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and Sasha took charge of the rudder. The long springy oars swept easily through the water. Glistening
drops falling from the blades sparkled in the dying rays of the sun. The rowlocks creaked in time with our
oars and Sasha, resting in the stern, struck up a song:
Bravely we march to fight
For the power of the people!
All of us our lives will give
In that great battle!
... We saw Nikita off late at night. With us we brought a sack of hay to make him comfortable in the
open truck under one of the reapers.
The engine was being coupled to the long goods train, when Nikita suddenly pulled an enamel flask
out of his rucksack and said: "Show me where I can get some water, Vasil."
"Come on, we'll show you," Petka volunteered readily.
"No, you and Sasha wait here and look after my things. Vasil will take me there. Come on, Vasya!"
Nikita said hastily.
When I led Nikita to the water tap I did not know that it was a desire to tell me a secret that had
made Nikita insist on my showing him the way. As soon as we reached the taps sticking out of a stone
hut at the back of the platform, Nikita glanced over his shoulder and whispered in my ear: ;
"Tell me, Vasil, did you show anyone your letter before you sent it to me?"
Not realizing fully what Nikita was driving at, I replied cautiously:
"No, I didn't... Why?"
"And you didn't tell anyone about what you had written?"
"No, nothing... that is, I said I had written you a letter, but I didn't tell anyone what was in it."
"You didn't tell anyone about your suspicions that this woman Rogale-Piontkovskaya who runs the
dancing-class is a relative of the Countess in Podolia?"
"But is she? ... Well, that's what I thought!" And I went on excitedly: "But when I saw her, I decided it
must be just a coincidence. That one back home was thin and dignified-looking, but this woman here's
more like a meat-trader at the market."
"Well, go on thinking that, understand?" Nikita said meaningfully. "Just a coincidence of names, and
no more! And don't talk about it. That's a request not only from me, there's someone else..."
"Vukovich?"
A loud clanking announced that the engine had been coupled to the train.
"I'll tell you all about it one day," Nikita said, "but for the time being... dead silence! All game has to
be stalked quietly."
"Wait a minute, Nikita!" I protested, thoroughly bewildered. "We're planning to show up Madame
and her dancing-class. I told you..."
"As a Komsomol undertaking?"
"Yes, all the young chaps will be in it..."
"If it's the Komsomol that's doing it, that's all right. That won't interfere. But you must act as if you'd
never heard that name in your life before. Then the little detail that you told me in your letter won't be
wasted... Now, let's go..."
WHAT IS AN "INSTIGATOR"?
Even before the five reaping machines that Nikita had taken away with him had reached their
destination, Golovatsky had suggested that every Komsomol group should appoint speakers to inform
the workers about the political situation during their lunch-hour. True, one of our fellows, Arkady Salagai
from the drilling shop, objected to Tolya's suggestion. Salagai said that we should be interfering with the
works Party organization, and argued heatedly that reading out the newspapers during the lunch-hour
was the Communists' job. Salagai bawled out his arguments with his greasy cap tilted rakishly on the
back of his head, but Golovatsky knew how to answer him.
"Everyone knows," Tolya said very quietly and distinctly, "that there are twice as many Komsomol
members at the works as there are Party members. And isn't it our job to help the Communists? What,
harm is there in devoting our efforts to work that the Party has pointed out to us! On the contrary, we
ought to be proud of doing it!"
... That summer, our workers, like everyone else in the country, were very interested in our relations
with Britain, and Golovatsky had decided that our first task should be to read our workers a few of the
latest newspaper articles on the subject.
Today the joiners' Komsomol group was on duty and I was not a bit surprised to hear Petka's deep
voice when I entered the dining-hall. My friend had been working over the newspapers in the club
reading-room till very late last night.
Petka was standing on the low platform at the end of the hall with a copy of Izvestia in his hands. He
was reading the Soviet Government's note to Britain:
"British Government spokesmen are trying to interpret the fraternal help afforded by the workers of
the U.S.S.R. and their trade-union organizations to the strike movement in Britain as an act of
interference in the internal affairs of the British Empire. While considering unworthy of comment the crude
attacks made by certain British Government ministers on the U.S.S.R., its working class and trade-union [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]