Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/239

Rh him the way. When we get out I'll meet him. I'll throw over my pilgrim, and will go with him, although he did slip on before me."

And Efim kept good watch lest Elisyei should escape him. And now the mass was over, and the people began to move; they went forward to kiss the cross, there was a press and a throng, they came in the direction of Efim. Again a terror fell upon him lest they should filch his purse. Efim clasped his purse tightly in his hand, and began to force his way through the crowd so that he might get outside. He got outside, and went and went, and sought and sought for Elisyei, and he went right out of the church, and yet he did not meet him. After service Efim went also to seek Elisyei in the lodging-places of the town; he went everywhere, and found him nowhere! That evening the pilgrim also did not appear. He vanished without paying his rouble. Efim remained quite alone.

Next day Efim again went to the Sepulchre of the Lord with the old pilgrim from Tambov by whom he had sat on the ship. He wanted to get well in front, but again he was jostled aside, so he stood beside a pillar and prayed. Again he looked in front of him—and again, under the lamps, at the very Sepulchre of the Lord, stood Elisyei in his former place, with his hands folded like a priest at the altar, and his baldness shone over his whole head. "Now," thought Efim, "now I'll not lose him." He began to push his way to the front. He pushed his way right up; and there was no Elisyei. He had evidently gone.

And on the third day Efim again went to the mass 189