And I was told something very strange and unexpected.
“Your Honour, Kuz'ma killed her!”
“They lie!” Kuz'ma shouted. “May God kill me if they don't lie!”
“But why did you, son of a devil, wash off the blood, if your conscience is clear? Stop a moment, his Honour will examine all this!”
The breaker-in, Trifon, riding past the river, saw Kuz'ma washing something carefully in the water. At first Trifon thought he was washing linen, but looking more attentively he saw it was a poddevka[23] and a waistcoat. He thought this strange: garments of cloth are not washed.
“What are you doing?” Trifon called to him.
Kuz'ma became confused. Looking more attentively, Trifon noticed brown spots on the poddevka.
“I guessed at once that it must be blood … I went into the kitchen and told our people; they watched, and saw him at night hanging out the poddevka to dry. Of course they took fright. Why should he wash it, if he is not guilty? He must have something on his soul, he is trying to hide.… We thought and thought, and decided to bring him to your Honour.… We pull him along, and he backs and spits into our eyes. Why should he back if he is not guilty?”
From further examination it appeared that just before the murder, at the time when the Count and his guests were sitting in the clearing, drinking tea, Kuz'ma had gone into the forest. He had not aided in carrying Olga, and therefore could not have got dirtied with blood at that time.
When he was brought to my room Kuz'ma was so excited that at first he could not utter a word; turning up the white of his single eye he crossed himself and mumbled oaths.