too,'" she said, and left for 
 him a place. 
 
 "Not now," he answered. "Not till you are 
 served. ' ' He brought her food and tea and saw 
 that she had comfort while she ate. But when 
 the meal was done, he took advantage of the in- 
 vitation she had given and stretched himself 
 on the covers at her side. 
 
 It was a strain on his self-mastery to keep 
 from speaking all his thought. She was so near 
 that he could have put out his hand and touched 
 
THE FLIGHT 349 
 
 her, but his heart was grateful that she had 
 thrown to him even the small crumbs of comf orti 
 that she had, and he put a grip on himself that 
 she might not feel she had been mistaken in her 
 trust. 
 
 The girl herself, now she had led him on, was 
 filled with fear lest she should give too much 
 and so took refuge in a passive role and sat and 
 watched the fire and did not speak. His eyes 
 devoured her hungrily and at last he could not 
 keep his thoughts from breaking into words. 
 
 "God made this place for us," he said with a 
 low thrill of voice. "I do not believe there is 
 any one else left in the world." The girl gave 
 an almost imperceptible stir of discontent. 
 
 "Do not talk," she said pleadingly; "let us 
 enjoy it as it is." 
 
 "I can not," he said passionately, "I must 
 show you what is in my heart." She reached 
 out quickly and laid her hand lightly on his 
 mouth. 
 
 "Oh, wait!" she cried. "I do not want to 
 hear to-night. ' ' The touch of her soft palm, the 
 warmth of it more than he had so long pos- 
 sessed of her intoxicated him for the moment 
 and swept away the last restraint of his reserve. 
 
350 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 He pressed the hand hungrily against his cheek, 
 kissed it with feverish lips and, lifting himself, 
 drew her toward him with the thought to take 
 her in his arms. She resisted sharply, throw- 
 ing back her head and pushed him from her with 
 her hands. 
 
 "Wait!" she cried, "wait! Ivan, not to- 
 night ! ' ' He yielded promptly to her mood and 
 gave back until she was entirely free. She sat 
 for some minutes rigidly against the rock, 
 watching him constantly with attentive eyes. 
 
 "I am trusting you, Ivan," she said tremu- 
 lously. "Do not do anything that will make me 
 sorry that I have!" He got abruptly to his 
 feet and without a word went swiftly out of the 
 little valley by the path down to the sea. 
 
 When he came back he was again quiet and 
 contained, and taking a cover, arranged it over 
 slanting sticks so as to make her a shelter by a 
 fallen fir. She stood by the fire and watched 
 him while he arranged the remaining wraps into 
 a bed. 
 
 "It is near midnight," he said, "and time you 
 were asleep." 
 
 "And you?'! she answered. 
 
 "I shall sleep in the canoe," he said, and went 
 
THE FLIGHT 351 
 
 away, across the little hill. He did not go to 
 bed at once, however, but, standing by the boat, 
 took off his cap and lingered, enjoying on his 
 forehead the coolness of the soft evening 
 breeze. 
 
 It was a lovely night. The penetrating chill 
 that commonly came in with darkness was this 
 time lacking. The place was still, except for 
 the soft lapping of the surf along the beach line. 
 The darkness hung around him like a veil let 
 down to shut out everything but the wide mys- 
 teries of night, and, standing with upraised face, 
 he drank in the inspiration of its quiet and felt 
 himself uplifted by its peace. 
 
 But only for a moment. There was a sudden 
 breathing of the forest. Somewhere a fox 
 barked sharply from its cover, and off to the 
 south a glacier in some hidden bay, let fall, with 
 sullen roar, a front of ice into the sea. It 
 brought him to himself and, with a deep-drawn 
 sigh, he replaced his cap and turned and looked 
 back wistfully toward the fire. But the inspira- 
 tion of the night remained in him and would not 
 let him rest. . Climbing the hill, he passed the 
 fire and stood again beside the shelter tent. 
 
 "Motrya," he called, "are you asleep?" 
 
352 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "No, not yet," she said after a moment's hes- 
 itation. 
 
 1 i I could not sleep, ' ' he went on humbly, ' ' till 
 I had told you that I was sorry I went too 
 far. Good night I" 
 
 ' ' Good night ! ' ' she answered softly and again 
 the place was still. He did not go, however, 
 and, divining what he wanted, after a moment, 
 she put out her hand. He kissed it reverently 
 and let it go, and this time when he went away, 
 she came to sleep that was not any more dis- 
 turbed. 
 
CHAPTER XV" 
 
 THE GEIP OF THE DRAW. 
 
 The sun was shining brightly when Motrya 
 Petrovna woke and, hastily making her toilet at 
 the little run, she looked for Ivan Egorovitch 
 and saw him at the top of one of the larger of 
 the adjacent hills. She went to him and found 
 him looking out across the sea. So engrossed 
 was he in his occupation that until she spoke, he 
 did not seem to see or to hear her. 
 
 6 'What is it, Ivan?" she asked breathlessly, 
 for the incline was steep. He kept his gaze 
 fixed as before and, without turning, pointed 
 with his hand. 
 
 * ' It is a boat, I think, ' ' he said quietly. ' ' Do 
 you see it yonder by that farthest rocky point?" 
 She came close to him and bent forward in the 
 direction he had shown. 
 
