Then Osip, pressing his lips together firmly, thrust his hands in his pockets and said:
"Shall I go have a look at him, and see what it is all about? He is a good fellow."
I attached myself to him.
"Here's a man," said Osip on the way, "who lives for years quite decently, when suddenly he loses control of himself, and is all over the place. Look, Maximich, and learn."
We went to one of the cheap "houses of pleasure" of Kunavin Village, and we were welcomed by a predatory old woman. Osip whispered to her, and she ushered us into a small empty room, dark and dirty, like a stable. On a small bed slept, in an abandoned attitude, a large, stout woman. The old woman thrust her fist in her side and said:
"Wake up, frog, wake up!"
The woman jumped up in terror, rubbing her face with her hands, and asked:
"Good Lord! who is it? What is it?"
"Detectives are here," said Osip harshly. With a groan the woman disappeared, and he spat after her and explained to me:
"They are more afraid of detectives than of the devil."