"Yes," I answered. "Heaven knows when we shall get away from here."
At these words the anxiety of the soldier seemed to increase. He came close to me, and murmured, in a low voice:—
"This is not a place to stop at. I met just now a Black Sea Cossack of my acquaintance—we were serving in the same detachment last year. When I told him where we had put up: 'Bad place,' he said; 'bad people.' And what do you think of that blind boy? Did anyone ever before see a blind person running about from one place to another; going to the bazaar, bringing in bread and water? Here they seem to think nothing of it."
"Has the mistress of the place come in?"
"This morning, while you were out, an old woman came with her daughter."
"What daughter? Her daughter is away."
"I don't know who it is, then. But look, there is the old woman sitting down in the cabin."
I went in. A good fire was shining in the stove, and a breakfast was being prepared, which, for such poor people, seemed to me rather a luxurious one. When I spoke to the old woman, she told me that she was stone deaf.
It was impossible, then, to talk with her. I turned to the blind boy, and, taking him by the ear, said:—
"I say, you little wizard, where were you going last night with that parcel under your arm?"