had been saying
something worthy to be heard and heeded, rather than foully and
cynically miscalling their mothers.

Lastly, our names having been noted, the police withdrew, while each of
us drank a dram of vodka (and thereby gained a measure of warmth and
comfort), and then began to make for our several homes. Ossip followed
the police with derisive eyes; whereafter, he leapt to his feet with a
nimble, adroit movement, and crossed himself with punctilious piety.

"That's all about it, thank God!" he exclaimed.

"What?" sniggered Boev, now both disillusioned and astonished. "Do you
really mean to say that that leg of yours is better already? Or do you
mean that it never was injured at all?"

"Ah! So you wish that it HAD been injured, eh?"

"The rascal of a Petrushka!" the other exclaimed.

"Now," commanded Ossip, "do all of you be off, mates." And with that he
pulled his wet cap on to his head.

I accompanied him--walking a little behind the rest. As he limped
along, he said in an undertone-said kindly--and as though he were
communicating a secret known only to himself:

"Whatsoever one may do, and whithersoever one may turn, one will find
that life cannot be lived without a measure of fraud and deceit. For
that is what life IS, Makarei, the devil fly away with it!... I
suppose you're making for the hill? Well, I'll keep you company."

Darkness had fallen, but at a certain spot some red and yellow lamps,
lamps the beams of which seemed to be saying, "Come up hither!" were
shining through the obscurity.

Meanwhile, as we proceeded in the direction of the bells that were
ringing on the hill, rivulets of water flowed with a murmur under our
feet, and Ossip's kindly voice kept mingling with their sound.

"See," he continued, "how easily I befooled that sergeant! That is how
things have to be done, Makarei--one has to keep folk from knowing
one's business, yet to make them think that they are the chief persons
concerned, and the persons whose wit has put the cap on the whole."

Yet as I listened to his speech, while supporting his steps, I could
make little of it.

Nor did I care to make very much of it, for I was of a simple and
easygoing nature. And though at the moment I could not have told
whether I really liked Ossip, I would still have followed his lead in
any direction--yes, even across the river again, though the ice had
been giving way beneath me.

And as we proceeded, and the bells echoed and re-