Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/130

 114 "See they have a light," remarked the mechanic pointing to a bright stripe between the shutters.

"Look through the chink—see what they are doing," called several voices.

The mechanic climbed on to the shoulders of two of his companions, and had scarcely put his eye to the opening in the shutter when he shouted at the top of his voice.

"Good people, brothers, they are smothering somebody here, smothering somebody."

And the mechanic began desperately to knock at the shutters, a dozen others followed his example, and springing to the windows began hammering at them with their fists.

The crowd increased in numbers every minute, and the Izmaylov's house was beseiged as has been related.

"I myself saw it, I saw it with my own eyes," the mechanic affirmed pointing to the dead body of Fedia. "The boy was lying on his bed and they were both suffocating him."

Sergei was taken to the police station that same evening; Katerina Lvovna was led to her upper room and two guards were stationed over her.

It was unbearably cold in the Ismaylov's house, the stoves were unheated; the door did not remain closed for an instant; great crowds of curious people followed on each other's heels. All came