 "Is it that black dot in the water, near the 
 shore?" 
 
 "Yes, now it is gone behind that island to the 
 
 353 
 
354 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 left." She stood so close to him that she 
 brushed his arm, but he was so preoccupied 
 he still scarcely knew that she was there by his 
 side. 
 
 "What does it mean?" she asked with a sud- 
 den thrill. 
 
 "Pursuit, I am afraid," he answered soberly. 
 "See, there it comes in sight again." They 
 watched it silently for a moment and Motrya 
 Petrovna felt a new stir at the heart. Then, 
 with an exclamation, Ivan Egorovitch came out 
 of his absorption and turned abruptly to the 
 girl at his side. 
 
 "We will take no chance," he said decidedly. 
 "We must lose no time in getting under way." 
 He put his arm around her as if it was already 
 necessary to protect her against the danger that 
 he feared, and together they went swiftly down 
 the slope. 
 
 As a first measure of precaution, he put out 
 the fire. They ate and drank with feverish 
 haste and then, with the leisurely swiftness of 
 long practice, the young man collected the scat- 
 tered things and loaded them quickly on the 
 canoe. Before starting, he went back to the 
 hill for another look. 
 
THE GEIP OF THE DRAW 355 
 
 "It is a larger boat," he said when lie came 
 back, ' ' and I think there are four men. ' ' 
 
 "Ours is the lighter one," she said encour- 
 agingly. 
 
 "Yes," he answered, "but they can cut 
 straight across from head to head, while we, be- 
 ing smaller, have to hug the shore." 
 
 He helped her to her place and got the little 
 craft afloat and, putting his back into the work, 
 began to send it across the water with satisfy- 
 ing speed. Seated at the bow, Motrya Petrovna 
 could look back on the course which they had 
 followed, and with growing curiosity she 
 strained her eyes to catch a glimpse of the boat 
 that followed them. She was too close to the 
 water for extended view and, in spite of her ef- 
 forts, she could get no sight of it. Again and 
 again in the long morning hours she thought she 
 made it out, and once she raised herself so far in 
 her eagerness to see, that the little canoe shook 
 violently and Ivan Egorovitch became aware 
 of her. 
 
 "Sit down!" he said sharply. "You will be 
 over in the sea." She settled back obediently 
 in her place, but turned her eyes to him in mute 
 apology. 
 
356 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "I thought I saw them!" she said breath- 
 lessly." "Do you think they will overhaul us 
 before we can get in?" 
 
 "I trust not," he answered dubiously. "If 
 they take us here, they can do with us as they 
 will, but if we gain the port, it is a certain thing 
 that they will not be able to lay hands on us." 
 
 "It is a strange thing that they have followed 
 us so soon," she said thoughtfully, "and I can 
 not understand why they have brought so large 
 a boat. ' ' 
 
 "I suspect you are more precious to your 
 father than you know," he answered with a 
 smile. "They have brought the larger boat be- 
 cause they want me as well as you. You forget 
 that I am an offender now who has broken gaol. 
 The priest desires me punished and Aleksander 
 Nicolaievitch has had to send the extra men." 
 This was a new idea to her, and a disturbing 
 one, and she clasped her hands impulsively as 
 she thought it out. 
 
 "Oh, they must not overtake us!" she cried 
 excitedly. "I could not bear to have you suffer 
 for what I made you do !" 
 
 "We shall know about it soon," he answere'd, 
 "The end of the journey is not far away," 
 
THE GEIP OF THE DEAW 357 
 
 He stopped paddling and took a quick look 
 down along the coast. Less than three miles 
 away he saw the familiar headlands that marked 
 the desired entrance to Ltua Bay and uncon- 
 sciously he gave a little shout of joy. But the 
 girl, looking back, had at the same moment her 
 first vision of their pursuers as their boat rose 
 suddenly on the crest of a higher wave. With 
 a gasp, she let herself slide down into the bot- 
 tom of the boat and drew herself toward him 
 as if she could not resist the impulse to help 
 him at the oar. 
 
 ' i Pull ! ' ' she cried in a sibilant whisper, ' ( pull, 
 Ivan, they are almost here ! ' ' The young man 
 caught the impulse of her terror and bent with 
 hysteric energy to his work. But, after a mo- 
 ment, finding that they had not been overhauled, 
 he steadied his courage and took time to look 
 around. 
 
 "I thought they were right upon us," he said 
 shamefacedly, and eased up somewhat on his 
 stroke. The other canoe, however, was now 
 plainly in sight and he could see that, as he had 
 thought, it held four men. 
 
 Those in the pursuing boat saw the fugitives 
 almost as soon as they themselves had been seen, 
 
358 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 and one man stood up and gazed at them fixedly, 
 as if to make assurance doubly sure. Then his 
 hands went to his mouth and he shouted a sharp 
 peremptory hail. Ivan Egorovitch did not an- 
 swer and the girl gave a little sob and covered 
 her face with her hands. The young man did 
 not dare to lay down his paddle to go to her, 
 but from his distance, he comforted her as he 
 could. 
 
 "Courage, dear heart," he said. "There is 
 a long way yet between them and us." She 
 looked up at him thankfully with a perfunctory 
 effort at a smile. 
 
 "It is foolish, I suppose, to be so frightened," 
 she said tremulously, "but I would not want to 
 live, Ivan, if you let them take me from you 
 now. ' ' His face lighted and he gave her a quick 
 grateful glance. 
 
