Page:Garshin - A Red Flower (1911).djvu/38

36 way. Then, twisting the strong sleeves of the straight-jacket into a rope, and tying one end to the bar, he hung on to it with his entire body. After many vehement efforts, exhausting almost all of his remaining strength, the bar yielded, and a narrow opening was made. He squeezed himself through it, grazing his shoulders, elbows and bared knees. He made his way through the bushes and stopped before the wall. Everything was silent; through a window of the large building could be seen the interior, faintly illumined by the night-lamps; he did not see anyone there. No one would notice him, thought he; the old man set to watch at his bedside evidently slept very soundly. The stars gleamed radiantly and their rays penetrated his very heart.

"I'm coming to you," he murmured, gazing at the sky. Having failed in his first effort, he, with broken toenails, blood-stained hands and knees, began to look for a better place to climb. There where the wall joined the deadhouse a few bricks had fallen from both wall and house. The madman soon felt these hollows with his hands. He climbed the wall, caught hold of a branch of an elm growing on the other side, and silently