Page:The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories.djvu/220

 gentleman, and will see who is telling lies and who is telling the truth, as in God's sight And if I am lying let the court decide. It's written in the law We are all equal nowadays. My own brother is in the gendarmes let me tell you"

"Don't argue!"

"No, that's not the General's dog," says the policeman, with profound conviction, "the General hasn't got one like that. His are mostly setters."

"Do you know that for a fact?"

"Yes, your honour."

"I know it, too. The General has valuable dogs, thoroughbred, and this is goodness knows what! No coat, no shape A low creature And to keep a dog like that! where's the sense of it. If a dog like that were to turn up in Petersburg or Moscow, do you know what would happen? They would not worry about the law, they would strangle it in a twinkling! You've been injured, Hryukin, and we can't let the matter drop We must give them a lesson! It is high time !"

"Yet maybe it is the General's," says the policeman, thinking aloud. "It's not written on its face I saw one like it the other day in his yard."

"It is the General's, that's certain!" says a voice in the crowd.

"H'm, help me on with my overcoat, Yeldyrin, my lad the wind's getting up I am cold You take it to the General's, and inquire there. Say I found it and sent it. And