 "God Himself might do it," he cried magnifi- 
 cently, "but while I live, I will hold you against 
 the world!" Still, his heart beat freer when 
 they had passed between the headlands and 
 their pursuers were for the moment out of sight. 
 
 His enthusiasm carried him quickly and he 
 was well in the channel before he thought about 
 the draw. It may have been the sinister drag 
 
THE GEIP OF THE DRAW 359 
 
 on the boat or perhaps some suggestive stir 
 of the surface of the sea. But whatever it was, 
 he woke suddenly to recollection and saw that 
 the tide was past the full, and ahead of him the 
 mad spin of the water was beginning to go 
 round. 
 
 He checked the canoe promptly, with the 
 thought to turn and make for the landing at the 
 outer point. But that refuge looked already an 
 interminable way behind and the fear took hold 
 of him that to go back would mean to run 
 surely into their pursuers ' arms. 
 
 "Motrya," he cried, "the tide has turned and 
 the passage is not safe. Shall we go back or 
 shall we try to run the draw?" The girl 
 twisted herself around so she could look up 
 the channel toward the designated spot and saw 
 at once that there was no doubt of the truth of 
 what he had said. There was the same restless 
 stir of the water that she had noticed the day 
 when he had first shown her the whirlpool from 
 the ledge, and at the center of the uncanny 
 thing, she saw the old angry patch of white that 
 heaved and stirred as if it were alive. 
 
 Like an overwhelming wave there swept over 
 her the whole recollection of the place as she 
 
360 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 had seen it on that other dreadful day. She 
 felt again on her hands the sinister pull of the 
 log at the end of the tight-stretched rope. She 
 heard the cry of the priest as he dropped from 
 his boat into the inhospitable sea, and saw, as in 
 a dream, the two black heads go up and down 
 like corks in the struggle of the men for life. 
 
 It was all in an instant, but the horror of it 
 took her strength and as she turned to him 
 again he saw in her face that she had not the 
 heart to try. It was not the answer he had 
 hoped for, but without a word, he turned the 
 canoe and began to circle for the backward run. 
 But before it was fairly round, the girl, turning 
 to gage the danger from the other boat, saw it 
 so near that she could not suppress a cry. 
 
 "Wait!" she exclaimed. "They are already 
 at the point !" He checked the boat and as she 
 saw the hope that was in his eyes, she steadied 
 herself and took new grip on her fears. 
 
 "Ivan," she cried, "is there a chance that we 
 could pass alive!" 
 
 "Yes," he answered, "there is a chance, but 
 that is all." She hesitated just a moment, 
 while her courage grew. 
 
 "Go on!" she said resolutely. "It will be no 
 
THE GEIP OF THE DRAW 361 
 
 worse than going back!" He delayed no time 
 in a,cting on the permission and sent the boat 
 over to the southern bank. Hugging it close, he 
 increased the speed so that as far as possible he 
 should offset the insidious grapple of the draw. 
 
 Motrya Petrovna let herself sink into the bot- 
 tom of the boat and covered her eyes tightly 
 with her hands. For the first hundred yards 
 the plan worked like a charm. The boat obeyed 
 the paddle and crept steadily along the rocky 
 wall. But after that the racing water began 
 to drag at it with growing force and Ivan Egor- 
 ovitch found it hard to keep it pointed as he 
 would. So strong was the unremitting pull 
 that it was only by paddling wholly on one side, 
 that he could keep the boat's nose turned 
 rightly toward the shore. 
 
 The crisis came when they were opposite the 
 ledge. Slowly, but surely, the boat began to 
 leave the sheltering cliff, moving broadsides 
 out into the stream. Ivan Egorovitch paddled 
 madly, but to no avail, and saw the shore slip 
 away until there was a wide lane of water be- 
 tween him and it. Motrya Petrovna had slid 
 forward in a heap and he saw that she had 
 fainted quite away. 
 
362 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 It took him but a moment to make up his 
 mind. With a last desperate struggle that he 
 might not lose advantage while he leaned for- 
 ward to the girl, he threw away his paddle and 
 leaped with her as far as possible toward the 
 shore. The sudden plunge restored somewhat 
 her dormant wits but she did not resist strongly 
 and his task was the easier that he could man- 
 age her as he would. 
 
 It was a wild struggle and a bitter one and, 
 more than once, with the mad swirl of the cur- 
 rent sucking at his legs, he thought the end had 
 come and that his strength was not enough to 
 bring him out. But he fought with dogged per- 
 severance, gaining inch by inch, and finally, with 
 hand that was so weary he could scarcely 
 keep the hold, grasped at the rock where once 
 before his landing had been made, and drew 
 himself and her out on the ledge. 
 
 He was so weak that, having dragged her back 
 against the bank, he fell beside her and lay, 
 panting, on the rock. He had no wish to stir, 
 and with his hand stretched out to touch the girl 
 whom he had saved, he rested, conscious only 
 of a growing sense of satisfaction and content. 
 
 It was only for a moment, however, for be- 
 
THE GRIP OF THE DRAW 363 
 
 fore his heart had slowed to its ordinary beat, 
 there was a sudden cry out in the channel that 
 startled him and brought him quickly to his 
 feet. He had forgotten about the others there 
 behind and was suddenly conscious that they 
 had followed into the open way and, unwitting, 
 blundered on into the draw. 
 
 When he saw them they were already in the 
 toils and laboring hard to turn aside their fate. 
 They were too engrossed with their own strug- 
 gle to see the fugitives upon the ledge, but Ivan 
 Egorovitch saw that, besides the two who 
 labored at the oars, the boat held Peter Efimo- 
 vitch and Simeon Gvosdef, the priest. 
 
 The paddlers fought bravely for their lives, 
 bending their backs till the muscles stood out 
 like cords and did not waste breath in a single 
 word. Peter Efimovitch stood up stiffly and 
 watched the approach of the end, with un- 
 changed face. But as the boat came to the edge 
 of the central patch of foam, Simeon Gvosdef 
 in his place at the bow leaned forward as if in 
 fascination and, looking with horrow into the 
 bubbling caldron, began dismally to scream. 
 
 The agony of the cry reached even the dull 
 ear of the girl and she half-opened her eyes 
 
364 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 and raised herself as if about to sit upright. 
 Ivan Egorovitch, by a quick movement, placed 
 himself between her and the sea. 
 
 " Don't look!" he cried, and covered her eyes 
 with his hand. The intervention was unneces- 
 sary, for the girl 9 s action was purely automatic 
 and it is doubtful if she even heard him. speak. 
 Her head dropped back in spite of her desire 
 and with a sigh she relapsed into unconscious- 
 ness again. 
 
 When he turned back to the water, the trag- 
 edy was almost done. The boat was floating on 
 its side and, of its occupants, there was no sign 
 except one stiff up-reaching arm. He watched 
 in fascination, till the boat itself went down 
 and, seizing the girl with almost frantic haste, 
 he carried her swiftly up the narrow path and 
 away from the morbid horror of the place. 
 
 Up on the level, where the sun was warm, he 
 made a bed of grass where a high bush would 
 shelter it from the wind, and, gathering her in 
 his arms, so that her head lay against his breast, 
 he waited patiently till she should come to life 
 again. The heat and comfort wrought their 
 perfect work and after a time she began to take 
 deeper breaths and ended by opening her eyes. 
 
THE GEIP OF THE DEAW 365 
 
 She did not try to move or change her place, 
 but lay contentedly and looked up into his face. 
 
 " Where are we, Ivan?" she said at last. 
 "Did we coine safely through the draw?" 
 
 "We are in the meadow where you picked the 
 flowers," he said quietly. She considered for 
 a moment without further speech. Then, mov- 
 ing back her head so that she might more clearly 
 see his eyes, she spoke again. 
 
 "The others!" she said, "where are they?" 
 He did not even hesitate. 
 
 "I do not know," he said. "They did not 
 come in and pass the draw. ' ' She accepted the 
 explanation without further question and with 
 a sigh of satisfaction again closed her eyes. 
 Ivan Egorovitch watched her with exultant 
 pulse. Not even the tragic deaths he had just 
 seen could hold in check the magic stir within 
 his blood. The sureness of possession took 
 hold on him and as the minutes passed and 
 brought from her no signal of dissent, the im- 
 pulse grew to make his title felt. 
 
 "Dear heart!" he said, and for an instant 
 held her tight. She lifted her hand and ran it 
 caressingly up along his breast. 
 
 "Do you understand now, Ivan?" she said 
 
366 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 softly. The color flared up in his cheeks and, 
 for the moment, even in the face of her com- 
 plaisance, he was afraid to speak. 
 
 "I am not sure that I dare," he said con- 
 strainedly. "We have faced death together 
 with a single heart I hope it means that from 
 this time forward we are to face life together 
 with the same single heart and that you will let 
 me hold you fast against the world." 
 
 "Hold me!" she said almost below her 
 breath and, turning, hid her face against his 
 breast. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 IVAN" IS BBOUGHT TO BOOK 
 
 At the moment of its confession, love seems 
 sufficient for all things to come, and Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch, holding fast the woman he had acquired 
 at such pains, forgot both time and place, 
 and for an interval pictured himself no future 
 outside of what he read in his companion's eyes. 
 But the time comes inevitably when the intoxi- 
 cating inspiration wavers and the mind again 
 takes note of common things: and as the sun 
 began to slant down westward toward the sea, 
 the thoughts of the fugitives returned uncon- 
 sciously to the world around them and the im- 
 pulse woke to bring their adventure to a proper 
 close. Motrya Petrovna was the first to put the 
 feeling into words. 
 
 "What are we going to do, Ivan," she asked 
 with some hesitation, "if no boat should come in 
 through the channel before night?" He smiled 
 at her encouragingly, but rose to his feet and let 
 
 367 
 
368 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 his eyes run searchingly over the line of sea 
 around him before he looked down at her once 
 more. 
 
 "There will surely some one come," he said 
 quietly. ' ' But if no one did, it would only mean 
 that we should have the long walk up to the na- 
 tive village on the beach." He continued to 
 gaze at her almost wistfully for a moment and 
 then dropped down on his knees beside her and 
 took her hands in his. 
 
 "I believe I am still afraid to go back with 
 you to the post," he said with some constraint. 
 "Here the whole world is ours and we are all 
 of it. But there I shall have to share you, in 
 part at least, with Stepan and Tatiana and the 
 rest. It disturbs me to give up even the little 
 they will demand." 
 
 "But we shall be together just the same. 
 Surely they can not separate us now. ' ' He drew 
 up his shoulders as if in answer to her question, 
 but in his eyes there was no real doubt. 
 
 ' 1 1 shall never give you up, you may be sure, ' ' 
 he said quietly. "What I really had in mind 
 was that when I have left you with your sister, I 
 shall miss you sorely till I can come to you 
 again." She withdrew her hands from his in 
 
IVAN IS BKOUGHT TO BOOK 369 
 
 a sudden panic of surprise and leaning forward 
 caught him convulsively by the arms. 
 
 "What do you mean?" she cried. "Where 
 are you going that you think to leave me here 
 behind 1" 
 
 "Have you forgotten/' he answered, "that I 
 have an account to settle with Aleksander Nico- 
 laievitch at Yakutat for the breaking of my 
 parole!" 
 
 She drew herself up to him till she could hide 
 her head against his breast. 
 
 "If you go back, I shall go with you," she de- 
 clared. He held her tightly to him and bent his 
 head till his cheek rested lightly on her hair. 
 
 "No," he said gravely. "When I go I must 
 go alone. ' ' She stirred protestingly but did not 
 answer ; and after a pause he added with a touch 
 of mischief in his voice: "You see, it will be 
 better to finish my punishment this time when 
 once it is begun." She kept her face hidden 
 close against his coat, but he could see the color 
 flood her neck and cheeks, and she drew herself 
 more closely down against his arm. 
 
 "It was dreadful of me, was it not?" she 
 whispered. "But, Ivan, I did not see how to 
 be sure of you in any other way. ' ' 
 
370 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "I can forgive yon/' he said softly, "and per- 
 haps it is yonr part of the punishment that you 
 will have to stay behind here and wait for me 
 without knowing, till I come to you, what is to 
 be the end." She considered silently and then 
 raised her eyes steadily to his. 
 
 "I will let you go," she said with as much 
 courage as she could bring herself to show, 
 "but, Ivan what if my father should come and 
 take me away again while you are gone!" 
 
 "How can he " said the young man almost 
 unconsciously. Then, recollecting that as yet 
 the girl beside him knew nothing of that last 
 tragedy of the draw, his speech halted and he 
 looked at her guiltily to see if she had under- 
 stood. 
 
 1 ' I should have told you ! " he began awkward- 
 ly and then again as suddenly he stopped. 
 
 1 i Tell me what ? ' ' she echoed. He was slow in 
 finding words in which to answer her and in his 
 engrossment his eyes went out unconsciously to 
 the place in the channel where the pitiful acci- 
 dent had occurred. 
 
 "Peter Efimovitch " he began vaguely, and 
 then again found himself at a loss for words. 
 Her eyes, however, had followed instinctively 
 
IVAN IS BROUGHT TO BOOK 371 
 
 the direction of his glance and there was that in 
 his face that revealed to her at once the dread- 
 ful truth. She pushed back from him with a 
 sudden stiffening of the figure till she could look 
 into his eyes, and as a full understanding of the 
 matter came to her, a shade of horror began 
 to grow upon her face. 
 
 "Did you see it?" she cried sharply. "Is it 
 then really true?" He drew her to him and 
 pressed her head down again to his shoulder as 
 if he were comforting a child. 
 
 "I could not help but see it," he said. "But 
 this time it was not given to me to be of aid." 
 She shivered at the explanation, but made no 
 other sign. He could think of no adequate word 
 of comfort and contented himself with holding 
 her tightly in his arms till the first shock of her 
 grief should pass. 
 
 For a space, she remained rigidly unrespon- 
 sive to the sympathetic ministration, but in the 
 end his silent sympathy made way with her, the 
 tension of her poise relaxed and, with her face 
 still buried on his shoulder, she began to cry 
 quietly to herself. He was wise enough to leave 
 her entirely to her thought, and for a long time 
 they sat in silence while she steadied herself 
 
372 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 through the help of his comforting kindness to a 
 clearer comprehension of what was left to her in 
 life. But even then the shadow of her loss hung 
 black over her and it was a relief to Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch when a passing boat paused at their 
 signal of distress, and taking them aboard, made 
 an end for him for a time to the strain of keep- 
 ing her in heart. 
 
 She remained listless even under the excite- 
 ment of the final coming home and it was only 
 when the time came for the last parting with her 
 lover that she regained her old lively interest in 
 life. Then, the realization of what his depar- 
 ture meant took active hold on her and she 
 clung to him as if his going were the only sorrow 
 in the world. 
 
 ' ' You will come back ! ' ' she whispered. ' ' You 
 will surely come to me again!" He held her 
 tightly to him and comforted her as he could. 
 
 ' ' How can you doubt it ! ' ' he said. " If I live, 
 I will surely come. ' ' 
 
 "But when?" she demanded breathlessly. 
 "Oh, you will not make it long!" 
 
 "Only as long as Aleksander Nicolaievitch 
 gives command," he answered. "It rests with 
 him what time he will demand. ' ' She caught her 
 
IVAN IS BROUGHT TO BOOK 373 
 
 breath as if she could not bear that he should 
 speak of it, and bent her head so he could not 
 see her face. 
 
