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Updated: June 4, 2025
The Cossacks with their hay-cart drew closer and closer, and Olenin expected the firing to begin at any moment, but the silence was only broken by the abreks' mournful song. Suddenly the song ceased; there was a sharp report, a bullet struck the front of the cart, and Chechen curses and yells broke the silence and shot followed on shot and one bullet after another struck the cart.
Beyond the Terek rises the smoke from a Tartar village... and the mountains! The sun has risen and glitters on the Terek, now visible beyond the reeds ... and the mountains! From the village comes a Tartar wagon, and women, beautiful young women, pass by... and the mountains! 'Abreks canter about the plain, and here am I driving along and do not fear them!
It was said that abreks had crossed the now shallow river and were prowling on this side of it. Every night the sun set in a glowing red blaze. It was the busiest time of the year. The villagers all swarmed in the melon-fields and the vineyards. The vineyards thickly overgrown with twining verdure lay in cool, deep shade.
I'll watch, answered the old man to the great delight of all the Cossacks. 'But have you seen any boars? 'Watching for boars, are you? said the corporal, bending forward and scratching his back with both hands, very pleased at the chance of some distraction. 'It's abreks one has to hunt here and not boars!
They had hardly reached Gurka when two bullets whistled above them. Lukashka looked around laughing at Olenin and stooped a little. 'Look out or they will kill you, Dmitri Andreich, he said. 'You'd better go away you have no business here. But Olenin wanted absolutely to see the ABREKS. From behind the mound he saw caps and muskets some two hundred paces off.
You've not heard anything, Uncle, have you? he added, needlessly screwing up his eyes and showing his close-set white teeth. 'Abreks, said the old man. 'No, I haven't. I say, have you any chikhir? Let me have a drink, there's a good man. I'm really quite done up. When the time comes I'll bring you some fresh meat, I really will. Give me a drink! he added.
Although the Cossacks expected abreks to cross over and attack them from the Tartar side at any moment, especially as it was May when the woods by the Terek are so dense that it is difficult to pass through them on foot and the river is shallow enough in places for a horseman to ford it, and despite the fact that a couple of days before a Cossack had arrived with a circular from the commander of the regiment announcing that spies had reported the intention of a party of some eight men to cross the Terek, and ordering special vigilance no special vigilance was being observed in the cordon.
A little way off it stopped on a sand-bank, and from behind it something large that rocked in the water came into view. 'What did you shoot? Why don't you speak? insisted the Cossacks. 'Abreks, I tell you! said Lukashka. 'Don't humbug! Did the gun go off? ... 'I've killed an abrek, that's what I fired at, muttered Lukashka in a voice choked by emotion, as he jumped to his feet.
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