The Maxim Gorky

by Maxim Gorky

  “Ehe!” affirmed Tchelkache.

  Gavrilo looked at him curiously.

  “How much did they give you?” he asked at last, seeing that Tchelkache was not disposed to talk.

  “See!” said Tchelkache. He held out toward Gavrilo something that he drew from his pocket.

  Gavrilo saw the variegated banknotes, and they assumed in his eyes all the colors of the rainbow.

  “Oh! And I thought you were boasting! How much?”

  “Five hundred and forty! Isn’t that a good haul?”

  “Certain!” murmured Gavrilo, following with greedy eyes the five hundred and forty roubles as they again disappeared in the pocket. “Ah! If it was only mine!” He sighed dejectedly.

  “We’ll have a lark, little one!” enthusiastically exclaimed Tchelkache! “Have no fear: I’ll pay you, brother. I’ll give you forty rubles! Eh? Are you pleased? Do you want your money now?”

  “If you don’t mind. Yes, I’ll accept it!”

  Gavrilo trembled with anticipation; a sharp, burning pain oppressed his breast.

  “Ha! ha! ha! Little devil! You’ll accept it? Take it, brother, I beg of you! I implore you, take it! I don’t know where to put all this money; relieve me, here!”

  Tchelkache handed Gavrilo several ten ruble notes. The other took them with a shaking hand, dropped the oars and proceeded to conceal his booty in his blouse, screwing up his eyes greedily, and breathing noisily as though he were drinking something hot. Tchelkache regarded him ironically. Gavrilo seized the oars; he rowed in nervous haste, his eyes lowered, as though he were afraid. His shoulders shook.

  “My God, how greedy you are! That’s bad. Besides, for a peasant…”

  “Just think of what one can do with money!” exclaimed Gavrilo, passionately. He began to talk brokenly and rapidly, as though pursuing an idea, and seizing the words on the wing, of life in the country with and without money. “Respect, ease, liberty, gaiety…”

  Tchelkache listened attentively with a serious countenance and inscrutable eyes. Occasionally, he smiled in a pleased manner.

  “Here we are!” he said at last.

  A wave seized hold of the boat and landed it high on the sand.

  “Ended, ended, quite ended! We must draw the boat up farther, so that it will be out of reach of the tide. They will come after it. And, now, good-bye. The town is eight versts from here. You’ll return to town, eh?”

  Tchelkache’s face still beamed with a slily good-natured smile; he seemed to be planning something pleasant for himself and a surprise for Gavrilo. He put his hand in his pocket and rustled the bank-notes.

  “No, I’m not going… I…”

  Gavrilo stifled and choked. He was shaken by a storm of conflicting desires, words and feelings. He burned as though on fire.

  Tchelkache gazed at him with astonishment.

  “What’s the matter with you?” he asked.

  “Nothing.”

  But Gavrilo’s face grew red and then ashy pale. The lad moved his feet restlessly as though he would have thrown himself upon Tchelkache, or as though he were torn by Borne secret desire difficult to realize.

  His suppressed excitement moved Tchelkache to some apprehension. He wondered what form it would take in breaking out.

  Gavrilo gave a laugh, a strange laugh, like a sob. His head was bent, so that Tchelkache could not see the expression of his face; he could only perceive Gavrilo’s ears, by turns red and white.

  “Go to the devil!” exclaimed Tchelkache, motioning with his hand. “Are you in love with me? Say? Look at you mincing like a young girl. Are you distressed at leaving me? Eh! youngster, speak, or else I’m going!”

  “You’re going?” cried Gavrilo, in a sonorous voice. The deserted and sandy beach trembled at this cry, and the waves of sand brought by the waves of the sea seemed to shudder. Tchelkache also shuddered. Suddenly Gavrilo darted from his place, and throwing himself at Tchelkache’s feet, entwined his legs with his arms and drew him toward him. Tchelkache tottered, sat down heavily on the sand, and gritting his teeth, brandished his long arm and closed fist in the air. But before he had time to strike, he was stopped by the troubled and suppliant look of Gavrilo.

