As for me I was up and upon Kostigin long before he had realised that a calamity had overtaken him. I possessed myself of his sword and stood with it at his throat, and in another moment his career would have ended, for I could not afford to let him go.
‘Do not kill me, Chelminsky,’ he cried, ‘I should not have shot you: there is something, besides, that I can tell you which will be of use to you!’
‘That is an easy lie to invent,’ I replied grimly. ‘You would have shot me, Kostigin, from behind.’
‘I swear I would not,’ he said; ‘the orders are not to shoot but to chase you. You have been a dupe from the beginning. Mazeppa had planned all this—do you think he did not know of your rebellion? There have been many to keep him informed. The provocation leading to your challenge yesterday and the comedy of this morning—all was prepared beforehand.’
‘However that may be, my friend, I must take Ajax, by your kind permission, and indeed I know not how I am to spare your life——’
‘There is another thing: let this buy my life for me. You are to be chased as far as the frontier. Then you are to be taken. Arrangements are already made: you will be surrounded and captured, kept for a year, and then escorted to your own home in Volhynia.’
‘Why all this?’ I laughed. ‘Why chased and captured and kept? Why not allowed to go to Moscow?’
‘As to that, only Mazeppa knows Mazeppa’s mind, but so it is. He is jealous maybe, and would rather not have you bargaining with the Tsar Peter against him. More than this I know not any more than yourself.’
The horse Ajax, meanwhile, had recovered his feet and stood shaking himself at intervals, panting, but apparently unhurt. I felt him up and down; there was nothing broken.
‘Well, take your life, Kostigin,’ I said. ‘Ride back and meet the next man; tell him he were wiser to return with you. You will find Shadrach yonder. Mazeppa shall yet hear of me again—tell him so, if you are bold enough. I do not intend to be caught at the frontier. Give me your gun and any money you have—so! Will Mazeppa murder those other fellows, like poor Bedinsky?’