 "It is my punishment, not yours, you are go- 
 ing there to take," she said shamefacedly. 
 "You must tell him, Ivan, that it was not you 
 but I who was at fault." 
 
 i ' The fault was no more yours than mine, ' ' he 
 answered softly. ' i The wrong is done, but hay- 
 ing got you by it, I am willing to go back and 
 take whatever punishment he may demand. 
 Aleksander Nicolaievitch has a heart, and I am 
 sure that when he hears the story, I shall get 
 mercy rather than justice at his hands." He 
 kept up the same brave front with her until the 
 end, but when Motrya Petrovna was left behind 
 and he had time to think about the matter by 
 himself, he found his confidence a less certain 
 prop and recognized in himself a frank dismay 
 which grew as he approached the place where he 
 was going to be judged. Stepan Dmitrievitch 
 had been absent when the fugitives reached the 
 post; and that no time should be lost, Ivan 
 Egorovitch had selected a canoe and four row- 
 ers for himself and set out at once on his re- 
 turn. 
 
374 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 "Aleksander Nicolaievitch shall at least see 
 that I lost no time in coming back," he said to 
 himself -in lame apology. He tried to frame ex- 
 cuses which would not halt in the delivery and 
 grow futile in his mouth, but each time there 
 came to him the recollection of the shrewd eyes 
 of the commandant as they had rested on him 
 before and he knew that he had nothing to offer 
 that would stand the ordeal of their serious 
 search. 
 
 It was, therefore, with something closely akin 
 to panic in his heart that he stepped ashore at 
 Yakutat and began his pilgrimage up to the 
 commandant's abode. Aleksander Nicolaievitch 
 was busy at his desk and, though he glanced up 
 at Ivan Egorovitch as he made his way into the 
 room, he turned again at once to the problem he 
 had in hand and by his manner gave no hint of 
 what was passing in his mind. 
 
 The young man raged inwardly at the delay, 
 feeling with each moment his courage ooze un- 
 pleasantly away. The nervous strain played 
 havoc with his steadiness of mind, and when his 
 time came he started forward with all things in 
 a whirl and with no settled plan as to what he 
 should do or say. The commandant received 
 
IVAN IS BROUGHT TO BOOK 375 
 
 him gravely, but though his face was set, there 
 was not the severity in it that the young man's 
 consciousness of wrong-doing had led him to 
 expect. 
 
 "So you are back again," he said shortly. 
 "Did you forget that you were to come to me 
 that other day after you had finished out there 
 on the stump ? ' ' The young man flushed guilt- 
 ily and his eyes went down to the floor. 
 
 "No, I did not forget," he said constrainedly, 
 "but before the time came there arose a 
 need" 
 
 "I know," interrupted the commandant test- 
 ily. "There was a girl. A young man always 
 thinks that that is a full excuse ! ' ' The contemp- 
 tuous sarcasm of the tone stung the lover in the 
 young man to the quick and he defiantly raised 
 his head. 
 
 "What could I do?" he burst out indignantly. 
 "I should have lost her altogether if I had not 
 gone with her that day!" The commandant let 
 his breath out with a rush and struck the table 
 sharply with his fist. 
 
 "How do you know that?" he cried. "Why 
 is it that it never occurred to you to come to 
 me?" The thought was so new a one to Ivan 
 
376 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 Egorovitch that he stood in abashed confusion 
 and gazed at Aleksander Nicolaievitch without 
 a word. The commandant scarcely waited for 
 an answer, but went on with his arraignment al- 
 most without a break. 
 
 "That is the way with you young men," he 
 said. "You take no thought that there is any 
 power above you as efficient as your own. And 
 not you alone, but every other man about the 
 post ! You find a need to run off with a girl and, 
 whisk ! four more men leave their work and run 
 after you to bring you back. ' ' The young man 's 
 face underwent a sudden transformation and 
 his excitement brought him back again to 
 speech. 
 
 ' ' Then you did not send the others ? " he burst 
 out. ' ' You did not know that they were gone I ' ' 
 
 "Know it? How could I? Not one of you 
 came even as a courtesy to ask leave!" The 
 culprit's lips shut suddenly together lest, before 
 he had taken a gage of the new conditions, he 
 should speak and say too much. It had been so 
 sure a thing to him that the priest's pursuit had 
 been officially inspired that it came to him with 
 the shock of a great surprise that his own lapse 
 had never come to the ears of the commandant 
 
IVAN IS BROUGHT TO BOOK 377 
 
 at all. For a moment the temptation urged to 
 hide his fault and so escape the punishment that 
 was its due, but almost as quickly he set the 
 thought sturdily aside and took the plunge 
 which should purge him of the smirches on his 
 soul. 
 
 "Then you did not know," he said huskily, 
 "that I went away before my punishment was 
 through ? ' ' The commandant 's hand came down 
 on the table with a bang. 
 
 "What!" he shouted, leaning forward and 
 holding fast to the edges of the table to bring 
 himself more near. "What is that you say?" 
 The young man repeated his self -accusation 
 with such composure as he could. Aleksander 
 Nicolaievitch did not wait to hear him through, 
 but jumped to his feet and leaning across the 
 table, waved him vigorously toward the door. 
 
