"What's that for? Why do you talk such nonsense?"
"That's no business of yours."
"Never mind! I shall tell of you," threatened Tiapa once more.
Aristide Fomitch looked vaguely at him and was silent. And once more there reigned in the doss-house that solemn and mysterious hush, which always seems to accompany the presence of death.
"Hark! They are coming," said Tiapa.
And he rose and went out at the door.
Almost at the same moment there appeared the police officer, the doctor, and the magistrate. All three in turn went up to the body, and after glancing at it moved away, looking meanwhile at Kouvalda askance and with suspicion.
He sat, taking no notice of them, until the police officer asked, nodding towards the schoolmaster's body—
"What did he die of?"
"Ask him yourself. I should say from being unaccustomed"—