CHAPTER III
The horses had brought their master to Drevno at a hand-gallop, and required some little time for resting. It was half-past four before the troika drove up to the door, and quite dark. Olga sat huddled up on the box-seat beside the driver and she was still crying, her body heaving at regular intervals with deep-drawn sobs.
The Barin, having been obliged to wait for more than two hours in the close, hot room which served as his agent's office, was sleepy; he settled himself comfortably in the sledge, well wrapped in furs, and presently dozed off. Soon he was snoring loudly.
"Olga," the driver whispered, "don't be startled and make a noise—I am Ivan."
Olga did start, and that violently; she would have cried out, too, but Ivan placed a great gloved hand upon her mouth and prevented her.
"Ivan, he will awake and recognise thee, and we shall be knouted as we sit," she whispered presently, when he had removed his hand. "Why did you come, and where is Gavril?"
"Gavril lies drunk in the Starost's stable; he has had more than his share of the wedding vodka; I made him drunk in order to take his place. And I have come because—do not be a fool and cry out—because the devil behind us has lived long enough; as it has not been our wedding-day it shall be his death-day."
"Ivan, you dare not—you must not. He is a devil, as you say, but to murder him would do us no good. The Tsar's officers would come and take you from me and carry you away to Siberia, and what should I do then?"
"Bah! they must catch us first. We have these horses. We will drive all night by the roads, so as to leave no track, and we will come to the village of Ostrof, where I have relatives; they will take us in."
"And then?" said Olga, trembling so that she could scarcely speak.
"Their Barin will not ask questions; he will have us registered as his own and there is an end."
"But he must know why we have fled from our own Barin; he will ask and require to be satisfied."
"We will say that he was a devil and beat us, and that we would bear with him no longer."
"Do not shed blood, Ivan," said Olga. "I should fear you all my life long."
"Bah! to slay such vermin is to do God's service; do not be a timid fool, Olga; we cannot live without one another; is not that a certain thing?"
"That is certain; but I would rather love you without fearing you–" Olga's speech was interrupted at this moment by the sudden shying of the shaft horse, a movement which caused her to grab the narrow board on which she sat and Ivan to collide violently against her, so that both nearly toppled out of the sledge. It caused the Barin to awake suddenly, also, and to launch at Ivan's head a string of curses and abuse.
Ivan remained silent, rather than apologise in the cringing phraseology of Gavril, for he did not wish to be recognised at present.
But the Barin's drowsiness was not yet slept off, and in a minute or two he was fast asleep again, and snoring.
"Olga, do you know what the horse shied at?" whispered Ivan.
"No," said the girl; "unless it was a shadow in the moonlight."
"Keep a guard upon your lips and I will tell you; it was a wolf. At this moment I can count five, taking both sides of the road; watch between the trees a hundred paces from the road; you will see them creep from shadow to shadow, keeping pace with us."
"Holy Mother of God!" exclaimed Olga, piously crossing herself; "yes—I see them—Lord have mercy upon us. I cannot forget Kiril who died but a week ago!"
"Do not fear," said Ivan; "these wolves may yet prove to be our best friends."
Olga pondered in silence over this enigmatical utterance of Ivan's. She concluded at length that he must have meant it would be dangerous to stop in order to murder the Barin, as he had threatened to do, and that therefore the wolves must be regarded as good friends having thus prevented the intended crime. The discovery gave Olga much comfort.
"The wolves are more and more," said Ivan presently, "and they come in closer and closer to the road. There are at least a score, or it may be thirty; doubtless it is Kiril's pack."
"Lord save us!" ejaculated Olga.
"Bah! if there were three hundred there would be no danger behind these good horses—I would race the brutes from now until daylight!" said Ivan. "There is nothing to fear, Olga, only hold tightly to your seat."
Olga shuddered, but did as she was bidden. The wolves, as Ivan said, increased every moment in numbers and in audacity. They made no sound, but they cantered nearer on each side of the road, but twenty paces from the sledge, while others followed behind. The three horses, harnessed abreast, snorted with terror; they laid back their ears and dragged the light sledge at a hand-gallop. Ivan was a practised whip—every Russian peasant is—and controlled the pace at his desire. The Barin slept heavily on.
"How many there are, and how bold they grow!" whispered Olga. "Are you sure we are safe, Ivan?"
"Only hold on tightly," said Ivan hoarsely. A moment later he added:—
"Now, especially, hold on very tightly, Olga, with both hands; there is a bit of rough road here, and we may jolt."
Almost at the instant the off runner of the sledge struck the stem of a pine-tree which stood at the very edge of the road. The vehicle lurched heavily, glided perilously for a moment on one runner, then righted itself. The frightened horses started away at full gallop.
Olga, in spite of having clutched her seat with both hands, was thrown sidelong against Ivan, who grabbed her with his left arm, while with his right leg he touched and shoved off from the ground; this it was that righted the sledge. As the horses dashed forward both Ivan and Olga jolted back into their places, Olga shrieking with terror, but gripping the board upon which she sat so tightly as to be perfectly secure. Ivan sat still, looking neither to right nor left. He seemed to employ all his energies in getting the horses once more under control. They had travelled thus, at lightning speed, for two hundred yards, a distance which was covered in a quarter of a minute, before a shriek from behind caused Olga to cease, suddenly, her own screaming and look round.
"The Barin—the Barin!" she cried. "He has fallen out, Ivan!—stop the horses—we must save him!"
"Stop them who can—do not speak foolishness, Olga; you see that I am pulling with all my strength!"
Olga kept silence. There followed a second scream from behind; then a cry that seemed to be broken off in the middle.
Ivan took off his boots and threw them in the road. "Do the same, Olga," he said.
Olga obeyed, but half understanding. A few wolves were still following the sledge, but most had remained behind.
"Throw your coat also," said Ivan, "and your head kerchief!"
All these garments were afterwards found by the horrified persons who went out to look for the Barin, together with the heels of the Count's boots, and a few shreds of his clothes. Olga's boots and Ivan's were in pieces and partly eaten, and her coat and red cotton headkerchief were in shreds.
"This is where the Barin fell out," said the searchers; "the two others clung to the sledge a little longer, it appears, before being thrown out and pulled to pieces. It is horrible!"
But many of the peasants in Maximof's villages were of opinion that the Barin's fate was well deserved. He had been a tyrant and oppressor of the poor. "It is the finger of God!" they said. Why two innocent peasants should have been sacrificed at the same time was a puzzling factor in the matter. As for the sledge it was duly brought back by the three hungry horses next day.
"Dear Lord, look at them!" said the peasants at Toxova; "they have run half a hundred miles—chased by wolves throughout the night, only think of it! And the sledge empty behind them—bah! it is horrible!"
The new master at Ostrof asked no questions. He registered Ivan and Olga by the names they chose to give him. Two new serfs were a godsend not to be despised.