 "Then what are you doing here?" he cried. 
 "Did I not tell you not to report to me until you 
 had finished with your task?' ' 
 
 "But, your Well-born," faltered the young 
 man, "I thought you would want to know " 
 
 "I want to know nothing except that I am 
 obeyed. Go back to your stump and stay there 
 till your punishment is done!" With a final 
 
378 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 wave of his hands he turned his back on the of- 
 fender and waited in rigid disapprobation till 
 his orders should be followed out. Ivan Egoro- 
 vitch stood and looked at him in perplexed 
 silence for a moment and then, with a bow that 
 Aleksander Nicolaievitch did not see, went out 
 through the door and betook himself to the 
 place of punishment where he had first been 
 sent. 
 
 He had not been there half an hour when he 
 saw the spare figure of the commandant coming 
 toward him from the doorway of his house. 
 Ivan Egorovitch saluted him respectfully as he 
 came up to the stump and waited in decent 
 silence to hear why he had come. 
 
 Aleksander Nicolaievitch returned the salute 
 gravely and, choosing a spot on an adjacent log, 
 drew up his feet so that they would be out of 
 the wet moss, and taking out his pipe, lighted it 
 and began placidly to smoke. 
 
 "I felt that there must be a guard set over 
 you if I was to be sure that you would stay," he 
 said dryly, "and as there was no one else here 
 who understood this matter besides us two, I 
 saw no way except to come and be a guard my- 
 self." Ivan Egorovitch was not yet sure enough 
 
 OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
IVAN IS BROUGHT TO BOOK 379 
 
 of his ground or his composure to venture on 
 speech and so contented himself with bowing 
 respectfully an assent. The commandant got 
 around to talk again after a little, and, blowing 
 out a cloud of smoke, turned his face to the 
 young man with a deprecatory smile. 
 
 " There is nothing really derogatory, I sup- 
 pose, in admitting that a man gets more or less 
 womanish as he grows old, ' ' he said. < ' Can not 
 you see that I am overwhelmed with curiosity to 
 know what happened to you and to the girl? 
 Tell me about it, man. Did you get clean 
 away?" The last pound of the burden Ivan 
 Egorovitch had been carrying slipped away 
 from him at the word and it was only by 
 an effort that he concealed the joy of his re- 
 lief. 
 
 " There is not much to tell," he said with 
 some self-consciousness, "but if you wish it, I 
 will tell you what there is." In spite of this 
 promise to be brief, he began at the beginning 
 and related the whole story, from the trial of the 
 first rupture on to the pleasant end. The com- 
 mandant listened with all the gravity of a judge, 
 smoking assiduously between the comments that 
 he made and punctuating his silences with sym- 
 
380 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 pathetic nods. He shook his head gravely at 
 the story of the young man's temptation and 
 fall from grace, and found a grim satisfaction 
 in the priest's compensatory death. But when 
 the young man came to the expounding of the 
 final parting with Motrya on the beach, his 
 listener warmed to a positive excitement and 
 interrupted him before he was fairly done. 
 
 ' ' In God 's name, man ! " he exclaimed. ' ' You 
 do not mean that after having had all this 
 trouble in getting her, you did not marry her 
 before you came away!" Ivan Egorovitch 
 laughed softly. 
 
 "She will be there when I get back," he de- 
 clared. "Besides, I could not then, because 
 there was no priest. ' ' The old man grunted dis- 
 approvingly and skeptically shook his head. 
 
 "You never can be sure," he said. "I will 
 lend you a priest and the best thing you can do 
 is to take him and get back to her as quickly as 
 you can. Why did you not bring her here, 
 though?" he added ruefully. "Now I shall be 
 out of it and I have not seen a wedding in two 
 years." Ivan Egorovitch came as close to the 
 commandant as his place of imprisonment would 
 allow and eagerly stretched out his hands. 
 
IVAN IS BBOUGHT TO BOOK 381 
 
 "Why do you not come with me to where she 
 is?" he cried. "It is only a short journey and, 
 if you will, I promise you that at the altar you 
 shall be the one to hold her crown. ' ' Aleksander 
 Nicolaievitch blew out a long stream of smoke 
 and nodded placidly. 
 
 "I had been thinking about that myself," he 
 said calmly, "and now that I have an invitation, 
 I think it probable I shall accept. It will do no 
 harm, anyway, to have a look at what you young 
 people are doing at the post, and it will warm 
 the cockles of my heart again to see a decent 
 bride." 
 
 And so it happened that next morning as the 
 east was growing white, two boats passed out 
 through the headlands of the bay and began 
 their voyage to the southern post. In one were 
 the commandant and Ivan Egorovitch together 
 with the rowers who had brought him north. In 
 the other traveled the borrowed priest and two 
 deacons whom Aleksander Nicolaievitch, in a 
 moment of enthusiasm, had added, that the wed- 
 ding should be sure of its proper pomp. 
 
 "We will have no question of the ceremony," 
 he said loftily, "because the chanting was not 
 rightly done." He was pleased as a child with 
 
382 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 being best man to the bride and fretted with im- 
 patience every moment of the way. 
 
 "You will see," he said with somber pessi- 
 mism. "It will never come off at all. She 
 changed her mind after she promised you be- 
 fore, and even if we get there with these ac- 
 cursed boats, you will find that she has changed 
 it on you once again." But Ivan Egorovitch 
 was proof against such attacks and even the 
 darkest of the old man's croakings failed to dis- 
 turb the serenity of his faith. 
 
