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Updated: June 7, 2025
No one answered.... He went out into the passage and almost fell over Fyodor, who was lying on the floor. The man stirred in his sleep with a faint grunt; Naum roused him. "What's there? What do you want?" Fyodor began. "What are you bawling for, hold your tongue!" Naum articulated in a whisper. "How you sleep, you damned fellows! Have you heard nothing?"
"You are quite right there. Hullo, I believe your husband has gone off with my horse," he added, hearing the rumble of the wheels. "He is a smart fellow!" "But it's robbery!" wailed Avdotya. "Why, it's our money, my husband's money and the inn is ours...." "No, Avdotya Arefyevna," Naum interrupted her, "the inn was not yours. What's the use of saying that?
The three hundred soldiers from Naum marched in our front, the two hundred in our rear, and our men on each side of our camels, with our baggage and the whole caravan in the centre; in this order, and well prepared for battle, we thought ourselves a match for the whole ten thousand Mogul Tartars, if they had appeared; but the next day, when they did appear, it was quite another thing.
Akim's inn became celebrated for hundreds of miles round. People were even readier to stay with him than with his successor, Naum, though Akim could not be compared with Naum as a manager.
Akim went half a mile with them: he had to call at the mill. When he got home he found his wife dressed and not alone. Naum, the young man who had been there the night before, was with her. They were standing by the table in the window talking.
"On business, eh?" "Yes, on business. My respects to you, Avdotya Arefyevona." "Good morning, Naum Ivanitch," she answered. All were silent. "What have you got, broth, is it?" began Naum. "Yes, broth," replied Akim and all at once he turned pale, "but not for you." Naum glanced at Akim with surprise. "Not for me?" "Not for you, and that's all about it."
With timid curiosity Yefrem craned his neck from behind Naum and with difficulty made out the figure of Akim in the corner of the cellar. The once well-to-do innkeeper, respected all over the neighbourhood, was sitting on straw with his hands tied behind him like a criminal.
How did it all end? the reader will ask. Why, like this: Naum, after having kept the inn successfully for about fifteen years, sold it advantageously to another townsman. He would never have parted from the inn if it had not been for the following, apparently insignificant, circumstance: for two mornings in succession his dog, sitting before the windows, had kept up a prolonged and doleful howl.
Akim's eyes glittered and he brought his fist on the table. "There is nothing in my house for you, do you hear?" "What's this, Semyonitch, what is the matter with you?" "There's nothing the matter with me, but I am sick of you, Naum Ivanitch, that's what it is." The old man got up, trembling all over. "You poke yourself in here too often, I tell you." Naum, too, got up.
This was very bad news to travellers: however, it was carefully done of the governor, and we were very glad to hear we should have a guard. Accordingly, two days after, we had two hundred soldiers sent us from a garrison of the Chinese on our left, and three hundred more from the city of Naum, and with these we advanced boldly.
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