Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/276

 260 "What sort of a 'Shaytan' is this brother of yours? How dare he do such a thing?"

"Why not, Bachka, it's nothing; for him it's all the same, Bachka, but for them, Bachka, the Zaysan won't beat them, and the lamas won't drive their reindeer away."

"H'm! Still, I must keep an eye on your idle brother. Tell me his name?"

"Kuz'ka-Demyak, Bachka."

"Kuz'ma or Demyan?"

"No, Bachka, Kuz'ka-Demyak."

"Yes, it's easier for you—Kuz'ka-Demyak, or a copper pyatak —but they are two names."

"No, Bachka, one."

"I tell you they are two."

"No, Bachka, one."

"Get along, you evidently know this better than me, too."

"Of course, Bachka, I know it better."

"Did they give him the names of Kuz'ma and Demyan at the first or second baptism?"

He looked fixedly at me but did not understand; but when I repeated my question he thought and answered:

"That is so, Bachka; when he had been