sleep in two adjoining rooms. Aksenov did not like to sleep long ; he awoke in the middle of the night and, as it was easier to travel when it was cool, wakened his driver and told him to hitch the horses. Then he went to the "black" hut, paid his bill, and went away.
When he had gone about forty versts, he again stopped to feed the horses and to rest in the vestibule of a hostelry. At dinner-time he came out on the porch, and ordered the samovar to be prepared for him. He took out his guitar and began to play. Suddenly a troyka with bells drove up to the hostelry, and from the cart leaped an officer with two soldiers, and he went up to Aksenov, and asked him who he was and where he came from.
Aksenov told him everything as it was, and said:
"Would you not like to drink tea with me?"
But the officer kept asking him questions:
"Where did you stay last night? Were you alone, or with a merchant? Did you see the merchant in the morning? Why did you leave so early in the morning?"
Aksenov wondered why they asked him about all that; he told them everything as it was, and said:
"Why do you ask me this? I am not a thief, nor a robber. I am travelling on business of my own, and you have nothing to ask me about."
Then the officer called the soldiers, and said:
"I am the chief of the rural police, and I ask you this, because the merchant with whom you passed last night has been found with his throat cut. Show me your things, and you look through them!"
They entered the house, took his valise and bag, and opened them and began to look through them. Suddenly the chief took a knife out of the bag, and cried out:
"Whose knife is this?"
Aksenov looked, and saw that they had taken out a blood-stained knife from his bag, and he was frightened.