  “Friend! Give me…that money! Give it to me, in the name of Heaven. What need have you of it? It is the earnings of one night…a single night… And it would take me years to get as much as that… Give it to me… I’ll pray for you…all my life…in three churches…for the safety of your soul. You’ll throw it to the winds, and I’ll give it to the earth. Oh! give me that money. What will you do with it, say? Do you care about it as much as that? One night…and you are rich! Do a good deed! You are lost, you!… You’ll never come back again to the way, while I!… Ah! give it to me!”

  Tchelkache frightened, astonished and furious threw himself backward, still seated on the sand, and leaning on his two hands silently gazed at him, his eyes starting from their orbits; the lad leaned his head on his knees and gasped forth his supplications. Tchelkache finally pushed him away, jumped to his feet, and thrusting his hand into his pocket threw the multi-colored bills at Gavrilo.

  “There, dog, swallow them!” he cried trembling with mingled feelings of anger, pity and hate for this greedy slave. Now that he had thrown him the money, he felt himself a hero. His eyes, his whole person, beamed with conscious pride.

  “I meant to have given you more. I pitied you yesterday. I thought of the village. I said to myself: ‘I’ll help this boy.’ I was waiting to see what you’d do, whether you’d ask me or not. And now, see! tatterdemalion, beggar, that you are!… Is it right to work oneself up to such a state for money…to suffer like that? Imbeciles, greedy devils who forget…who would sell themselves for five kopeks, eh?”

  “Friend… Christ’s blessing on you! What is this? What? Thousands?… I’m a rich man, now!” screamed Gavrilo, in a frenzy of delight, hiding the money in his blouse. “Ah! dear man! I shall, never forget this! never! And I’ll beg my wife and children to pray for you.”

  Tchelkache listened to these cries of joy, gazed at this face, irradiated and disfigured by the passion of covetousness; he felt that he himself, the thief and vagabond, freed from all restraining influence, would never become so rapacious, so vile, so lost to all decency. Never would he sink so low as that! Lost in these reflections, which brought to him the consciousness of his liberty and his audacity, he remained beside Gavrilo on the lonely shore.

  “You have made me happy!” cried Gavrilo, seizing Tchelkache’s hand and laying it against his cheek.

  Tchelkache was silent and showed his teeth like a wolf. Gavrilo continued to pour out his heart.

  “What an idea that was of mine! We were rowing here… I saw the money… I said to myself:

  “Suppose I were to give him…give you…a blow with the oar…just one! The money would be mine; as for him, I’d throw him in the sea…you, you understand? Who would ever notice his disappearance? And if you were found, no inquest would be made: who, how, why had you been killed? You’re not the kind of man for whom any stir would be made! You’re of no use on the earth! Who would take your part? That’s the way it would be! Eh?”

  “Give back that money!” roared Tchelkache, seizing Gavrilo by the throat.

  Gavrilo struggled, once, twice…but Tchelkache’s other arm entwined itself like a serpent around him…a noise of tearing linen,—and Gavrilo slipped to the ground with bulging eyes, catching at the air with his hands and waving his legs. Tchelkache, erect, spare, like a wild beast, showed his teeth wickedly and laughed harshly, while his moustache worked nervously on his sharp, angular face. Never, in his whole life, had he been so deeply wounded, and never had his anger been so great.

  “Well! Are you happy, now?” asked he, still laughing, of Gavrilo, and turning his back to him, he walked away in the direction of the town.

  But he had hardly
taken two steps when Gavrilo, crouching like a cat, threw a large, round stone at him, crying furiously:

  “O—one!”

  Tchelkache groaned, raised his hands to the back of his neck and stumbled forward, then turned toward Gavrilo and fell face downward on the sand. He moved a leg, tried to raise his head and stiffened, vibrating like a stretched cord. At this, Gavrilo began to run, to run far away, yonder, to where the shadow of that ragged cloud overhung the misty steppe. The murmuring waves, coursing over the sands, joined him and ran on and on, never stopping. The foam hissed, the spray flew through the air.

  The rain fell. Slight at first, it soon came down thickly, heavily and came from the sky in slender streams. They crossed, forming a net that soon shut off the distance on land and water. For a long time there was nothing to be seen but the rain and this long body lying on the sand beside the sea… But suddenly, behold Gavrilo coming from out the rain, running; he flew like a bird. He went up to Tchelkache, fell upon his knees before him, and tried to turn him over. His hand sank into a sticky liquid, warm and red. He trembled and drew back, pale and distracted.

