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'Your health! said Lukashka, taking from his mother's hands a cup filled to the brim with chikhir and carefully raising it to his bowed head. 'A bad business! said Nazarka. 'You heard how Daddy Burlak said, "Have you stolen many horses?" He seems to know! 'A regular wizard! Lukashka replied shortly. 'But what of it! he added, tossing his head. 'They are across the river by now.
Nazarka remained with the women on the earth-bank and their laughter was still heard, but Lukashka, having slowly moved away from the girls, crouched down like a cat and then suddenly started running lightly, holding his dagger to steady it: not homeward, however, but towards the cornet's house.
His whistle was answered and he stepped up to his comrades. Nazarka, all curled up, was already asleep. Ergushov sat with his legs crossed and moved slightly to make room for Lukashka. 'How jolly it is to sit here! It's really a good place, said he. 'Did you take him there? 'Showed him where, answered Lukashka, spreading out his cloak. 'But what a big boar I roused just now close to the water!
In spite of his tall stature and big hands every kind of work, both rough and delicate, prospered under Lukashka's fingers. 'Hallo, Luke! came Nazarka's shrill, sharp voice calling him from the thicket close by. 'The Cossacks have gone in to supper. Nazarka, with a live pheasant under his arm, forced his way through the brambles and emerged on the footpath.
Lukashka started a song about the Cossack, Mingal, but stopped before he had finished the first verse, and after a pause, turning to Nazarka, said: 'I say, she wouldn't let me in! 'Oh? rejoined Nazarka. 'I knew she wouldn't. D'you know what Yamka told me? The cadet has begun going to their house. Daddy Eroshka brags that he got a gun from the cadet for getting him Maryanka.
Nazarka did not want to go at all, but Lukashka shouted at him and they soon started. After they had gone a few steps in silence the Cossacks turned aside from the ditch and went along a path almost hidden by reeds till they reached the river. On its bank lay a thick black log cast up by the water. The reeds around it had been recently beaten down. 'Shall we lie here? asked Nazarka.
Lukashka fell, and blood began to flow from his stomach. He jumped up, but fell again, swearing in Russian and in Tartar. More and more blood appeared on his clothes and under him. Some Cossacks approached him and began loosening his girdle. One of them, Nazarka, before beginning to help, fumbled for some time, unable to put his sword in its sheath: it would not go the right way.
Lukashka drew a little knife from under his dagger and gave it a swift jerk. The bird fluttered, but before it could spread its wings the bleeding head bent and quivered. 'That's how one should do it! said Lukashka, throwing down the pheasant. 'It will make a fat pilau. Nazarka shuddered as he looked at the bird.
I shall reach the company by the morning anyway. 'Hasn't the cadet given you anything more? 'I am thankful to have paid him back with a dagger he was going to ask for the horse, said Lukashka, dismounting and handing over the horse to Nazarka. He darted into the yard past Olenin's very window, and came up to the window of the cornet's hut. It was already quite dark.
Nazarka smiled. 'Are we stopping here long? he asked. Till we've had a bit of fun. Run and get some vodka. Here's the money. Nazarka ran off obediently to get the vodka from Yamka's. Daddy Eroshka and Ergushov, like birds of prey, scenting where the merry-making was going on, tumbled into the hut one after the other, both tipsy.
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