Lukáshka went back alone to the cordon pondering over Olénin’s action. Though he did not consider the horse a good one, yet it was worth at least forty rubles and Lukáshka was very glad to have the present. But why it had been given him he could not at all understand, and therefore he did not experience the least feeling of gratitude. On the contrary, vague suspicions that the cadet had some evil intentions filled his mind. What those intentions were he could not decide, but neither could he admit the idea that a stranger would give him a horse worth forty rubles for nothing, just out of kindness; it seemed impossible. Had he been drunk one might understand it! He might have wished to show off. But the cadet had been sober, and therefore must have wished to bribe him to do something wrong. “Eh, humbug!” thought Lukáshka. “Haven’t I got the horse and we’ll see later on. I’m not a fool myself and we shall see who’ll get the better of the other,” he thought, feeling the necessity of being on his guard, and therefore arousing in himself unfriendly feelings towards Olénin. He told no one how he had got the horse. To some he said he had bought it, to others he replied evasively. However, the truth soon got about in the village, and Lukáshka’s mother and Maryánka, as well as Elias Vasílich and other Cossacks, when they heard of Olénin’s unnecessary gift, were perplexed, and began to be on their guard against the cadet. But despite their fears his action aroused in them a great respect for his simplicity and wealth. “Have you heard,” said one, “that the cadet quartered on Elias Vasílich has thrown a fifty-ruble horse at Lukáshka? He’s rich! ...” “Yes, I heard of it,” replied another profoundly, “he must have done him some great service. We shall see what will come of this cadet. Eh! what luck that Snatcher has!” “Those cadets are crafty, awfully crafty,” said a third. “See if he don’t go setting fire to a building, or doing something!” Chapter XXIII