  “Get up, brother!” he whispered amid the noise of the falling rain into the ear of Tchelkache.

  Tchelkache came to himself and, repulsing Gavrilo, said in a hoarse voice:

  “Go away!”

  “Forgive me, brother: I was tempted by the devil…” continued Gavrilo, trembling and kissing Tchelkache’s hand.

  “Go, go away!” growled the other.

  “Absolve my sin! Friend…forgive me!”

  “Go, go to the devil!” suddenly cried out Tchelkache, sitting up on the sand. His face was pale, threatening; his clouded eyes closed as though he were very sleepy… “What do you want, now? You’ve finished your business…go! Off with you!”

  He tried to kick Gavrilo, prostrated by grief, but failed, and would have fallen if Gavrilo hadn’t supported him with his shoulders. Tchelkache’s face was now on a level with Gavrilo’s. Both were pale, wretched and terrifying.

  “Fie!”

  Tchelkache spat in the wide opened eyes of his employe.

  The other humbly wiped them with his sleeve, and murmured:

  “Do what you will… I’ll not say one word. Pardon me, in the name of Heaven!”

  “Fool, you don’t even know how to steal!” cried Tchelkache, contemptuously. He tore his shirt under his waistcoat and, gritting his teeth in silence, began to bandage his head.

  “Have you taken the money?” he asked, at last.

  “I haven’t taken it, brother; I don’t want it! It brings bad luck!”

  Tchelkache thrust his hand into his waistcoat pocket, withdrew the package of bills, put one of them in his pocket and threw all the rest at Gavrilo.

  “Take that and be off!”

  “I cannot take it… I cannot! Forgive me!”

  “Take it, I tell you!” roared Tchelkache, rolling his eyes frightfully.

  “Pardon me! When you have forgiven me I’ll take it,” timidly said Gavrilo, falling on the wet sand at Tchelkache’s feet.

  “You lie, fool, you’ll take it at once!” said Tchelkache, confidently, and raising his head, by a painful effort, he thrust the money before his face. “Take it, take it! You haven’t worked for nothing! Don’t be ashamed of having failed to assassinate a man! No one will claim anyone like me. You’ll be thanked, on the contrary, when it’s learned what you’ve done. There, take it! No one’ll know what you’ve done and yet it deserves some reward! Here it is!”

  Gavrilo saw that Tchelkache was laughing, and he felt relieved. He held the money tightly in his hand.

  “Brother! Will you forgive me? Won’t you do it? Say?” he supplicated tearfully.

  “Little brother!” mimicked Tchelkache, rising on his tottering limbs. “Why should I pardon you? There’s no occasion for it. Today it’s you, tomorrow it’ll be me…”

  “Ah! brother, brother!” sighed Gavrilo, sorrowfully, shaking his head.

  Tchelkache was standing before him, smiling strangely; the cloth wrapped around his head, gradually reddening, resembled a Turkish head-dress.

  The rain fell in torrents. The sea complained dully and the waves beat angrily against the beach.

  The two men were silent.

  “Good-bye!” said Tchelkache, with cold irony.

  He staggered, his legs trembled, and he carried his head oddly, as though he was afraid of losing it.

  “Pardon me, brother!” again repeated Gavrilo.

  “It’s nothing!” drily replied Tchelkache, as he supported his head with his left hand and gently pulled his moustache with his right.

  Gavrilo stood gazing after him until he had disappeared in the rain that still fell in fine, close drops, enveloping the steppe in a mist as impenetrable and gray as steel.

  Then Gavrilo took off his wet cap, made the sign of the cross, looked at the money pressed tightly in his hand and drew a long, deep sigh; he concealed his booty in his blouse and began to walk, taking long strides, in the opposite direction to that in which Tchelkache had gone.

