Early Stories

'Denis Grigoryev !' the magistrate begins. 'Stand closer and answer my questions. On July 7th of this year Ivan Semyonov Akinfov, the railway watchman, was making his morning inspection of the track, when he came across you at verst 141 unscrewing one of the nuts with which the rails are secured to the sleepers. This nut, to be precise! . .. And he detained you with the said nut in your pos- session. Is that correct?'

'Wossat?'

'Did all this happen as Akinfov has stated?'

'Course it did.'

'Right. So why were you unscrewing the nut?'

'Wossat?'

'Stop saying "Wossat?" to everything, and answer my question: why were you unscrewing this nut?' 'Wouldn't have been unscrewing it if I hadn't needed it, would I?' croaks Denis, squinting at the ceiling.

'And why did you need it?'

'What, that nut? We make sinkers out of them nuts . . .'

'Who do you mean - "we"?'

'Us folks . . . Us Klimovo peasants, I mean.'

'Listen here, my friend, stop pretending you're an idiot and talk some sense. I don't want any lies about sinkers, do you hear?'

'Lies? I never told a lie in my life . ..' mutters Denis, blinking. 'We gotto have sinkers, haven't we, yourhonour? If you put a live-bait or a worm on, he won't sink without a weight, will he? Hah, "lies" . . .' Denis sniggers. 'Ain't no use in a live-bait that floatson the top! Your perch, your pike and yourburbot always go for a bait on the bottom. Only a spockerel takes one that's floating on top, and not always then . . . There aren't no spockerel in our rivers . . . He likes the open more, does that one.'

'Why are you telling me about spockerels?'

'Wossat?You asked me, that's why! Thegents roundhere fish that way, too. Even a linle nipper wouldn't try catching fish without a sinker. 'Course, those as don't understand anything about it, they might. Fools are a law unto 'mselves .. .'

'So you are saying you unscrewed this nut in order to make a sinker out of it?'

'What else for? Not for playing fivestones with!'

'But you could have usedsomelead fora sinker, a piece ofshot . . . or a nail . . .'

'You don't find lead on the railway, you got to buy it, and a nail's no good. You won't find anything better than a nut ... It's heavy, and it's got a hole through it.'

'Stop pretending you're daft, as though you were born yesterday or fell off the moon! Don't you understand, you blockhead, what unscrewingthese nuts leads to? If the watchman hadn't been keeping a look-out, a train could have been derailed, people could have been killed! You would have killed people!'

'Lord forbid, your honour! What would I wantto kill people for? Do you take us for heathens orsome kind ofrobbers? Glory be, sir, i n all our born days we've never so much as thought of doing such things, let alone killed anyone . .. Holy Mother of Heaven save us, have mercy on us ... What a thing to say!'

'Why do you think train crashes happen, then? Unscrew two or three of these nuts, and you've got a crash!'

Denis sniggers, and peers at the magistrate sceptically.

'Hah! All these years our village's been unscrewing these nuts and the Lord's preserved us, and here you go talking about crashes - me killing people . .. Now if I'd taken a rail out, say, or put a log across that there track, then I grant you that'd brought the train off, but a little nut? Hah !'

'But don't you understand, it's the nuts and bolts that hold the rails to the sleepers!'

'We do understand ... We don't screw them all off ... we leave some . . . We're not stupid - we know what we're doing . . .'

Denis yawns and makes the sign of the cross over his mouth.

'A train came off the rails here last year,' says the magistrate. 'Now we know why . . .'

'Beg pardon?'

'I said, nowweknow why the traincame offtherails lastyear ... I understand now!'

'That's what you're educated for, to understand, to be our protec- tors .. . The Lord knew what he was doing, when he gave you understanding . . . You've worked out for us the whys and where- fores, but that watchman, he's just another peasant, he has no understanding, he just grabs you by the collar and hauls you off ... First work things out, then you can haul us off! It's as they say, if a man's a peasant, he thinks like a peasant . .. You can put down as well, your honour, that he hit me twice on the jaw and in the chest.'

'When your hut was searched, they found a second nut . . . Where did you unscrew that one, and when?'

'You mean the nut that was lying under the little red chest?'

'I don't know where it was lying, but they found it in your hut. When did you unscrew that one?'

'I didn't; Ignashka, One-Eye Semyon's son, gave it me. The one under the little red chest, that is. The one in the sledge out in the yard me and Mitrofan unscrewed.'

'Which Mitrofan is that?'

'Mitrofan Petrov . .. Ain't you heard of him? He makes fishing nets round here and sells them to the gents. He needs a lot of these here nuts. Reckon there must be ten to every net . ..'

'Now listen . . . Article 1081 of the Penal Code says that any damage wilfully caused to the railway, when such damage might endanger the traffic proceeding on it and the accused knew that such damage would bring about an accident -do you understand, knew, and you couldn't help but know what unscrewing these nuts would lead to - then the sentence is exile with hard labour.'

'Well, you know best, ofcourse . . . We're benighted folks ... you don't expC(.t us to understand, do you?'

'You understand perfectly! You're lying, you're putting all this on!'

'Why should I lie? You can ask in the village, if you don't believe me ... Without a smker you'II only catch bleak, and they're worse 'n gudgeon - you'll not catch gudgeon without a sinker, either.'

'Now you're going to tell me about those spockerels again!' smiles the magistrate.

'Spockerel don't live in our pans . .. If you float your line on the water with a butterfly on it, you might catch a chub, but seldom even then.'

'All right, now be quiet .. .'

There is silence. Denis shifts from foot to foot, stares at the green baize table-top, and blinks strenuously, as if he's looking into the sun rather than at a piece of cloth. The magistrate is writing quickly.

'Can I go?' asks Denis after a while.

'No. I have to take you into custody and commit you to gaol.'

Denis stops blinking and, raising his thick brows, looks at the official in disbelief.

'How do you mean, gaol? I ain't got time, your honour, I've got to go the fair, I've got to pick up three roubles off Yegor for some lard -

'Quiet, you're disturbing me.'

'Gaol . . . If there was due cause I'd go, but ... I ain't done nothing! What do I have to go for, eh? I haven't stole anything, I haven't been fighting . . . And if it's the arrears you're worried about, your honour, then don't you believe that elder of ours . . . You ask the zemstvo gentleman what deals with us ... He's no Christian, that elder of ours -'

'Be quiet!'

'I am being quiet . . .' mutters Denis. 'And I'll swear on oath that elder fiddled our assessment . .. There are three of us brothers: Kuzma Grigoryev, Yegor Grigoryev, and me, Denis Grigoryev ...'

'You're distracting me ... Hey, Semyon!' shouts the magistrate. 'Take him away!'

'There are three of us brothers,' Denis mutters, as two brawny soldiers grab hold of him and lead him from the courtroom. 'One brother doesn'thave to answer for another. .. Kuzma won't pay, so you, Denis, have to answer for him ... Call that justice! The general our old master's dead, God rest his soul, or he'd show you, you "judges" . . . A judge must know what he's doing, not hand it out any old how . .. He can hand out a flogging ifhe knows he's got to, if a man's really done wrong . ..'