Prisoner of the Caucasus - Leo Tolstoy

Page 1 of 4

Prisoner of the Caucasus (story)

1
One gentleman served as an officer in the Caucasus. His name was Zhilin.
Once he received a letter from home. An old mother writes to him: “I have become old, and I want to see my beloved son before I die. Come to say goodbye to me, bury me, and then with God, go back to the service. And I looked for you and a bride: both smart, and good, and there is a property. If you fall in love with you, maybe you will marry and stay completely. "
Zhilin hesitated: “Indeed, the old woman has become bad; may not have to see. To go; and if the bride is good - and you can marry. "
He went to the colonel, straightened his leave, said goodbye to his comrades, put four buckets of vodka for his soldiers in goodbye and got ready to go.
There was a war in the Caucasus then. There was no passage on the roads either day or night. Few of the Russians will drive away or move away from the fortress, the Tatars will either kill or take them to the mountains. And it was established that twice a week escorting soldiers went from fortress to fortress. Soldiers are walking in front and behind, and people are riding in the middle.
It was summer. At dawn the carts gathered behind the fortress, the escorting soldiers came out and set off along the road. Zhilin rode on horseback, and the cart with his things went in the train.
The ride was twenty-five miles. The wagon train went quietly; then the soldiers will stop, then in the wagon train someone's wheel will jump off or the horse will become, and everyone is standing - waiting.
The sun had already passed in half a day, and the wagon train had passed only half of the way. Dust, heat, the sun still bakes, but there is nowhere to hide. Bare steppe, no trees, no bush along the road.
Zhilin drove forward, stopped and waited for the convoy to approach. He hears, they began to play on the horn from behind - to stand again. Zhilin thought: “Why not leave alone, without the soldiers? The horse under me is kind, if I attack the Tatars, I will gallop away. Or not to ride? .. "
He stopped, hesitated. And another officer, Kostylin, with a gun, rides up to him on horseback and says:
- Let's go, Zhilin, alone. There is no urine, I want to eat, and the heat. At least wring my shirt on. - And Kostylin is an overweight, fat man, all red, and sweat pours from him.
Zhilin thought and said:
- Is the gun loaded?
- Loaded.
- Well, let's go. Only an agreement - not to disperse.
And they drove forward along the road. They're driving by the steppe, talking and looking around. You can see far away.
As soon as the steppe ended, the road went between two mountains into the gorge, Zhilin said:
- We have to go up the mountain, have a look, or then, perhaps, jump out from behind the mountain, and you will not see.
And Kostylin says:
- What to watch? Let's go ahead.
Zhilin did not listen to him.
- No, - he says, - you wait downstairs, and I'll just take a look.
And he let the horse go to the left, up the mountain. The horse near Zhilin was a hunter's horse (he paid one hundred rubles for it in the herd with a foal and went out himself); as on the wings lifted him up the steep. He just jumped out, lo and behold - and in front of him, on a tithe of a place, there are Tatars on horseback - about thirty people.
He saw, began to turn back; and the Tatars saw him, rushed to him, and at a gallop they pulled their guns out of their cases. He let Zhilin go down the slope at all his horse's legs, shouting to Kostylin:
- Take out the gun! - and he thinks about his horse: “Mother, take it out, don't get caught with your foot, if you stumble, you're gone. I'll get to the gun, I won't give it to them. "
And Kostylin, instead of waiting, just saw the Tatars, - he rolled, which is the spirit, to the fortress. The horse is fried with a whip from one side, then from the other. Only in the dust you can see how the horse twirls its tail.
Zhilin sees that things are bad. The gun has left, you can't do anything with one saber. He let the horse back to the soldiers - he thought to leave. He sees six people being rolled across to him.
Under him, the horse is kind, but under those it is even kinder, and they even jump across the path. He began to twist, wanted to turn back, but the horse had already gone, he could not hold it, he was flying straight at them.
He sees - a Tatar on a gray horse is approaching him with a red beard. Shrieks, teeth bared, gun at the ready.
“Well,” Zhilin thinks, “I know you, devils, if they take a live person, put him in a pit, they will flog with a whip. I won't give myself up alive. "
And Zhilin, though small in stature, was daring. He snatched a saber, let the horse go straight to the red Tatar, thinking: "Either I'll kill him with a horse, or I'll cut it down with a saber."
Zhilin did not jump on the horse, they shot at him from behind with guns and hit the horse. The horse hit the ground with all its might, - Zhilina leaned on her leg.
He wanted to get up, and already on it two smelly Tartars were sitting, twisting his arms back. He rushed, threw off the Tatars, - and even three jumped from their horses on him, began to beat him on the head with rifle butts. His eyes dimmed and staggered. The Tatars grabbed him, removed the spare girths from the saddles, twisted his arms behind his back, tied him with a Tatar knot, and dragged him to the saddle. They knocked off his hat, pulled off his boots, ransacked everything, took out the money, took out his watch, and tore up his dress.
Zhilin looked back at his horse. She, heart, as she fell on her side, and lies, only beats with her feet - she does not reach the ground; there is a hole in the head, and black blood is whistling from the hole - it has moistened the dust for an arshin all around.
One Tatar went up to the horse and began to remove the saddle. She keeps beating. ”He took out his dagger and cut her throat. It whistled from my throat, fluttered - and steam out.
The Tatars took off their saddle and harness. A Tatar with a red beard sat on a horse, while others put Zhilin on his saddle; and in order not to fall, they pulled him by the belt to the Tartar's belt and took him to the mountains.
Zhilin sits at the Tatar, swaying, poking his face against the stinking Tatar back. He only sees in front of him a hefty Tatar back, and a sinewy neck, and the shaven nape of the head turns blue from under the cap. Zhilin's head is broken, blood is caked over his eyes. And he can neither get better on a horse, nor wipe off the blood. Hands are so twisted that it hurts in the collarbone.
They rode for a long time from mountain to mountain, wade the river, drove onto the road and drove down a hollow.
Zhilin wanted to notice the road where he was being taken - but his eyes were smeared with blood, but you couldn't turn around.
It began to get dark. We moved across the river, began to climb the stone mountain, the smell of smoke, the dogs roared.
We arrived at the village. The Tatars got off the horses, the Tatar guys gathered, surrounded Zhilin, squealing, rejoicing, they began to shoot stones at him.
The Tatar drove the guys away, took Zhilin off the horse and called the worker. A high-cheeked Nogay came in, in one shirt. The shirt was torn off, the whole chest was bare. The Tatar ordered something to him.
The worker brought a block: two blocks of oak are set on iron rings, and in one ring there is a punch and a lock.
They untied Zhilin's hands, put on a shoe and took him to the barn; pushed him there and locked the door. Zhilin fell on the manure. He lay down, felt in the dark, where it was softer, and lay down.

