Short Fiction by Leonid Andreyev (fastest ebook reader TXT) 📕

Thomas takes out his pipe:

“I am a neighbour of Philipp’s, of that man there⁠—” he points at the curtain. “Yes, yes, you all know that I am his neighbour. And if anybody does not know it⁠—I’ll say it again, as in a court of justice: I am his neighbour⁠—I live right next to him⁠—” he turns to the window.

An elderly fisherman enters and forces himself silently into the line.

“Well, Tibo?” asks the abbot, stopping.

“Nothing.”

“Haven’t you found Haggart?”

“No. It is so foggy that they are afraid of losing themselves. They walk and call each other; some of them hold each other by the hand. Even a lantern can’t be seen ten feet away.”

The abbot lowers his head and resumes his pacing. The old fisherman speaks, without addressing anyone in particular.

“There are many ships now staring helplessly in the sea.”

“I walked like a blind man,” says Tibo. “I heard the Holy Cross ringing. But it seems as if it changed its place. The sound comes from the left side.”

“The fog is deceitful.”

Old Desfoso says:

“This never happened here. Since Dugamel broke Jack’s head with a shaft. That was thirty⁠—forty years ago.”

“What did you say, Desfoso?” the abbot stops.

“I say, since Dugamel broke Jack’s head⁠—”

“Yes, yes!” says the abbot, and resumes pacing the room.

“Then Dugamel threw himself into the sea from a rock and was dashed to death⁠—that’s how it happened. He threw himself down.”

Mariet shudders and looks at the speaker with hatred. Silence.

“What did you say, Thomas?”

Thomas takes his pipe out of his mouth.

“Nothing. I only said that someone knocked at my window.”

“You don’t know who?”

“No. And you will never know. I came out, I looked⁠—and there Philipp was sitting at his door. I wasn’t surprised⁠—Philipp often roamed about at night ever since⁠—”

He stops irresolutely. Mariet asks harshly:

“Since when? You said ‘since.’ ”

Silence. Desfoso replies frankly and heavily:

“Since your Haggart came. Go ahead, Thomas, tell us about it.”

“So I said to him: ‘Why did you knock, Philipp? Do you want anything?’ But he was silent.”

“And he was silent?”

“He was silent. ‘If you don’t want anything, you had better go to sleep, my friend,’ said I. But he was silent. Then I looked at him⁠—his throat was cut open.”

Mariet shudders and looks at the speaker with aversion. Silence. Another fisherman enters, looks at the curtain and silently forces his way into the crowd. Women’s voices are heard behind the door; the abbot stops.

“Eh, Lebon! Chase the women away,” he says. “Tell them, there is nothing for them to do here.”

Lebon goes out.

“Wait,” the abbot stops. “Ask how the mother is feeling; Selly is taking care of her.”

Desfoso says:

“You say, chase away the women, abbot? And your daughter? She is here.”

The abbot looks at Mariet. She says:

“I am not going away from here.”

Silence. The abbot paces the room again; he looks at the little ship fastened to the ceiling and asks:

“Who made it?”

All look at the little ship.

“He,” answers Desfoso. “He made it when he wanted to go to America as a sailor. He was always asking me how a three-masted brig is fitted out.”

They look at the ship again, at its perfect little sails⁠—at the little rags. Lebon returns.

“I don’t know how to tell you about it, abbot. The women say that Haggart and his sailor are being led over here. The women are afraid.”

Mariet shudders and looks at the door; the abbot pauses.

“Oho, it is daybreak already, the fog is turning blue!” says one fisherman to another, but his voice breaks off.

“Yes. Low tide has started,” replies the other dully.

Silence. Then uneven footsteps resound. Several young fishermen with excited faces bring in Haggart, who is bound, and push Khorre in after him, also bound. Haggart is calm; as soon as the sailor was bound, something wildly free appeared in his movements, in his manners, in the sharpness of his swift glances.

One of the men who brought Haggart says to the abbot in a low voice:

“He was near the church. Ten times we passed by and saw no one, until he called: ‘Aren’t you looking for me?’ It is so foggy, father.”

The abbot shakes his head silently and sits down. Mariet smiles to her husband with her pale lips, but he does not look at her. Like all the others, he has fixed his eyes in amazement on the toy ship.

“Hello, Haggart,” says the abbot.

“Hello, father.”

“You call me father?”

“Yes, you.”

“You are mistaken, Haggart. I am not your father.”

The fishermen exchanged glances contentedly.

“Well, then. Hello, abbot,” says Haggart with indifference, and resumes examining the little ship. Khorre mutters:

“That’s the way, be firm, Noni.”

“Who made this toy?” asks Haggart, but no one replies.

“Hello, Gart!” says Mariet, smiling. “It is I, your wife, Mariet. Let me untie your hands.”

With a smile, pretending that she does not notice the stains of blood, she unfastens the ropes. All look at her in silence. Haggart also looks at her bent, alarmed head.

“Thank you,” he says, straightening his hands.

“It would be a good thing to untie my hands, too,” said Khorre, but there is no answer.

Abbot⁠—Haggart, did you kill Philipp?

Haggart⁠—I.

Abbot⁠—Do you mean to say⁠—eh, you, Haggart⁠—that you yourself killed him with your own hands? Perhaps you said to the sailor: “Sailor, go and kill Philipp,” and he did it, for he loves you and respects you as his superior? Perhaps it happened that way! Tell me, Haggart. I called you my son, Haggart.

Haggart⁠—No, I did not order the sailor to do it. I killed Philipp with my own hand.

Silence.

Khorre⁠—Noni! Tell them to unfasten my hands and give me back my pipe.

“Don’t be in a hurry,” roars the priest. “Be bound awhile, drunkard! You had better be afraid of an untied rope⁠—it may be formed into a noose.”

But obeying a certain swift movement or glance of Haggart, Mariet walks over to the sailor and opens the knots of the rope. And again all look in silence upon her bent, alarmed head. Then they turn their eyes upon Haggart. Just as they looked at the little ship