culprit, and he repeated the word "One."

The knout had traced three blue furrows on Gregory's shoulders. Ivan
took another spring, and with the same skill as before he again enveloped
the culprit's body with the hissing thong, ever taking care that the tip
of it should not touch him. Gregory uttered another shriek, and Ivan
counted "Two." The blood now began to colour the skin.

At the third stroke several drops of blood appeared; at the fourth the
blood spurted out; at the fifth some drops spattered the young officer's
face; he drew back, and wiped them away with his handkerchief. Ivan
profited by his distraction, and counted seven instead of six: the
captain took no notice. At the ninth stroke Ivan stopped to change the
lash, and in the hope that a second fraud might pass off as luckily as
the first, he counted eleven instead of ten.

At that moment a window opposite to Vaninka's opened, and a man about
forty-five or fifty in general's uniform appeared. He called out in a
careless tone, "Enough, that will do," and closed the window again.

Immediately on this apparition the young aide-de-camp had turned towards
his general, saluting, and during the few seconds that the general was
present he remained motionless. When the window had been shut again, he
repeated the general's words, so that the raised whip fell without
touching the culprit.

"Thank his excellency, Gregory," said Ivan, rolling the knout's lash
round his hand, "for having spared you two strokes;" and he added,
bending down to liberate Gregory's hand, "these two with the two I was
able to miss out make a total of eight strokes instead of twelve. Come,