in one village. The Russians came, destroyed the village, and slew seven of his sons. One son only remained, and he surrendered to the Russians. Then the old man went away, and surrendered himself also to the Russians. He lived with them for three months, found out where his son was, slew him, and ran away. From thenceforth he renounced warfare and went to Mecca — to pray to God. Hence he has his turban. Whoever has been to Mecca is called Hadji, and may put on a turban. He does not love thy brother.[1] He bade me slay thee, but I will not slay thee, because I want to make money out of thee; and, besides, I have begun to love thee, Ivan, and so far from killing thee, I would not let thee go away at all if I hadn't given my word upon it." He laughed, and then he added in Russian: "The welfare of thee, Ivan, is the welfare of me, Abdul!"
IV.
So Zhilin lived like this for a month. In the daytime he went about the aul, or made all sorts of things with his hands, and when night came, and all was silent in the aul, he began digging inside his outhouse. Digging was difficult because of the rock, but he fretted away the rock with a file, and dug a hole under the wall, through which, at the proper time, he meant to crawl.
"If only I knew the place fairly well," he said to himself, "if only I knew in which direction to go. But the Tatars never give themselves away."
- ↑ The speaker himself.
