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Updated: June 14, 2025
Von Koren, with his arms folded and one foot on a stone, was standing on a bank at the very edge of the water, thinking about something.
The seconds were confused, and looked at one another as though wondering why they were here and what they were to do. "I imagine, gentlemen, there is no need for us to go further," said Sheshkovsky. "This place will do." "Yes, of course," Von Koren agreed. A silence followed.
The deacon was weighing this question, but he recalled how absurd Samoylenko had looked yesterday, and that broke the thread of his ideas. What fun they would have next day! The deacon imagined how he would sit under a bush and look on, and when Von Koren began boasting next day at dinner, he, the deacon, would begin laughing and telling him all the details of the duel.
If human life was so artlessly constructed that every one respected this cruel and dishonest inspector who stole the Government flour, and his health and salvation were prayed for in the schools, was it just to shun such men as Von Koren and Laevsky, simply because they were unbelievers?
After drinking a glass of vodka before the soup, he heaved a sigh and said: "I saw Vanya Laevsky to-day. He is having a hard time of it, poor fellow! The material side of life is not encouraging for him, and the worst of it is all this psychology is too much for him. I'm sorry for the lad." "Well, that is a person I am not sorry for," said Von Koren.
All this had no connection with the night he had been through, with his thoughts and his feeling of guilt, and so he would have gladly gone away without waiting for the duel. Von Koren was noticeably excited and tried to conceal it, pretending that he was more interested in the green light than anything.
He felt a violent shock on the shoulder; there was the sound of a shot and an answering echo in the mountains: ping-ting! Von Koren cocked his pistol and looked at Ustimovitch, who was pacing as before with his hands behind his back, taking no notice of any one. "Doctor," said the zoologist, "be so good as not to move to and fro like a pendulum. You make me dizzy." The doctor stood still.
Boyko took a pair of pistols out of a box; one was given to Von Koren and one to Laevsky, and then there followed a difficulty which afforded a brief amusement to the zoologist and the seconds. It appeared that of all the people present not one had ever in his life been at a duel, and no one knew precisely how they ought to stand, and what the seconds ought to say and do.
If he meets a rat, he fights with it; if he meets a snake or a mouse, he must strangle it; and so the whole day long. Come, tell me: what is the use of a beast like that? Why was he created?" "I don't know what animal you are talking of," said Von Koren; "most likely one of the insectivora.
Laevsky felt uncomfortable; the heat of the campfire was beating upon his back, and the hatred of Von Koren upon his breast and face: this hatred on the part of a decent, clever man, a feeling in which there probably lay hid a well-grounded reason, humiliated him and enervated him, and unable to stand up against it, he said in a propitiatory tone: "I am passionately fond of nature, and I regret that I'm not a naturalist.
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