AFTER TALKING a little while longer with the esaul about the next day's attack, which Denisov seemed to have finally decided upon after seeing how near the French were, he turned his horse's head and rode back.
“Now, my boy, we will go and dry ourselves,” he said to Petya.
As he came near the forester's hut, Denisov stopped, looking into the wood before him. A man in a short jacket, bast shoes, and a Kazan hat, with a gun across his shoulder, and an axe in his belt, was striding lightly through the forest with long legs and long arms swinging at his side. Catching sight of Denisov, he hastily flung something into the bushes, and taking off his sopped hat, the brim of which drooped limply, he walked up to his commanding officer.
This was Tihon. His pock-marked and wrinkled face, with little slits of eyes, beamed with self-satisfaction and merriment. He held his head high, and looked straight at Denisov as though he were suppressing a laugh.
“Well, where have you been?” said Denisov.
“Where have I been? I have been after the French,” Tihon answered boldly and hastily, in a husky, but mellow bass.
“Why did you creep in in the daytime? Ass! Well, why didn't you catch one?”
“Catch one I did,” said Tihon.
“Where is he, then?”
“I caught one at the very first at daybreak,” Tihon went on, setting his feet down wider apart, in their flat, turned-up bast shoes; “and I took him into the wood too. I see he's no good. So, thinks I, better go and get another, rather more the proper article.”
“Ay, the rogue, so that's how it is,” said Denisov to the esaul. “Why didn't you bring that one?”
“Why, what was the use of bringing him in?” Tihon broke in, hurriedly and angrily. “A worthless fellow! Don't I know what sort you want?”
“Ah, you brute! … Well?”
“I went to get another,” Tihon went on. “I crept up in this way in the wood, and I lay down.” With a sudden, supple movement, Tihon lay down on his stomach, to show how he had done this. “One turned up,” he went on, “I seized him like this,” Tihon jumped up swiftly and lightly. “ ‘Come along to the colonel,' says I. He set up such a shouting, and then I saw four of them. And they rushed at me with their sabres. I went at them like this with my axe. ‘What are you about?' says I. ‘Christ be with you,' ” cried Tihon, waving his arms and squaring his chest with a menacing scowl.
“Oh yes, we saw from the hill how you gave them the slip, through the pools,” said the esaul, screwing up his sparkling eyes.
Petya had a great longing to laugh, but he saw that all the others refrained from laughing. He kept looking rapidly from Tihon's face to the face of the esaul and Denisov, not knowing what to make of it all.
“Don't play the fool,” said Denisov, coughing angrily. “Why didn't you bring the first man?”
Tihon began scratching his back with one hand and his head with the other, and all at once his countenance expanded into a beaming, foolish grin, showing the loss of a tooth that had given him his name, Shtcherbatov (i.e. lacking a tooth). Denisov smiled, and Petya went off into a merry peal of laughter, in which Tihon himself joined.
“Why, he was no good at all,” said Tihon. “He was so badly dressed, how could I bring him? And a coarse fellow, your honour. Why, says he, ‘I'm a general's son,' says he, ‘I'm not going.' ”
“Ugh, you brute!” said Denisov. “I wanted to question him …”
“Oh, I did question him,” said Tihon. “He said he didn't know much. “There are a lot of our men,' says he, ‘but they are all poor creatures; that's all you can say for them. Give a good shout,' says he, ‘and you can take them all,' ” Tihon concluded, with a merry and determined look at Denisov.
“Mind, I'll give you a good hundred lashes that will teach you to play the fool,” said Denisov sternly.
“Why be angry,” said Tihon, “because I haven't seen your sort of Frenchmen? As soon as it gets dark, I'll catch whatever kind you like, three of them I'll bring.”
“Well, come along,” said Denisov, and all the way to the forester's hut he was silent, frowning angrily.
Tihon was walking behind, and Petya heard the Cossacks laughing with him and at him about a pair of boots that he had thrown into the bushes.
When the laughter roused by Tihon's words and smile had passed, and Petya understood for a moment that Tihon had killed the man, he had an uneasy feeling. He looked round at the boy prisoner, and there was a sudden pang in his heart. But that uneasiness only lasted a moment. He felt it incumbent on him to hold his head high, and with a bold and important air to question the esaul about the next day's expedition, that he might not be unworthy of the company in which he found himself.
The officer Denisov had sent to Dolohov met him on the way with the news that everything was going well with Dolohov, and that he was coming himself immediately.
Denisov at once became more cheerful, and beckoned Petya to him.
“Come, tell me about yourself,” he said.
