230

p In which Lieutenant Govorukha-Otrok hears the
roar of the doomed planet, and the author dodges
the responsibility of ending the story

p For three days Maryutka and the lieutenant did not speak to each other.

p But it is hard for two people alone on a desert island to avoid each other.

231

p And then, spring was in the air.

p Spring arrived all of a sudden, in a rush of heat. The thin crust of ice covering the island had given way under the blows of spring’s little golden hoofs some time before. Now the beach was a soft canary yellow against the thick blue glass of the sea.

p At noon the sand was hot to the touch.

p The sun rolled up into the sky like a wheel of gold, polished by warm breezes.

p The two people on the island were weak from the sun, from the breezes, and from the scurvy that had begun to torture them.

p This was no time to quarrel.

p From morning to night they would lie in the sand of the beach, their inflamed eyes fixed on the blue glass, searching it for signs of a rsail.

p “I can’t stand it any longer,” Maryutka once moaned in desperation. “If the fishermen don’t come in three days, I swear I’ll put a bullet through my head.”

p The lieutenant gave a little whistle.

p “I thought I was the spineless one. Patience, Maryutka, you’ll be a big chief yet. That’s all you’re good for—to be a chief of a robber band.”

p “Why do you have to bring it up all over again? Can’t you let bygones be bygones? It’s true I got angry, but I had good cause to. It hurt to find you were so no-good. Hurt,awful. You’ve wormed yourself into my heart to my own ruin, damn you, you blue-eyed devil!”

p The lieutenant burst out laughing, falling on his back in the sand and kicking his feet in the air.

p “What’s wrong? Are you crazy?" asked Maryutka.

p The lieutenant went on laughing.

p “Hey, fat-head, can’t you answer?”

p But the lieutenant did not stop until Maryutka 232 gave him a punch in the ribs. Then he got up and wiped the tears off his lashes. “What you roaring at?”

p “You’re a rare specimen, Maria Filatovna! You’d cheer anybody up. You’d make even the dead dance.”

p “Why not? Or do you think it’s better to go round in circles like a log in a whirlpool, neither coming to one side, nor to the other—making yourself dizzy and other people sick?”

p Again the lieutenant burst out laughing, and he slapped Maryutka on the back.

p “All glory to you, queen of the Amazons! My good man Friday! You’ve turned the world upside down for me, Maryutka! You’ve poured the elixir of life into my veins! I don’t want to go whirling round any more like a log in a whirlpool, to borrow your expressive simile. I can see for myself that it’s too soon for me to go back to my books. I’ve got to see some more of life first, got to bare my teeth, got to bite like a wolf so that others will be afraid of my fangs.”

p “What? Do you really mean you’ve come to your senses!”

p “That I have, dear girl! I’ve come to my senses! Thanks for teaching me a thing or two. If we bury ourselves in our books at a time like this and let you do what you like with this old earth of ours, there’ll be hell to pay. No, my dear little Amazon, it’s too soon to—" He broke off with a gasp.

p The ultramarine orbs were fixed on the horizon and flames of joy were dancing in them.

p He pointed out to sea and said in a quiet, trembling voice: 

p “A sail.”

p Maryutka leaped up as if a spring had been released and stared in the direction of his finger. 233 She saw a little white spark fluttering, quivering— a sail shaken by the wind.

p She pressed her hands to her breast and feasted her eyes on the sight, unable to believe in the reality of this long-awaited moment.

p The lieutenant jumped up and down beside her, seized her hands, tore them away from her breast, swung her in circles about him.

p He did a dance in the sand, kicking up his thin legs and singing in strident tones:

p Whitely gleams a lonely sail
Upon an azure sea—-
Tra-la-la! tra-la-la!
Fiddledy, diddledy-dee!

p “Stop it, you idiot!" laughed Maryutka happily.

p “Maryutka! My darling girl! My queen of the Amazons! We’re saved! We’re saved!”

p “See, you’ve got the longing to get back to the world of humans, too, haven’t you?”

p “I have, I have! I just told you so, didn’t I?”

p “Wait—we’ve got to let them know; we’ve got to signal.”

p “Why? They’re headed here.”

p “What if they turn off to another island! There’s millions of them. They may pass us by. Bring a rifle from the shanty.”

p The lieutenant rushed off. In a minute he came back throwing the rifle into the air and catching it.

p “Don’t fool with that thing! Fire three shots into the air!" called out Maryutka.

p The lieutenant put the butt to his shoulder. Three shots shattered the glassy stillness, and each shot almost felled him. Only then did he realise how weak he had become.

p Now the sail was plainly visible. Yellowish-pink, it skimmed over the water like the wing of a bird of good omen.

234

p “What sort of a boat is it?" murmured Maryutka, staring at it intently. “Too big for a fishing smack.”

p Evidently those in the boat had heard the shots. The sail quivered and veered to the other side, and the boat, heeling well over, made straight for shore.

p “Must be a boat belonging to some fishery inspector or other, but why should they be sailing this time of year?" asked Maryutka.

p When the boat was about four hundred feet away it turned and a man’s form appeared in the bow. Cupping his hands round his mouth, he called to them.

p The lieutenant started, strained forward, threw down the rifle, and in two leaps was at the water’s edge. He stretched out his arms and shouted in a frenzy of joy:

p “Hoo-ray! Our men! Good lads! Hurry up!”

p Maryutka peered intently at the boat and saw— gold bars gleaming on the shoulders of the man standing in the bow.

p She fluttered like a frightened bird, then stiffened.

p Memory flashed a picture before her eyes:

p Ice . .. blue water .. . the face of Yevsukov. His words: "If you run foul of the Whites, don’t give him up alive.”

p She gasped, bit her lip, snatched up the rifle.

p “Back, you damned White Guard!" she shouted in despair. "Back, I tell you!”

p The lieutenant went on waving his arms, standing ankle-deep in the sea.

p Suddenly from behind him came the deafening blast of the planet, shattered by fire and storm. Instinctively he leaped aside to escape catastrophe. The blast of the dying world was the last sound his ears ever heard.

p Maryutka looked at him.

235

p His head was lying in the water. Red streams from his shattered skull were dissolving in the liquid glass.

p She ran forward and knelt beside him. Dropping her rifle, she tore at the collar of her tunic. She tugged at the limp form, tried to lift the mangled head. Suddenly she collapsed on the body.

p “Oh, what have I done? Look at me, sweet! Open your dear blue eyes!”

p Just then the boat ground up on the sand, and its occupants stared dumbfounded at the girl and the man.

p Translated by Margaret Wettlin

236

p An abolition-of-illiteracy circle for adults

p Anatoly Lunacharsky and Maxim Gorky

The Decree on Peace, one of the first decrees of the new government, was passed unanimously by the All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Deputies on October 26,1917

237 238 239 £>.< M3BKTW 240 M» •*••»• 0 MNpti COflMTCKMXV N KpKTMNCKNXfc 29 onm6pii 1917 f•