all lanterns moved silently. There were the
gallows.

"I lost one of my rubbers," said Sergey Golovin.

"Really?" asked Werner, not understanding what he said.

"I lost a rubber. It's cold."

"Where's Vasily?"

"I don't know. There he is."

Vasily stood, gloomy, motionless.

"And where is Musya?"

"Here I am. Is that you, Werner?"

They began to look about, avoiding the direction of the gallows,
where the lanterns continued to move about silently with terrible
suggestiveness. On the left, the bare forest seemed to be growing
thinner, and something large and white and flat was visible. A damp wind
issued from it.

"The sea," said Sergey Golovin, inhaling the air with nose and mouth.
"The sea is there!"

Musya answered sonorously:

"My love which is as broad as the sea!"

"What is that, Musya?"

"The banks of life cannot hold my love, which is as broad as the sea."

"My love which is as broad as the sea," echoed Sergey, thoughtfully,
carried away by the sound of her voice and by her words.

"My love which is as broad as the sea," repeated Werner, and suddenly he
spoke wonderingly, cheerfully:

"Musya, how young you are!"

Suddenly Tsiganok whispered warmly, out of breath, right into Werner's
ear:

"Master! master! There's the forest! My God! what's that? There--where
the lanterns are--are those the gallows? What does it mean?"

Werner looked at him. Tsiganok was writhing in agony before his death.

"We must bid each other good-by," said Tanya Kovalchuk.

"Wait, they have yet to read the sentence," answered Werner. "Where is
Yanson?"

Yanson was lying on the snow, and about him people were busying
themselves. There was a smell of ammonia in the air.

"Well, what is it, doctor? Will you be through soon?" some one asked
impatiently.

"It's nothing. He has simply fainted. Rub his ears with snow! He is
coming to himself already! You may read the sentence!"

The light of the dark lantern flashed upon the paper and on the white,
gloveless hands holding it. Both the paper and the hands quivered
slightly, and the voice also quivered:

"Gentlemen, perhaps it is not necessary to read the sentence to you. You
know it already. What do you say?"

"Don't read it," Werner answered for them all, and the little lantern
was soon extinguished.

The services of the priest were also declined by them all. Tsiganok
said:

"Stop your fooling, father--you will forgive me, but they will hang me.
Go to--whe