An passing lean very little peasant, during a stripy fibrous shirt and patched drawers, stands facing the work justice. His face overgrown with hair and faveolate with variola, and his eyes scarcely visible underneath thick, overhanging eyebrows have Associate in Nursing expression of sullen moroseness. On his head there's an ideal mop of tangled, unkempt hair, which provides him an excellent additional spider-like air of moroseness. he's barefooted.
"Denis Grigoryev!" the justice begins. "Come nearer, and answer my queries. On the seventh of this Gregorian calendar month the railway watcher, Ivan Semyonovitch Akinfov, going on the road within the morning, found you at the hundred-and-forty-first mile engaged in unscrewing a nut by that the rails are created quick to the sleepers. Here it is, the nut!... With the same nut he detained you. Was that so?"
"Wha-at?"
"Was this all as Akinfov states?"
"To make certain, it was."
"Very good; well, what were you unscrewing the nut for?"
"Wha-at?"
"Drop that 'wha-at' and answer the question; what were you unscrewing the nut for?"
"If I hadn't wished it I shouldn't have unscrewed it," croaks Denis, viewing the ceiling.
"What did you wish that nut for?"
"The nut? we tend to create weights out of these loco for our lines."
"Who is 'we'?"
"We, people.... The Klimovo peasants, that is."
"Listen, my man; don't play the simple to Maine, however speak sanely. It's no use telling lies here regarding weights!"
"I've ne'er been a trickster from a baby, and currently I'm telling lies..." mutters Denis, blinking. "But are you able to do while not a weight, your honour? If you place live bait or maggots on a hook, wouldn't it attend the underside while not a weight?... i'm telling lies," grins Denis.... "What the devil is that the use of the worm if it swims on the surface! The perch and therefore the pike and the eel-pout forever attend the underside, and a bait on the surface is just taken by a shillisper, not fairly often then, and there are not any shillispers in our watercourse.... That fish likes lots of space."
"Why are you telling Maine regarding shillispers?"
"Wha-at? Why, you asked Maine yourself! The upper crust catch fish that means too in our elements. The silliest very little boy wouldn't try and catch a fish while not a weight. in fact anyone World Health Organization failed to perceive would possibly attend fish while not a weight. there's no rule for a fool."
"So you say you unscrewed this nut to form a weight for your cord out of it?"
"What else for? It wasn't to play knuckle-bones with!"
"But you would possibly have taken lead, a bullet... a nail of some type...."
"You don't acquire lead within the road, you have got to shop for it, and a nail's no sensible. You can't notice something higher than a nut.... It's significant, and there's a hole in it."
"He keeps simulation to be a fool! like he'd been born yesterday or born from heaven! Don't you perceive, you loggerhead, what unscrewing these loco leads to? If the watcher had not detected it the train might need flee the rails, individuals would are killed—you would have killed people."
"God forbid, your honour! What ought to I kill them for? Are we tend to heathens or wicked people? impart God, sensible gentlemen, we've lived all our lives while not ever dreaming of such a issue.... Save, and have mercy on America, Queen of Heaven!... What are you saying?"
"And what does one suppose railway accidents do come back from? Unscrew 2 or 3 loco Associate in Nursingd you have got an accident."
Denis grins, and screws up his eye at the justice unbelievingly.
"Why! what percentage years have we tend to beat the village been unscrewing loco, and therefore the Lord has been merciful; and you verbalise accidents, killing individuals. If I had over excited a rail or place a log across the road, say, then perhaps it would have upset the train, but... pouf! a nut!"
"But you want to perceive that the nut holds the rail quick to the sleepers!"
"We perceive that.... we tend to don't unscrew all... we tend to leave some.... we tend to don't know unthinking... we tend to perceive...."
Denis yawns and makes the sign of the cross over his mouth.
"Last year the train went off the rails here," says the justice. "Now I see why!"
"What does one say, your honour?"
"I am telling you that currently I see why the train went off the rails last year.... I understand!"
"That's what you're educated individuals for, to know, you kind gentlemen. The Lord is aware of to whom to grant understanding.... Here you have got reasoned however and what, however the watcher, a peasant like ourselves, with no understanding the least bit, catches one by the collar and hauls one on.... you ought to reason initial and so haul Maine off. It's an adage that a peasant encompasses a peasant's wit.... Write down, too, your honour, that he hit Maine twice—in the jaw and within the chest."
"When your hut was searched they found another nut.... At what spot did you unscrew that, and when?"
"You mean the nut that lay underneath the red box?"
"I don't grasp wherever it had been lying, solely it had been found. once did you unscrew it?"
"I didn't unscrew it; Ignashka, the son of eyed Semyon, gave it me. I mean the one that was underneath the box, however the one that was within the sledge in the yard Mitrofan and that i unscrewed along."
"What Mitrofan?"
"Mitrofan Petrov.... Haven't you detected of him? He makes nets in our village and sells them to the upper crust. He desires plenty of these loco. Reckon a matter of 10 for every internet."
"Listen. Article 1081 of the legal code lays down that each wilful injury of the railway line committed once it will expose the traffic on it line to danger, and therefore the perpetrator is aware of that Associate in Nursing accident should be caused by it... (Do you understand? Knows! And you may not facilitate knowing what this unscrewing would cause...) is vulnerable to penal bondage."
"Of course, you recognize best.... we tend to are ignorant individuals.... What will we understand?"
"You perceive all regarding it! you're lying, shamming!"
"What ought to I lie for? request the village if you don't believe Maine. solely a bleak is caught while not a weight, and there's no fish worse than a gudgeon, nevertheless even that won't bite while not a weight."
"You'd higher tell Maine regarding the shillisper next," same the justice, smiling.
"There are not any shillispers in our elements.... we tend to forged our line while not a weight on the highest of the water with a butterfly; a mullet is also caught that means, although that's hardly ever."
"Come, hold your tongue."
A silence follows. Denis shifts from one foot to the opposite, appearance at the table with the inexperienced textile thereon, and blinks his eyes violently like what was before him wasn't the fabric however the sun. The justice writes apace.
"Can I go?" asks Denis once an extended silence.
"No. i have to take you underneath guard and send you to jail."
Denis leaves off blinking and, raising his thick eyebrows, appearance enquiringly at the justice.
"How does one mean, to prison? Your honour! i've got no time to spare, i have to attend the fair; i have to get 3 roubles from Yegor for a few tallow!..."
"Hold your tongue; don't interrupt."
"To jail.... If there was one thing to travel for, I'd go; however simply to travel for nothing! What for? I haven't purloined something, I believe, and I've not been fighting.... If you're unsure regarding the arrears, your honour, don't believe the elder.... You raise the agent... he's a daily heathen, the elder, you know."
"Hold your tongue."
"I am holding my tongue, as it is," mutters Denis; "but that the elder has song over the account, I'll take my oath for it.... There are 3 people brothers: Kuzma Grigoryev, then Yegor Grigoryev, and me, Denis Grigoryev."
"You are preventative Maine.... Hey, Semyon," cries the justice, "take him away!"
"There are 3 people brothers," mutters Denis, as 2 stalwart troopers take him and lead him out of the space. "A brother isn't accountable for a brother. Kuzma doesn't pay, so you, Denis, should account it.... Judges indeed! Our master the overall is dead—the Kingdom of Heaven be his—or he would have shown you judges.... You must decide sanely, not every which way.... Flog if you prefer, however flog somebody World Health Organization deserves it, flog with conscience."
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