Feódor flew to the cottage.... The man whom Naúm was holding suddenly ceased his resistance....
"So, evidently, 't is not enough for thee to have taken my wife and my money, and my house, but thou art bent on destroying me also,"--he said in a dull tone....
"So 't is thou, dear little dove,"--said he;--"good, just wait a bit!"
"Let me go,"--said Akím.--"Art not thou satisfied?"
"See here, to-morrow I 'll show you in the presence of the judge how satisfied I am...." And Naúm tightened his hold on Akím....
The labourers ran up with two lanterns and some ropes.... "Bind him!"--ordered Naúm, sharply.... The labourers seized Akím, lifted him up, and bound his hands behind him.... One of them was beginning to swear, but on recognising the former landlord of the inn, he held his peace, and merely exchanged glances with the others.
"Just see there, see there, now,"--Naúm kept repeating the while, as he passed the lantern along the ground;--"yonder, there are coals in a pot; just look, he has brought a whole firebrand in the pot--we must find out where he got that pot ... and here, he has broken twigs...." And Naúm assiduously stamped out the fire with his foot.--"Search him, Feódor!"--he added, "and see whether he has anything more about him."
Feódor searched and felt Akím, who stood motionless with his head drooping on his breast, like a dead man.--"There is--here 's a knife,"--said Feódor, drawing an old kitchen-knife from Akím's breast.
"Ehe, my dear fellow, so that 's what thou hadst in mind!"--exclaimed Naúm.--"You are witnesses, my lads--see there, he intended to cut my throat, to burn up my house.... Lock him up in the cellar until morning; he can't get out of there.... I will stand watch all night myself, and to-morrow at dawn we will take him to the chief of police .... and you are witnesses, do you hear...."
They thrust Akím into the cellar, and slammed the door behind him.... Naúm stationed two of the labourers there, and did not lie down to sleep himself.
In the meantime, Efrém's wife, having convinced herself that her unbidden guest had taken himself off, was on the point of beginning her cooking, although it was hardly daylight out of doors as yet. She squatted down by the oven to get some coals, and saw that some one had already raked out the live embers thence; then she bethought herself of her knife--and did not find it; in conclusion, one of her four pots was missing. Efrém's wife bore the reputation of being anything but a stupid woman--and with good reason. She stood for a while in thought, then went to the lumber-room to her husband. It was not easy to arouse him fully--and still more difficult was it to make him understand why he had been awakened... To everything which his wife said, Chanter Efrém made one and the same reply: