dwellers there. Makar is my name and they call me Semenov."
Then Aksenov raised his head and spoke: "Tell me now, Semenov, hast thou heard in the city of Vladimir of the Aksenovs, merchants. Are they alive?"
"I couldn't help hearing. They are rich merchants, although their father is in Siberia. There are sinners there you see like us. And thou also, old father, what art thou here for?"
Aksenov didn't like to tell of his misfortune, so he sighed and said, "For my sin's sake I have been at hard labour for twenty-six years."
"But for what sort of sins?" asked Makar.
"For such as merit this punishment," said Aksenov, and would say no more; but the other prisoners told how Aksenov had come to be in Siberia. They told him how someone on the road had murdered a merchant and palmed the knife off on to Aksenov, and how he was unjustly condemned for that deed.
When Makar heard this he looked at Aksenov, clapped his hands on his knees and said, "Wonderful! This is indeed wonderful! And thou hast grown old beneath it, little father!"
They began to ask him what he was so surprised at, and where he had seen Aksenov, but Makar answered not; he only said, "Children, children, such meetings are wondrous strange." And at these words the thought entered Aksenov's mind: What if this man knows who killed the merchant? And he said, "Hast thou heard of this matter before, Semenov, or hast thou seen me before to-day?"
238
