ut he will escape again. Even the officers fear him,"
said Miss Dandy, who delivered notes to prisoners, and knew everything
that transpired in the jail. "He will surely escape."

"If he does he won't take either of us with him," said Korableva.
"You'd better tell me this: What did the lawyer say to you about a
petition--you must send one now."

Maslova said that she did not know anything about a petition.

At this moment the red-haired woman, burying her two freckled hands
into her tangled, thick hair, and scratching her head with her nails,
approached the wine-drinking aristocrats.

"I will tell you, Katherine, everything," she began. "First of all,
you must write on paper: 'I am not satisfied with the trial,' and then
hand it to the prosecutor."

"What do you want here?" Korableva turned to her, speaking in an angry
basso. "You have smelled the wine! We know you. We don't need your
advice; we know what we have to do."

"Who is talking to you?"

"You want some wine--that's what you want."

"Let her alone. Give her some," said Maslova, who always divided with
others what she had.

"Yes, I will give her," and Korableva clenched her fist.

"Try it! Try it!" moving toward Korableva, said the red-haired woman.
"I am not afraid of you."

"You jail bird!"

"You are another!"

"You gutter rake!"

"I am a rake--am I? You convict, murderess!" shrieked the red-haired
woman.

"Go away, I tell you!" said Korableva frowning.

But the red-haired woman only came nearer, and Korableva gave her a
push on the open, fat breast. The other seemingly only waited for
this, for with an unexpected, quick movement of one hand she seized
Korableva's hair and was about to strike her in the face with the
other, when Korableva seized this hand. Maslova and Miss Dandy sprang
up and took hold of the hands of the red-haired woman, endeavoring to
release her hold on Korableva, but the hand that clutched the hair
would not open. For a moment she released the hair, but only to wind
it around her fist. Korableva, her head bent, with one hand kept
striking her antagonist over the body and catching the latter's hand
with her teeth. The women crowded around the fighters, parting them
and shouting. Even the consumptive came near them, and, coughing,
looked on. The children huddled together and cried. The noise
attracted the warden and the matron. They were finally parted.
Korableva loosened her gray braid and began to pick out the pieces