2
Almost all that night Zhilin did not sleep. The nights were short. He sees - it began to glow in the crack. Zhilin got up, dug out a larger crack, began to look.
He can see the road from the crack - it goes downhill, the Tatar saklya to the right, two trees next to it. The black dog lies on the threshold, the goat walks with the kids, twitching its tails. He sees - from under the mountain there is a young Tatar woman, in a colored shirt, unstitched, in trousers and boots, her head is covered with a caftan, and on her head is a large tin jug with water. She walks, trembles in her back, bends over, and by the hand a Tatar woman leads a shaved woman in one shirt. The Tatar went into the saklya with water, the yesterday's Tatar came out with a red beard, in a silk beshmet, a silver dagger on a belt, in shoes on bare feet. On the head is a high hat, lamb, black, folded back. He went out, stretching, stroking his red beard himself. He stood, ordered something to the worker and went somewhere.
Then two guys rode on horseback to the watering hole. Horses have wet snoring. Some more boys ran out, shaved, in some shirts, without trousers, gathered in a bunch, went to the barn, took a twig and shoved it into the crack. Zhilin will hit them as soon as possible: the guys screamed, started to run away, only their bare knees shine.
But Zhilin is thirsty, his throat is dry; thinks: "If only they came to visit." He hears - they open the shed. A red Tatar came, and with him another, smaller, blackish. The eyes are black, light, ruddy, the beard is small, trimmed; the face is cheerful, everything is laughing. The blackish one is dressed even better: a silk blue beshmet, trimmed with a galloon. A large silver dagger on a belt; shoes are red, morocco, also trimmed with silver. And on thin shoes there are other, thick shoes. High hat, white lamb.
The red Tatar entered, said something, as if he was swearing, and stood, leaning his elbows on the lintel, wiggling his dagger, like a wolf glancing sideways at Zhilin. And the blackish - fast, lively, so all on springs and walks - walked right up to Zhilin, squatted down, bared his teeth, patted him on the shoulder, began to mutter something often, often in his own way, winks with his eyes, clicks with his tongue, says everything :
- Good Urus! Good urus!
Zhilin did not understand anything and says:
- Give me some water to drink!
Black laughs.
- Korosh Urus, - everything mutters in its own way.
Zhilin showed with his lips and hands that they gave him a drink.