ther Cossack.

'We'll set a watch; if they should come to ransom him it won't do for
him to have been torn.'

'Well, Lukashka, whatever you do you must stand a pail of vodka for the
lads,' said the corporal gaily.

'Of course! That's the custom,' chimed in the Cossacks. 'See what luck
God has sent you! Without ever having seen anything of the kind before,
you've killed a brave!'

'Buy the dagger and coat and don't be stingy, and I'll let you have the
trousers too,' said Lukashka. 'They're too tight for me; he was a thin
devil.'

One Cossack bought the coat for a ruble and another gave the price of
two pails of vodka for the dagger.

'Drink, lads! I'll stand you a pail!' said Luke. 'I'll bring it myself
from the village.'

'And cut up the trousers into kerchiefs for the girls!' said Nazarka.

The Cossacks burst out laughing.

'Have done laughing!' said the corporal. 'And take the body away. Why
have you put the nasty thing by the hut?'

'What are you standing there for? Haul him along, lads!' shouted
Lukashka in a commanding voice to the Cossacks, who reluctantly took
hold of the body, obeying him as though he were their chief. After
dragging the body along for a few steps the Cossacks let fall the legs,
which dropped with a lifeless jerk, and stepping apart they then stood
silent for a few moments. Nazarka came up and straightened the head,
which was turned to one side so that the round wound above the temple
and the whole of the dead man's face were visible. 'See what a mark he
has made right in the brain,' he said. 'He won't get lost. His owners
will always know him!' No one answered, and again the Angel of Silence
flew over the Cossacks.

The sun had risen high and its diverging beams were lighting up the
dewy grass. Near by, the Terek murmured in the awakened wood and,
greeting the morning, the pheasants called to one another. The Cossacks
stood still and silent around the dead man, gazing at him. The brown
body, with nothing on but the wet blue trousers held by a girdle over
the sunken stomach, was well shaped and handsome. The muscular arms lay
stretched straight out by his sides; the blue, freshly shaven, round
head with the clotted wound on one side of it was thrown back. The
smooth tanned forehead contrasted sharply with the shaven part of the
head. The open glassy eyes with lowered pupils stared upwards, seeming
to gaze past everything. Under the red trimmed moustache the fine lips,
drawn at the