a drum.
Virginsky was so scared that he too screamed out like a madman, and
with a ferocity, a vindictiveness that one could never have expected of
Virginsky. He tried to pull himself away from Lyamshin, scratching and
punching him as far as he could with his arms behind him. Erkel at last
helped to pull Lyamshin away. But when, in his terror, Virginsky had
skipped ten paces away from him, Lyamshin, catching sight of Pyotr
Stepanovitch, began yelling again and flew at him. Stumbling over
the corpse, he fell upon Pyotr Stepanovitch, pressing his head to
the latter's chest and gripping him so tightly in his arms that Pyotr
Stepanovitch, Tolkatchenko, and Liputin could all of them do nothing
at the first moment. Pyotr Stepanovitch shouted, swore, beat him on
the head with his fists. At last, wrenching himself away, he drew his
revolver and put it in the open mouth of Lyamshin, who was still yelling
and was by now tightly held by Tolkatchenko, Erkel, and Liputin. But
Lyamshin went on shrieking in spite of the revolver. At last Erkel,
crushing his silk handkerchief into a ball, deftly thrust it into his
mouth and the shriek ceased. Meantime Tolkatchenko tied his hands with
what was left of the rope.

"It's very strange," said Pyotr Stepanovitch, scrutinising the madman
with uneasy wonder. He was evidently struck. "I expected something very
different from him," he added thoughtfully.

They left Erkel in charge of him for a time. They had to make haste to
get rid of the corpse: there had been so much noise that some one might
have heard. Tolkatchenko and Pyotr Stepanovitch took up the lanterns
and lifted the corpse by the head, while Liputin and Virginsky took the
feet, and so they carried it away. With the two stones it was a heavy
burden, and the distance was more than two hundred paces. Tolkatchenko
was the strongest of them. He advised them to keep in step, but no one
answered him and they all walked anyhow. Pyotr Stepanovitch walked
on the right and, bending forward, carried the dead man's head on
his shoulder while with the left hand he supported the stone. As
Tolkatchenko walked more than half the way without thinking of helping
him with the stone, Pyotr Stepanovitch at last shouted at him with an
oath. It was a single, sudden shout. They all went on carrying the body
in silence, and it was only when they reached the pond that Virginsky,
stooping under his burden and seeming to be exhausted by the weight of
it, cried