I should soon have lost the party to which I had attached myself, and among which I had now made a few acquaintances, had it not been for the kindness of an officer who, seeing me fall repeatedly, told off a soldier specially to guide my wandering footsteps. I made the acquaintance of this soldier in deepest night, and I never saw him by daylight, so that I am to this day in ignorance of his appearance, but he seemed to be a bright, quick-witted young fellow. At first I used to lose him frequently, but then I noticed that the sharp top of his " bashleek," or the detachable hood of grey felt, which he wore over his head, pointed upwards at a slightly different angle to the others, and also that there was a peculiar glint in the tin can he wore at his belt, for it is extraordinary how expert one becomes in detecting these infinitesimal points of difference when it is almost a matter of life or death for him to notice them. The fraternally authoritative way in which he used to say to me: "Come along now, 'golubcheek' (little pigeon)! come along, ' bratetz ' (comrade)! " when I had fallen behind or had continued to rest after the order to advance had been given, touched my heart like the embrace of a mother.
This mysterious soldier, whom I shall call " the Man in the Bashleek," was very quick at finding the way, at circumventing obstacles, at helping his officers; and he was not, I am sure, told off to watch me as a prisoner, for he always walked in front, and I could easily have escaped him at any time. I was very glad to keep close to him, however, for had I fallen into the hands of some strange detachment I might have fared badly. He asked me once if I was a barin (gentleman), and expressed his amazement at my not having remained behind in Mukden. I was just as amazed myself.
I was carrying on my arm (for, though the night was cold, the walking had heated me) a very heavy furlined overcoat, under the weight of which I frequently stumbled; and, perceiving this, a soldier kindly took the coat from me, saying, " Give it to me> O little brother (brateeshka)." For hours after, I was selfish enough to watch him staggering and tumbling under the weight of that unwieldy garment, but when dawn came, he and the ulster had both disappeared. Whether he had heroically fallen by the wayside still clutching that fatal coat or had wisely dropped it I cannot say; but at such a time it was more than kind of him to carry it at all.
Of course we had thrown out no scouts and, at any moment, we might walk into the gates of death.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
Before us was night, cruel night, inscrutable as the woman on whose forehead was mystery. Every tree, every shape was big with menace. A stray dog once caused a panic in which several of our soldiers shot each other.
There was some light from the stars, and more, for a short time, from a burning village far in front. Some miles in advance of us, rifle-fire continued at intervals until near dawn. We seemed to be continually knocking up against lost columns like ourselves, armed bands marching towards all points of the compass, moving like wandering comets in the abyss of night. Some of our men were always killed on these occasions, for each party mistook the other for the enemy and commenced firing. It was not till the wounded began to shriek in Russian that the mistake was discovered. A few of our men, who were most certainly insane, had to be forcibly made to cease firing, but their weapons were not taken from them. In one of these wandering columns Soi'kin met his brother and went away with him, for none of these other lost battalions ever joined us. They had always some mysterious destination of their own. And yet, in the long run, we all reached the same sad goal.
Out of that impenetrable night there loomed up at intervals in front of us a mysterious figure on a white horse, but, though we called to it, it did not come closer, nor did it go away until we fired at it when it suddenly disappeared, the horse galloping wildly like a steed that is riderless. I reflected, with a sudden spasm of horror which made me sweat, that it might be the frozen equestrian corpse of the young Siberian officer who had given me a cigarette at the railway embankment some hours before. If this was so, our doomed column was being led on by Death itself.
Once, while we were all resting for a moment, I had just thrown myself down flat on my back when I caught sight in the zenith above me of a great star that fell from heaven, burning as it were a lamp. This grand celestial phenomenon at once recalled to my mind the obscure and terrible prophecies of the Apocalypse; and the soldiers seemed to be similarly affected, for they said it was the track of an angel flying to receive a departing spirit.