man in the town council.

"Vladimir Stepanitch, what's this new fashion?" he said, bending
down to the secretary's ear. "People have been stealing, but how
do I come in? What has it to do with me? My dear fellow," he
whispered, "there has been a search at my house last night! Upon
my word! Have they gone crazy? Why touch me?"

"Because one shouldn't be a sheep," the secretary answered calmly.
"Before you sign you ought to look."

"Look at what? But if I were to look at those accounts for a thousand
years I could not make head or tail of them! It's all Greek to me!
I am no book-keeper. They used to bring them to me and I signed
them."

"Excuse me. Apart from that you and your committee are seriously
compromised. You borrowed nineteen thousand from the bank, giving
no security."

"Lord have mercy upon us!" cried Avdeyev in amazement. "I am not
the only one in debt to the bank! The whole town owes it money. I
pay the interest and I shall repay the debt. What next! And besides,
to tell the honest truth, it wasn't I myself borrowed the money.
Pyotr Semyonitch forced it upon me. 'Take it,' he said, 'take it.
If you don't take it,' he said, 'it means that you don't trust us
and fight shy of us. You take it,' he said, 'and build your father
a mill.' So I took it."

"Well, you see, none but children or sheep can reason like that.
In any case, _signor_, you need not be anxious. You can't escape
trial, of course, but you are sure to be acquitted."

The secretary's indifference and calm tone restored Avdeyev's
composure. Going back to his shop and finding friends there, he
again began drinking, eating caviare, and airing his views. He
almost forgot the police search, and he was only troubled by one
circumstance which he could not help noticing: his left leg was
strangely numb, and his stomach for some reason refused to do its
work.

That evening destiny dealt another overwhelming blow at Avdeyev:
at an extraordinary meeting of the town council all members who
were on the staff of the bank, Avdeyev among them, were asked to
resign, on the ground that they were charged with a criminal offence.
In the morning he received a request to give up immediately his
duties as churchwarden.

After that Avdeyev lost count of the blows dealt him by fate, and
strange, unprecedented days flitted rapidly by, one after another,
and every day brought some new, unexpected surprise. Among other
things, the examining magistrate sent him a