杰尼索夫望着近在咫尺的法国人，他和哥萨克一等上尉交换了对明天发起袭击的意见，对这次袭击的决心已定，于是他拨转马头，往回走了。
“喂，老弟，现在咱们去把衣裳烘干。”他对彼佳说。
在临近守林人小屋的时候，杰尼索夫停了下来，向林子里注视着，林中有一个人身穿短上衣，脚穿树皮鞋，头戴喀山帽，肩上挎了一支枪，腰间别着一把斧，迈开两条长腿，甩开两只长胳膊，步履轻捷，大踏步走了过来。这人一见到是杰尼索夫，慌忙把一件什么东西扔进灌木丛中，他脱下搭拉着帽檐的湿透的帽子，走到长官面前。这人就是吉洪。他那张麻脸上布满了皱纹，一对又细又小的眼睛显露出得意的神情。他高昂着头，仿佛忍住笑似的，注视着杰尼索夫。
“喂！你到哪里去了？”杰尼索夫说。
“到哪里去了？抓法国佬去了。”吉洪大胆、急速地回答，他的声音沙哑、平和。
“你为什么大白天往那儿钻？畜牲！呶！什么也没抓到？
……
“抓是抓到了。”吉洪说。
“他在哪？”
“天一亮我就抓到一个，”吉洪接着说，他叉开那双穿着树皮鞋，迈八字步的平脚，“我把他带到树林里，这家伙不中用。我想，得再去弄个像样子的来。”
“你瞧，这个调皮家伙，果然不出我所料，”杰尼索夫对哥萨克一等上尉说。“你怎么不把这一个带来？”
“把他带来？”吉洪气呼呼地急忙插嘴说，“这是一个不中用的东西。难道我不知道你需要什么样子的？”
“你这滑头精！……可是……”
“我再去捉一个，”吉洪接着说，“我就这样往林子里钻，然后卧倒。”吉洪迅急卧倒，表演他是怎样做的。“来了一个，”他继续说到。“我就这样一下把他抱住。”吉洪敏捷地从地上跳起来，“跟我去见上校，我说。那家伙哇哇乱叫。一下子又来了四个，手持匕首向我刺来，于是我举起斧头迎上上去，”吉洪挺起胸膛，横眉倒竖，舞动双臂，大喝一声，“你们要干什么，去见你们的耶稣去吧！”
“对，对，我们从山上看见你从洼地里跑掉的。”哥萨克一等上尉挤着他闪亮的眼睛说。
彼佳很想笑，但是他看了大家都在忍住笑。就把目光迅速从吉洪脸上移到杰尼索夫和哥萨克一等上尉的脸上，他不明了这都是什么意思。
“你别装傻！”杰尼索夫生气地咳嗽着。“你为什么不把第一个带来？”
吉洪用一只手抓了抓背，用另一只手抓了抓头，忽然，他那张麻脸拉长了，堆起一副傻笑，露出了缺牙（为此，大家又叫他缺牙巴）。杰尼索夫笑了，彼佳也哈哈大笑，吉洪跟着对他们笑了起来。
“是这样，他是一个十足的废物，”吉洪说。“他穿得破烂不堪，又十分粗野，我怎好把他带来见您。”他还说：“要干啥，我还是一个将军的儿子呢？我不去。”
“蠢家伙！”杰尼索夫说。“应该由我来盘问……”
“我问过了，”吉洪说。他说，他不很清楚，他又说，“我们的人很多，不，全都是孬种，说是军人，空有其名，你只要大喝一声，全都会乖乖就擒。”吉洪高兴地、坚决地注视着杰尼索夫的眼睛，十分肯定地说。
“我要狠狠抽你一百鞭子，看你还装不装傻。”杰尼索夫厉声说道。
“别生那么大的气，”吉洪说，“您所需要的法国人，我还不知道怎么的？等天一黑，你要什么样的，我捉什么样的，捉他三个也行。”
“呶，咱们走吧。”杰尼索夫说。一直回到守林的小屋子，一路上，他显得气愤、紧锁双眉，一言不发。
吉洪跟在后面，彼佳听见哥萨克们和他说笑，还嘲笑他把一双什么靴子扔进灌木丛中。
彼佳听了他们的谈话，看到吉洪的笑脸，也忍不住笑了，笑过之后，忽然间明了，原来吉洪杀了一个人，他的心像被什么东西刺了一下，感到不是滋味，他看了一眼俘虏的那个小鼓手。这种感觉只有一瞬间。他觉得此时此刻应高昂起头，振奋精神，他煞有介事向哥萨克一等上尉问起有关明天的作战计划，以免让人家觉得他配不上他所在的那支队伍。
派出的那个军官在路上遇见了杰尼索夫，他报告说，多洛霍夫本人马上就到，他那方面一切进展顺利。
杰尼索夫忽然高兴起来，把彼佳叫到跟前。
“喂！快点给我讲讲你的情况吧。”他说。
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