been lit, two armed Cossacks stood as sentries at the door, and the
preliminary investigation had begun. The Chief of Police sat at the
table and wrote rapidly on a sheet of foolscap. The investigation showed
that two shots had been fired from a revolver, and two bullets were
found imbedded in the wall. All those who had been present, and some who
knew nothing of the incident except by hearsay, were duly examined. Our
opponents always assumed that my friend had been the assailant, in
spite of his protestations to the contrary, and more than once the
words pokyshenie na ubiistvo (attempt to murder) were pronounced. Things
looked very black indeed. We had the prospect of being detained for days
and weeks in the miserable place, till the insatiable demon of official
formality had been propitiated. And then?

When things were thus at their blackest they suddenly took an unexpected
turn, and the deus ex machina appeared precisely at the right moment,
just as if we had all been puppets in a sensation novel. There was
the usual momentary silence, and then, mixed with the sound of an
approaching tarantass, a confused murmur: "There he is! He is coming!"
The "he" thus vaguely and mysteriously indicated turned out to be an
official of the judicial administration, who had reason to visit the
village for an entirely different affair. As soon as he had been told
briefly what had happened he took the matter in hand and showed himself
equal to the occasion. Unlike the majority of Russian officials he
disliked lengthy procedure, and succeeded in making the case quite clear
in a very short time. There had been, he perceived, no attempt to murder
or anything of the kind. The station-keeper and his two post-boys, who
had no right to be in the traveller's room, had entered with threatening
mien, and when they refused to retire peaceably, my friend had fired
two shots in order to frighten them and bring assistance. The falsity of
their statement that he had fired at them as they entered the room was