The Essential Russian Plays & Short Stories. Максим Горький
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you're too much for me.
SPERANSKY (bowing)
Good evening once more, Mr. Savva Tropinin. Mr. Anthony and myself have just been at the other end, in the cemetery. A woman was buried there to-day, so we wanted to have a look.
SAVVA
To see if she hadn't crawled out of her grave? What are you dragging him along with you for? Tony, go to bed, you can't stand on your feet.
TONY
I won't go.
SPERANSKY
Tony is very excited to-day. He sees all kinds of faces.
SAVVA
Funny faces?
TONY
Yes, funny. What else can you expect? (Sadly) Your face, Savva, is very, very funny.
SAVVA
All right, go along with you! Take him home. What are you dragging him about with you for?
SPERANSKY
Good-bye. Come along, Mr. Anthony.
[Speransky goes out. Tony follows him, looking back at Savva, and stumbling as he goes along. They disappear in the dark.
KONDRATY
It's time for us also to be going. Have you got that money at hand?
SAVVA
Yes, I have. Now listen. Sunday is the feast-day. You are to take the machine Saturday morning and plant it at night at half past eleven, four days from now. I'll show you how to do it and everything else that's necessary. Four days more. I am sick of staying in this place.
KONDRATY
And suppose I betray you?
SAVVA (darkly)
Then I'd kill you.
KONDRATY
Good heavens!
SAVVA
Now I am going to kill you if you merely try to back out. You know too much, brother.
KONDRATY
You are joking.
SAVVA
Maybe I am joking. I am such a jolly fellow. I like to laugh.
KONDRATY
When you first came here, you were gay. Tell me, Mr. Savva (looking around cautiously), did you ever kill a man, a real live man?
SAVVA
I did. I cut the throat of that rich business man I told you about.
KONDRATY (waving his hand)
Now I see that you are joking. Well, good-bye, I am going. Don't you hang around here either. The gate will soon be closed. Oh, my—I am never afraid—but just as soon as I begin to think of the hall, it's awful. There are shadows there now. Good night.
SAVVA
Good night.
[Kondraty disappears in the dark. Lightning. Savva remains leaning on the railing to stare at the white tombstones that are momentarily revealed by the flashes of lightning.
SAVVA (to the graves)
Well, you dead ones, are you going to turn over in your graves or not? For some reason I don't feel very cheerful—oh, ye dead—I don't feel the least bit cheerful. (Lightning)
CURTAIN
THE THIRD ACT
A festively decorated room with three windows to the street. One window is open, but the curtain is drawn. An open door, painted dark, leads into the room seen in the first act.
It is night and dark. Through the windows can be heard the continuous tramp of the pilgrims on their way to the monastery for the next day's celebration. Some are barefoot; some wear boots or bast shoes. Their steps are quick and eager, or slow and weary. They walk singly or in groups of two or three, the majority in silence, though now and then suppressed, indistinct talking may be heard. Starting from somewhere far off to the left, the sound of the footsteps and the talking, muffled at first, approaches and grows louder, until at times it seems to fill the whole room. Then it dies away in the distance again. The impression is that of some tremendous movement, elemental and irrepressible.
At the table, lighted only by a flickering stump of a tallow candle, sit Speransky and Tony. The latter is very drunk. Cucumbers, herring, and bottles of whiskey are on the table. The rest of the room is entirely dark. Occasionally the wind blows the white curtain at the window and sets the candle flame tossing.
Tony and Speransky talk in whispers. A prolonged pause follows the rise of the curtain.
TONY (bending over to Speransky, mysteriously)
So you say it is possible we do not exist, eh?
SPERANSKY (in the same manner)
As I have already stated, it is doubtful, extremely doubtful. There is very good reason to suppose that we really do not exist—that we don't exist at all.
TONY
And you are not, and I am not.
SPERANSKY
And you are not, and I am not. No one is. (Pause)
TONY (looking around, mysteriously)
Where are we then?
SPERANSKY
We?
TONY
Yes, we.
SPERANSKY
That's something no one can tell. No one knows, Anthony.
TONY
No one?
SPERANSKY
No one.
TONY (glancing around)
Doesn't Savva know?
SPERANSKY
No, Savva doesn't know either.
TONY
Savva knows everything.
SPERANSKY
But even he doesn't know that.
TONY (threatening with his finger)
Keep still, keep still! (Both look around and are silent)
TONY (mysteriously)
Where are they going, eh?
SPERANSKY
To the elevation of the ikon. To-morrow is a feast-day—the day of raising the ikon.
TONY
No, I mean where are they really going—really—don't you understand?
SPERANSKY
I do. It isn't known. No one knows, Anthony.
TONY
Hush! (Makes a funny grimace, closes his mouth with his hand and leans on it)
SPERANSKY (in a whisper)
What's the matter?
TONY
Keep quiet, keep quiet. Listen. (Both are listening)
TONY (in whisper)
Those are faces.
SPERANSKY