United States or Guernsey ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Real spring." Yanson's small eyes were closing; he seemed to be falling asleep, and he moved so slowly and stiffly that the warden cried to him: "Hey, there! Quicker! Have you fallen asleep?" Suddenly Yanson stopped. "I don't want to be hanged," said he. He was taken by the arms and led away, and began to stride obediently, raising his shoulders.
Suddenly Yanson's wizened face became wofully wrinkled, as if somebody had pulled strings which set all the wrinkles in motion. And, as in a dream, he began to whimper, without tears, in a dry, strained voice: "I don't want to smoke. Aha! aha! aha! Why should I be hanged? Aha! aha! aha!" They began to bustle about him.
Yanson's hand lay motionless, like a board, but he made no longer any effort to withdraw it. It was close and suffocating in the carriage. The air was filled with the smell of soldiers' clothes, mustiness, and the leather of wet boots. The young gendarme who sat opposite Werner breathed warmly upon him, and in his breath there was the odor of onions and cheap tobacco.
And on Thursday, at midnight a number of people entered Yanson's cell, and one man, with shoulder-straps, said: "Well, get ready. We must go." Yanson, moving slowly and drowsily as before, put on everything he had and tied his muddy-red muffler about his neck. The man with shoulder-straps, smoking a cigarette, said to some one while watching Yanson dress: "What a warm day this will be.
And there death would be waiting eternity the great mystery, on with friendliness, watching how Yanson's fingers took the cigarette, how the match flared, and then how the blue smoke issued from Yanson's mouth. "Thanks," said Yanson; "it's good." "How strange!" said Sergey. "What is strange?" Werner turned around. "What is strange?" "I mean the cigarette."
"Now she would have liked me," he thought of his master's wife. "Now I am stout not worse-looking than the master." But he longed for a drink of vodka, to drink and to take a ride on horseback, to ride fast, madly. When the terrorists were arrested the news of it reached the prison. And in answer to Yanson's usual question, the warden said eagerly and unexpectedly: "It won't be long now!"
Word Of The Day