3. Little Maroussia

Everyone having gone, the mistress of the house went into another room.

“Is there any way of reaching Tchigurine?” asked the-traveler. He lowered his voice involuntarily in asking this question, as will happen where we feel that danger may be nearer than we wish to think.

“It must be difficult,” answered Danilo, also lowering instinctively his voice.

His two friends said nothing, but they blew out two large puffs of smoke from their pipes and knitted their heavy eyebrows.

This expressed without words, but very clearly, that they were of the same opinion as Danilo. The traveler looked for a moment upon the impassive face of Danilo, then upon the faces, no less impassive, of his two friends. One look alone of his piercing eyes was sufficient to tell them what an acquaintance he had had with peril, how he despised danger, and also, what skill he possessed, when necessary, in guarding against the blows which chance might inflict upon him.

This silent confidence established,—“Nevertheless,” said he, “it is necessary that I go there, and by the shortest and most direct route.”

‘‘Directly to Tchigurine!” exclaimed Andry Krouk; “just now a crow itself couldn’t fly there.”

“Is it very far?” asked the traveler.

“The length of the journey matters little to him who has good legs, if the road is good,” said Semène Vorochilo; “but were the road very short, it would be of no use to you if impassable.”

While speaking these words, Semène Vorochilo looked fixedly into the eyes of the traveler.

“We travelers,” answered the unknown, “are not always free to choose the road which is most pleasant. For want of a good, we must content ourselves with a poor one. But what does it matter; when it is certain that we ought to go to a place, we must not hesitate. We are very fortunate if we can procure a guide, faithful and sure. I will not hide from you, honorable sirs, that it has happened to me more than once to meet, at the moment when I least expected it, the brave heart, the vigorous arm, and tireless feet of which I had need.”

At these words of the stranger, Danilo and his two friends raised their heads.

“You speak the truth, honorable traveler,” answered Danilo; “a brave and devoted companion is worth all the treasure of the world.” “Brave hearts are not lacking in Ukraine,” said Andry Krouk, “In this respect I can say no country surpasses ours.”

“Well answered, Krouk,” said Danilo. “The Poles may boast of having intrepid nobles, the Turks of magnificent sultans, the Russians of brave and skillful men. As to us, we affirm one thing which is worth all the others; it is that we are brothers, neither more nor less.”

“Almost without an exception, you are right,” answered the traveler.