'I shall be pleased... take this...' I said hurriedly, and pulling my purse out of my pocket, I took out two silver roubles--at that time silver was still circulating in Russia--'here, if that's enough?' 'Much obliged!' bawled the giant, in military fashion; and his fat fingers in a flash snatched from me--not the whole purse--but only the two roubles: 'much obliged!' He shook his hair back, and ran up to the cart. 'Lads!' he shouted, 'the gentleman makes us a present of two silver roubles!' They all began, as it were, gabbling at once.... The giant rolled up on to the driver's seat.... 'Good luck to you, master!' And that was the last we saw of them. The horses dashed on, the cart rumbled up the hill; once more it stood out on the dark line separating the earth from the sky, went down, and vanished. And now the rattle of the wheels, the shouts and tambourines, could not be heard.... There was a death-like silence. * * * * * Filofey and I could not recover ourselves all at once. 'Ah, you're a merry fellow!' he commented at last, and taking off his hat he began crossing himself. 'Fond of a joke, on my word,' he added, and he turned to me, beaming all over. 'But he must be a capital fellow--on my word! Now, now, now, little ones, look alive! You're safe! We are all safe! It was he who wouldn't let us get by; it was he who drove the horses. What a chap for a joke! Now, now! get on, in God's name!' I did not speak, but I felt happy too. 'We are safe!' I repeated to myself, and lay down on the hay. 'We've got off cheap!' I even felt rather ashamed that I had remembered that line of Zhukovsky's. Suddenly an idea occurred to me. 'Filofey!' 'What is it?' 'Are you married?' 'Yes.' 'And have you children?' 'Yes.' 'How was it you didn't think of them? You were sorry for your horses: weren't you sorry for your wife and children?' 'Why be sorry for them? They weren't going to fall into the hands of thieves, you know. But I kept them in my mind all the while, and I do now... surely.' Filofey paused.... 'May be... it was for their sake Almighty God had mercy on us.' 'But if they weren't highwaymen?' 'How can we tell? Can one creep into the soul of another? Another's soul, we know, is a dark place. But, with the thought of God in the heart, things are always better.... No, no!... I'd my family all the time.... Gee... gee-up! little ones, in God's name!' It was already almost daylight; we began to drive into Tula. I was lying, dreamy and half-asleep. 'Master,' Filofey said to me suddenly, 'look: there they're stopping at the tavern... their cart.' I raised my head... there they were, and their cart and horses. In the doorway of the drinking-house there suddenly appeared our friend, the giant in the cape. 'Sir!' he shouted, waving his cap, 'we're drinking your health!--Hey, coachman,' he added, wagging his head at Filofey; 'you were a bit scared, I shouldn't wonder, hey?'