floor. There were plenty of cots in the house, but I had always liked
sleeping on the floor.
I did not feel like sleeping that night. We talked about everything
under the sun, then harked back to the subject of Korablev.
"You know." Valya said, "I may be wrong, of course, but I have an idea
that he was a little in love with Maria Vasilievna. Don't you think so?"
"Maybe."
"Because a very odd thing happened. One day, when I called to see
him, I saw her portrait on his desk. I asked him something, because I
happened to be going to Tatarinovs the next day, and he suddenly
started talking about her. Then he fell silent, and he had such a look on
his face ... I decided there was something wrong there."
"You don't say so?" I said with annoyance. "What the hell—you must
be living up in the clouds. A little in love! Why, he couldn't live without
her! And all this was going on right under your nose. But you were busy
with your snakes then!"
"No, really? Poor devil!"
"Poor devil's right."
After a pause I asked:
"Were you often at the Tatarinovs?"
"Not very often. About three times."
"How are they getting on?"
Valya rose on his elbow. He seemed to be trying to see my face in the
dark, though I had spoken quite calmly.
"They're all right. Nikolai Antonich is a professor now."
"Is that so! What does he read?"
"Pedology," Valya said. "And a highly respected professor, I'd have
you know. As a matter of fact..."
"As a matter of fact what?"
"I think you were mistaken about him."
"Do you?"
"Yes," Valya said with conviction. "You were wrong about him. Just
look how he treats his pupils, for instance. Why, he's ready to go
through fire and water for them. Romashov told me that last year—"
"Romashov? Where does he come in?"
"What d'you mean? It was he who took me to the Tatarinovs."
167
"How does he come to be there?"
"He's Nikolai Antonich's assistant. He's there every day. He's an
intimate friend of the family."
"Wait a minute, what are you talking about? I don't understand. You
mean Romashka?"
"Yes, of course," said Valya. "Only nobody calls him that now. By the
way, I believe he's going to marry Katya."
I felt a sudden stab through the heart and sat up. Valya sat up, too,
and stared at me blankly.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "Oh, of course. Damn it. I'd quite
forgotten!"
He muttered something, then looked around with an air of
bewilderment and got out of his bed.
"Well, not exactly going to marry—"
"Finish what you were going to say," I said quite calmly.
"What d'you mean 'finish'?" Valya stammered. "I didn't say anything.
It was just my idea, it doesn't mean anything. I get funny ideas
sometimes, you know."
"Valya!"
"I don't know anything!" Valya said in desperation. "It's only an idea.
I get some crazy ideas sometimes. You don't have to believe me!"
"You have an idea that Romashov is going to marry Katya?"
"Hell, no! I tell you, no! Nothing of the sort! He started to dress up,
that's all."
"Valya!"
"I swear I don't know anything more."
"Has he talked to you about it?"
"Well, yes. He told me he'd been saving up money since he was
thirteen and had now taken and spent it all in six months. Has that got
anything to do with it, you think?"
I was no longer listening to him. I lay on the floor, staring out at the
sky, and it seemed to me that I was lying in some deep abyss and the
whole world was humming and talking above me, while I was lying all
alone with nobody to say a word to. The sky was still dark and the stars
still visible, but already a faint, distant light was hovering over the earth,
and I was thinking-here we had spent the whole night talking and this is
where it has led us!
"Good night!"
"Good night!" I answered mechanically.
I wished now I had left with Volodya. A choking sensation came into
my throat and I felt like getting up and going out into the fresh air, but I
lay where I was, merely turning over onto my stomach with my face in
my hands. So that was that! Incredible though it was, I could not stop
thinking about it for a minute. The incredible thing about it was
Romashka, for I could not imagine him and Katya together. But what
made me think she had not forgotten me all this time? After all, we
hadn't met for so many years.
Valya was asleep and my going out would probably have awakened
him. But I did not feel like talking to him any more, and so I remained
lying on my stomach, then on my back, then again on my stomach with
my face in my hands.
168
Afterwards—it must have been round about seven—the telephone
rang and Valya jumped up, sleepy-eyed, and ran into the next room
dragging the blanket behind him.
"It's for you," he said, returning a moment later.
"Me?"
I threw my coat over my shoulders and went to the telephone.
"Sanya!" It was the doctor speaking. "Where've you disappeared to?
I'm phoning from the Executive Committee office. I'm handing over the
receiver."
"Comrade Grigoriev," said another voice. It was the Zapolarie police
chief. "An urgent matter. You have to fly to Camp Vanokan with Doctor
Pavlov. Do you know Ledkov?"
Did I know him! He was a member of the regional Executive
Committee and one of the most respected men in the North country.
Everyone knew him.
"He's wounded and needs urgent medical aid. When can you fly out?"
"Within an hour," I said.
"And you, doctor?"
I did not catch the doctor's answer.
"Instruments all in order? Good. I'll see you in an hour's time then, at
the airfield."
CHAPTER TEN
THE FLIGHT
These were the people aboard the plane on the morning of March 5th
when we took off and headed northeast: the doctor, anxious-looking,
wearing dark glasses, which changed his appearance surprisingly, my air
mechanic Luri, one of the most popular men in Zapolarie or wherever
else in the Arctic he happened to appear for at least three or four days,
and myself.
This was my fifteenth flight in the North, but my first flight to a
district where they had never seen a plane before. Camp Vanokan was a
very remote spot on one of the tributaries of the Pyasina. The doctor had
been on the Pyasina before and said it should not be difficult to find
Vanokan.
A member of the E.C. had been wounded. It had happened while he
was out hunting—so it was believed. Anyway, the doctor and I had been
asked to ascertain in what circumstances this had happened. We should
arrive at Vanokan about three o'clock, before it grew dark. For an
emergency, though, we took with us provisions for three men to last
thirty days, a primus-stove, a flare gun with a supply of flares, a shotgun
and cartridges, spades, a tent and an axe.
169
As for the weather, all I knew was that it was fine at Zapolarie but
what it was like along our route I had no idea. There was no time to get a
report and no one to give it.