  The sea thundered, threw great heavy waves upon the sand and broke them into foam and spray. The rain lashed the sea and land pitilessly; the wind roared. All the air around was filled with plaints, cries and dull sounds. The rain masked sea and sky…

  The rain and the breaking waves soon washed away the red spot where Tchelkache had been struck to the ground; they soon effaced his footprints and those of the lad on the sand, and the lonely beach was left without the slightest trace of the little drama that had been played between these two men.

  MALVA

  The sea laughed.

  It trembled at the warm and light breath of the wind and became covered with tiny wrinkles that reflected the sun in blinding fashion and laughed at the sky with its thousands of silvery lips. In the deep space between sea and sky buzzed the deafening and joyous sound of the waves chasing each other on the flat beach of the sandy promontory. This noise and brilliancy of sunlight, reverberated a thousand times by the sea, mingled harmoniously in ceaseless and joyous agitation. The sky was glad to shine; the sea was happy to reflect the glorious light.

  The wind caressed the powerful and satin-like breast of the sea, the sun heated it with its rays and it sighed as if fatigued by these ardent caresses; it filled the burning air with the salty aroma of its emanations. The green waves, coursing up the yellow sand, threw on the beach the white foam of their luxurious crests which melted with a gentle murmur, and wet it.

  At intervals along the beach, scattered with shells and sea weed, were stakes of wood driven into the sand and on which hung fishing nets, drying and casting shadows as fine as cobwebs. A few large boats and a small one were drawn up beyond high-water mark, and the waves as they ran up towards them seemed as if they were calling to them. Gaffs, oars, coiled ropes, baskets and barrels lay about in disorder and amidst it all was a cabin built of yellow branches, bark and matting. Above the general chaos floated a red rag at the extremity of a tall mast.

  Under the shade of a boat lay Vassili Legostev, the watchman at this outpost of the Grebentchikov fishing grounds. Lying on his stomach, his head resting on his hands, he was gazing fixedly out to sea, where away in the distance danced a black spot. Vassili saw with satisfaction that it grew larger and was drawing nearer.

  Screwing up his eyes on account of the glare caused by the reflection on the water, he grunted with pleasure and content. Malva was coming. A few minutes more and she would be there, laughing so heartily as to strain every stitch of her well-filled bodice. She would throw her robust and gentle arms around him and kiss him, and in that rich sonorous voice that startles the sea gulls would give him the news of what was going on yonder. They would make a good fish soup together, and drink brandy as they chatted and caressed each other. That is how they spent every Sunday and holiday. And at daylight
he would row her back over the sea in the sharp morning air. Malva, still nodding with sleep, would hold the tiller and he would watch her as he pulled. She was amusing at those times, funny and charming both, like a cat which had eaten well. Sometimes she would slip from her seat and roll herself up at the bottom of the boat like a ball.

  As Vassili watched the little black spot grow larger it seemed to him that Malva was not alone in the boat. Could Serejka have come along with her? Vassili moved heavily on the sand, sat up, shaded his eyes with his hands, and with a show of ill humor began to strain his eyes to see who was coming. No, the man rowing was not Serejka. He rows strong but clumsily. If Serejka were rowing Malva would not take the trouble to hold the rudder.

  “Hey there!” cried Vassili impatiently.

  The sea gulls halted in their flight and listened.

  “Hallo! Hallo!” came back from the boat. It was Malva’s sonorous voice.

  “Who’s with you?”

  A laugh replied to him.

  “Jade!” swore Vassili under his breath.

  He spat on the ground with vexation.

  He was puzzled. While he rolled a cigarette he examined the neck and back of the rower who was rapidly drawing nearer. The sound of the water when the oars struck it resounded in the still air, and the sand crunched under the watchman’s bare feet as he stamped about in his impatience.

  “Who’s with you?” he cried, when he could discern the familiar smile on Malva’s pretty plump face.

  “Wait. You’ll know him all right,” she replied laughing.

  The rower turned on his seat and, also laughing, looked at Vassili.

  The watchman frowned. It seemed to him that he knew the fellow.

  “Pull harder!” commanded Malva.

  The stroke was so vigorous that the boat was carried up the beach on a wave, fell over on one side and then righted itself while the wave rolled back laughing into the sea. The rower jumped out on the beach, and going up to Vassili said:

  “How are you, father?”

  “Iakov!” cried Vassili, more surprised than pleased.