farm, had killed the master and his wife, and had set fire to the
house.

And on their farm, too, they lived in fear; the dogs were loose, not
only at night, but also during the day, and the master slept with a
gun by his side. He wished to give such a gun to Yanson, only it was
an old one with one barrel. But Yanson turned the gun about in his
hand, shook his head and declined it. His master did not understand
the reason and scolded him, but the reason was that Yanson had more
faith in the power of his Finnish knife than in the rusty gun.

"It would kill me," he said, looking at his master sleepily with his
glassy eyes, and the master waved his hand in despair.

"You fool! Think of having to live with such workmen!"

And this same Ivan Yanson, who distrusted a gun, one winter evening,
when the other workmen had been sent away to the station, committed a
very complicated attempt at robbery, murder and rape. He did it in a
surprisingly simple manner. He locked the cook in the kitchen, lazily,
with the air of a man who is longing to sleep, walked over to his
master from behind and swiftly stabbed him several times in the back
with his knife. The master fell unconscious, and the mistress began to
run about, screaming, while Yanson, showing his teeth and brandishing
his knife, began to ransack the trunks and the chests of drawers. He
found the money he sought, and then, as if noticing the mistress for
the first time, and as though unexpectedly even to himself, he rushed
upon her in order to violate her. But as he had let his knife drop to
the floor, the mistress proved stronger than he, and not only did not
allow him to harm her, but almost choked him into unconsciousness.