Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 02.djvu/534

 496 "And there are three others, riding near the forest," added Antónov, who had remarkably sharp eyes, approaching us, and concealing behind his back the pipe which he had been smoking. "The one in front has just taken out the gun from its case. You can see him plainly, your Honour!"

"I say, he has fired it off, brothers! There is the white puff of the smoke," said Velenchúk, in a group of soldiers who were standing a short distance behind us.

"He must have aimed at our cordon, the rascal!" remarked another.

"See what a lot of them the forest is pouring out. I suppose they are trying to find a place to station their cannon," added a third. "If we could just burst a shell in the midst of them,—that would make them spit—"

"What is your opinion? will it reach so far, dear man?" asked Chíkin.

"Five hundred or five hundred and twenty fathoms, not more," Maksímov said, coolly, as though speaking to himself, though it was evident that he was anxious to fire off the cannon, as the rest were. " If we were to give forty-five lines to the howitzer, we might hit it,—hit it square in the middle."

"Do you know, if you were to aim straight at this group, you would certainly hit somebody. See how they have all gathered in a mass! Now, quickly, give the order to fire," the commander of the company continued his entreaties.

"Do you order the gun to be aimed?" Antónov suddenly asked, in a jerky bass voice, with gloomy malice in his eyes.

I must confess that I myself was anxious for it, and so I ordered that the second cannon be brought into position.

No sooner had I given the order than the shell was