 "You will see," he answered him in turn, and 
 utterly refused to give the matter further 
 thought. The outcome proved the wisdom of 
 his belief. When they had passed the channel 
 heads and, crossing the great draw, come safely 
 to the landing in the upper bay, they found 
 Motrya Petrovna awaiting them on the shore. 
 In her greeting of her lover, she gave so sure 
 a testimony of a fixed and constant mind that 
 even Aleksander Nicolaievitch found it right to 
 purge her of inconstancy. When it was made 
 known to her who the old man was, she went to 
 him with outstretched hands. 
 
 "It was good of you to come," she said shy- 
 ly. "I had wondered whom the Saints would 
 
IVAN IS BBOUGHT TO BOOK 383 
 
 send to me to hold up my crown, and that you 
 should come to do it is an honor which I shall 
 be proud to tell of in the family for all time." 
 Tatiana Vassilievna alone found fault with the 
 choice. 
 
 "How will you look," she demanded scorn- 
 fully of the commandant, "walking after her 
 around the altar with your long whiskers and 
 your red, bald head. It is a young man's place 
 to attend upon my girl. You would not last till 
 the time of the first circling and would have to 
 have a helper to hold up your hands!" The 
 abashed official swelled and reddened, but made 
 no proffer of surrendering his claims. 
 
 "You will see!" he cried excitedly. "It will 
 be time to talk about a helper when I let the 
 crown go down. My beard may be white, but I 
 am as young inside as if my no<se was still wet 
 with milk." But he took a warning from the 
 ungracious taunt, and seizing a convenient mo- 
 ment took the priest privately aside. 
 
 "You have but two deacons for the chanting," 
 he said with some embarrassment, "therefore 
 it might be well to make the service short, for 
 fear that otherwise they will become too tired," 
 But when the wedding party stood before the 
 
384 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 priest, both lie and Tatiana Vassilievna forgot 
 their differences and resigned themselves to 
 sentimental absorption in the scene. Stepan 
 Dmitrievitch held the second crown, but Alek- 
 sander Nicolaievitch's poise was no less firm 
 than his, and the old man's excitement buoyed 
 his spirits so that when the time came finally to 
 set the crowns upon the couple's heads, he 
 finished strong and gave his up with much of 
 genuine regret. 
 
 It was to Stepan Dmitrievitch alone that the 
 scene brought anything of grief. True to his 
 bond, he had been the first to congratulate his 
 blood-brother on his better luck. But all the 
 day there was a shadow on his face he could 
 not wholly hide and Motrya Petrovna noticed it 
 with a sympathetic pang. She made no sign 
 concerning it until the ceremony was done and 
 she had been escorted in procession back to her 
 sister's house. Then she stole a moment from 
 her happiness to go and take him by the hands. 
 
 "I am sorry, Stepan," she said wistfully. "I 
 think you know I would have liked to make you 
 happy if I could. ' ' He looked her courageously 
 in the eyes and tried to draw his lips into a 
 smile. 
 
IVAN IS BROUGHT TO BOOK 385 
 
 ' ' God bless you ! " he said tremulously. ' t To 
 hear you say so makes it easier for me to bear. ' ' 
 He dared not trust himself to further speech, 
 and, after devouring her hungrily for a moment 
 with his eyes, he drew back from her abruptly 
 and almost rudely took away his hands. 
 
 "You are a brave man and good," she said 
 softly, but was not sure he heard her as he 
 forced himself away. The word helped to this 
 extent, however, that during the season of con- 
 gratulations he was noticeably more gay, and 
 at the dinner vied with the commandant in 
 happy speeches to the bride. 
 
 But the strain told in the end, and when the 
 rooms were cleared for dancing and at the head 
 of the long chamber the tortured instruments 
 began to drone, he took advantage of the general 
 occupation and slipped quietly away. No one 
 observed him as he passed to the little hallway 
 and so out through the half -open door. 
 
 The wind on his face was restful after the 
 closeness of the heated rooms and he stood for 
 a moment gratefully drawing in the coolness 
 and listening to the confused tread of the 
 dancers and the voices within. Then the lone- 
 liness he had been fighting came down on him 
 
386 THE CHALLENGE 
 
 with the darkness, and, leaning his arms against 
 the doorpost, he let down his head upon them 
 and gave himself up unreservedly to his grief. 
 
 But it is doubtful if either Ivan Egorovitch 
 or his new-made wife took note that he went 
 away. From the first they had moved among 
 the dancers and responded to the talking with 
 only a half heed for what was going on. 
 
 "I do not yet believe that it is true," he 
 whispered to her once. "To-morrow you will 
 be gone again and I shall be following you hope- 
 lessly all across the world. " 
 
 "But you will follow?" she said with a shy 
 upward glance. 
 
 "As long as I have life," he answered with a 
 look that made her flush. But until the last 
 guest was gone, he could not wholly set the fool- 
 ish disbelief aside and the fear recurred so that 
 when, momentarily, Motrya Petrovna strayed 
 away from him in the room, the panic gripped 
 him and let him have no rest till he had sought 
 her out and come again close enough to her so 
 that he could speak to her and touch her with 
 his hand. 
 
 THE END 
 
 OF THE 
 
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