ess you every day of my life for driving the curse out of me.
But, Master, I beseech you, cross the threshold of that hut and look
within. If you see nothing, then the Evil One has indeed been at his
juggling tricks with me, making me see and speak the things that are
not."

Feodor stepped into the tumble-down hut to which Mashinka had pointed.
The first thing that met his gaze was his little son lying on a heap
of dirty straw. The little shirt had slipped down over one shoulder,
and upon this the mark of the branding-iron was clearly seen. Feodor
knelt down, buried his face in the straw beside the boy, and clasped
him in his arms. But he uttered no cry and shed no tear.

"Why, my good Master," said the girl, "surely you, too, have become
possessed, and see things that do not exist."

Meantime the child did not cry. He trembled violently; for fear, and
pain, and fever were working together. The father wrapped him in his
cloak, and laid him tenderly across his knees.

"Now listen," said Mashinka, "to all that the Evil One must have put
into my eyes and ears, if, indeed, it is all nothing but his black
magic. Your own steward had orders to bring all your treasure in a
great iron chest along with the child to Tsarskoye Selo. Your brother
and your wife were already in St. Petersburg--together. The treasure
was to be divided among I know not how many of the high court
officials. Your wife, of course, fell to the informer's portion, and
the child was sent off later in order to be transported to the Urals
along with you. As the boy begged most piteously for me I was allowed
to travel along with him. He cried during the whole journey with the
pain caused by the branding-iron. At last the steward could no longer
bear his constant moaning in the carriage, and ordered me to get down
and gather some poppy-heads in the field, so that I might make an
infusion of them and put the child to sleep. So I gathered a great
many poppy-heads and made them into a good strong tea at our next
stopping-place. But I did not give it to the boy to drink. I mixed it
among the brandy which the steward, the driver, and the Cossacks were
drinking, and it was not long before their heads were nodding under
it.

"I then took the keys of the iron chest from the steward's pocket,
flung him out of the troika and the driver after him, seized the reins
and drove off with the boy. But when the Cossacks had become a little
sober they came galloping after us