"Come on, then; what is the matter with you? Are you cold?"
Kapendiukhin was set up against him on our side, and the Mordovan always beat him. But the bleeding, panting Cossack said:
"I 'll lick that Mordovan if I die for it!"
In the end, that became the one aim of his life. He even went to the length of giving up vodka, rubbed his body with snow before he went to sleep, ate a lot of meat, and to develop his muscles, crossed himself many times every evening with two pound weights. But this did not avail him at all. Then he sewed a piece of lead inside his gloves, and boasted to Sitanov:
"Now we will finish the Mordovan!"
Sitanov sternly warned him:
"You had better throw it away, or I will give you away before the fight."
Kapendiukhin did not believe him, but when the time for the fight arrived, Sitanov said abruptly to the Mordovan:
"Step aside, Vassili Ivanich; I have something to say to Kapendiukhin first!"
The Cossack turned purple and roared: