Chapter 124 Part Three - Twenty

When Nekhludoff woke up, the coachmen were already on their way.The proprietress had had enough tea, wiped her thick sweaty neck with her handkerchief, and went into the room to say that a letter had come from a soldier at the station.The letter was written by Shekinina.She said that Kryltzoff's attack was more severe than they had expected. "We once wanted to keep him, and stayed with him ourselves, but we didn't get permission. We took him on the road, but we were afraid that something would happen to him on the road. Please go to the city to clear it up. If you can let him stay, One of us will also stay with him. If it requires me to marry him, then I will."

Nekhludoff sent the waiter to the post station to call for a carriage, and hastened to pack himself.He hadn't finished his second cup of tea when a trio of post-coaches with bells came to the gate.The wheels of the stage-coach rolled on the frozen mud as they rumbled on the stone pavement.Nekhludoff paid the thick-necked landlady, hurried out, sat down on the padded seat of the carriage, and told the coachman to drive as fast as he could, intent on overtaking the prisoners.He was not far from the gate of the ranch, and he caught up with their cart.Carts, carrying bags and patients, rumbled across the frozen mud.The escort officer was not here, he rushed to the front.The soldiers had obviously been drinking, chatted enthusiastically, followed the convoy, and walked on both sides of the road.There are many vehicles.The carts ahead were crowded with six criminals each.Three people were sitting in each of the carts at the back, all of whom were political prisoners.In the last wagon sat Novodvorov, Grabetz, and Marchay.In the penultimate car were Emilia, Nabatov, and a frail woman suffering from rheumatism.Shekinina gave her her seat.The third from the bottom was covered with hay and pillows, and Kryltzov was lying on it.Sekinina sat next to him on the driver's seat.Nekhludoff ordered the coachman to stop beside Kryltzov and went up to him himself.A drunken escort waved to Nekhludoff, but Nekhludoff ignored him, walked up to the wagon, took hold of the wagon's wooden posts, and walked beside it.Kryltzov looked even thinner and paler in his earthen coat, lambskin cap, and a handkerchief around his mouth.His fine eyes looked bigger and brighter.He swayed a little on the cart, his eyes fixed on Nekhludoff.Nekhludoff asked him about his health, but he closed his eyes and shook his head angrily.All his energies were evidently consumed by the jolting of the cart.Shekinina sat on the other side of the cart.She gave Nekhludoff a meaningful look, expressing her concern about Kryltzov's situation, and then began to speak in a cheerful voice.

"The officer must be ashamed," she said aloud, so that Nekhludoff could hear her over the rumbling wheels. "They removed the handcuffs from Buzovkin. Now he is carrying his daughter. Katyusha and Simonson are with them. Vera has taken my place and is with them." Kryltzov said something, pointing to Serkinina, but no one heard him.He frowned, apparently trying to hold back a cough, and shook his head.Nekhludoff leaned his head closer to hear what he said.Then Kryltzoff poked his mouth out of his handkerchief and made a general review for the first time, expressing his critical attitude towards Hegel and Feuerbach, and murmured:

"It's much better now. As long as you don't catch a cold." Nekhludoff nodded affirmatively, and exchanged a look with Sekinina. "Oh, what about the three celestial bodies?" Kryltzoff murmured again, with a wry smile. "It's not easy to solve, is it?" Nekhludoff did not understand what he said, so Sekinina explained to him that this was originally a famous mathematical problem to determine the relationship between the three celestial bodies, the sun, the moon and the earth. Kryltzov joked that Nekhludoff , Katyusha and Simonsson's relationship to that question.Kryltzov nodded, indicating that Sekinina had correctly interpreted his joke.

"The solution to this problem is not mine," said Nekhludoff. "Have you received my letter? Will you do it?" asked Sekinina. "I will do it," said Nekhludoff.Noticing that Kryltzoff's face was a little unhappy, he went back to his carriage, sat down on the sunken seat, and put his hands on the sides of the carriage, which was jolting violently because of the rough road.He began to chase the procession of prisoners in prison robes, shackles and double handcuffs.The procession stretched for a mile long.On the other side of the road Nekhludoff recognized Katyusha's blue kerchief, Vera's black overcoat, and Simonson's jacket, wool cap, and white woolen socks with strings.Simonson walked beside the women, talking vigorously.

The women nodded to Nekhludoff when they saw him, and Simonsson raised his hat politely.Nekhludoff had nothing to say to them, so he drove straight ahead of them without stopping.His carriage came to the strong road again, and went much faster, but in order to overtake, it had to leave the road from time to time, go around the long convoy and rush to the front. The rutted road leads to a dark coniferous forest.On both sides of the road, the birches and larch have not fallen their leaves yet, showing a dazzling earthy yellow.Halfway through the road, the woods disappeared, and the road was surrounded by fields, and the golden crosses and domes of the monastery appeared.The weather cleared, the clouds cleared, and the sun rose high above the woods, and the wet leaves, the pools, the cupolas, and the crosses of the church all shone brightly in its light.On the right front, in the gray sky, there are distant mountains in white.Nekhludoff's troika came to a large village on the outskirts of the city.The village streets are full of people: Russians, and minorities in weird hats and costumes.Men and women, drunk and sober, thronged the shops, restaurants, taverns, and wagons, clamoring.The city is clearly not far away.

The coachman gave the horse on the right a whip, tightened the reins, and sat sideways on the driver's seat so that the reins could be retracted to the right.Evidently wanting to show off his skills, he drove the carriage through the street at full speed, without slowing down, until he reached the ferry by the river.At this time, the ferry boat was in the middle of the fast-flowing river, coming from there.At this ferry there were about twenty carts waiting to cross.Nekhludoff did not wait long.The ferry rowed far upstream, was washed down again by the rapids, and soon approached the pier made of wooden boards.

The boatmen were all tall, broad-shouldered, and muscular.Wearing sheepskin jackets and high boots, silently, they threw out the cable skillfully, put it on the wooden stakes, lowered the boat plank, let the vehicles parked on the boat go ashore, loaded the waiting vehicles on the boat, and let the ferry boat load the boat. Full of vehicles and horses.The wide, swift water beat against the sides of the ferry, straining the cables.When the ferry was full of passengers, Nekhludoff's cart and unloaded horses stopped beside the ferry, crowded by surrounding carts. , untied the cable and sailed.There was silence on the ferry, but the heavy footsteps of the boatman and the sound of the horses changing hoofs and clattering the boards could be heard.