f theirs....
Awful scoundrels! But what can you make of them? They love extorting
money from people who happen to be travelling through here. The rogues
have been spoiled! You wait and see: they will get a tip out of you as
well as their hire. I know them of old, they can't get round me!"

"You have been serving here a long time?"

"Yes, I was here under Aleksei Petrovich," [3] he answered, assuming an
air of dignity. "I was a sub-lieutenant when he came to the Line; and
I was promoted twice, during his command, on account of actions against
the mountaineers."

"And now--?"

"Now I'm in the third battalion of the Line. And you yourself?"

I told him.

With this the conversation ended, and we continued to walk in silence,
side by side. On the summit of the mountain we found snow. The sun set,
and--as usually is the case in the south--night followed upon the day
without any interval of twilight. Thanks, however, to the sheen of the
snow, we were able easily to distinguish the road, which still went
up the mountain-side, though not so steeply as before. I ordered the
Ossetes to put my portmanteau into the cart, and to replace the oxen
by horses. Then for the last time I gazed down upon the valley; but
the thick mist which had gushed in billows from the gorges veiled it
completely, and not a single sound now floated up to our ears from
below. The Ossetes surrounded me clamorously and demanded tips; but the
staff-captain shouted so menacingly at them that they dispersed in a
moment.

"What a people they are!" he said. "They don't even know the Russian for
'bread,' but they have mastered the phrase 'Officer, give us a tip!'
In my opinion, the very Tartars are better, they are no drunkards,
anyhow."...

We were now within a verst or so of the Station. Around us all was
still, so still, indeed, that it was possible to follow the flight of a
gnat by the buzzing of its wings. On our left loomed the gorge, deep and
black. Behind it and in front of us rose the dark-blue summits of the
mountains, all trenched with furrows and covered with layers of snow,
and standing out against the pale horizon, which still retained the last
reflections of the evening glow. The stars twinkled out in the dark sky,
and in some strange way it seemed to me that they were much higher than
in our own north country. On both sides of the road bare, black rocks
jutted out; here and there shrubs peeped forth from under the snow; but
not a single