temples. Last of all came Von Koren and the deacon; at the deacon's
feet stood a basket of fish.

"R-r-right!" Samoylenko shouted at the top of his voice when he met
a cart or a mountaineer riding on a donkey.

"In two years' time, when I shall have the means and the people
ready, I shall set off on an expedition," Von Koren was telling the
deacon. "I shall go by the sea-coast from Vladivostok to the Behring
Straits, and then from the Straits to the mouth of the Yenisei. We
shall make the map, study the fauna and the flora, and make detailed
geological, anthropological, and ethnographical researches. It
depends upon you to go with me or not."

"It's impossible," said the deacon.

"Why?"

"I'm a man with ties and a family."

"Your wife will let you go; we will provide for her. Better still
if you were to persuade her for the public benefit to go into a
nunnery; that would make it possible for you to become a monk, too,
and join the expedition as a priest. I can arrange it for you."

The deacon was silent.

"Do you know your theology well?" asked the zoologist.

"No, rather badly."