White nights, and other storiesDostoyevsky, Fyodor
General
White nights, and other stories
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881 -- Translations into English; Russian fiction -- Translations into English
Then the personage of gentlemanly, but displeased-looking, appearance
walked away saying that they had troubled him for nothing, and took
himself off. His place was at once filled (while Remnev and Zimoveykin
were handed over to the custody of the proper functionaries), by
Yaroslav Ilyitch, who questioned some one, adroitly took possession of
the box, which the landlady was already trying to open, put the boots
back in their proper place, observing that they were all in holes and no
use, asked for the pillow to be put back, called up Okeanov, asked for
the key of the box which was found in the pocket of the drunken cadger,
and solemnly, in the presence of the proper officials, unlocked Semyon
Ivanovitch's property. Everything was displayed: two rags, a pair of
socks, half a handkerchief, an old hat, several buttons, some old soles,
and the uppers of a pair of boots, that is, all sorts of odds and ends,
scraps, rubbish, trash, which had a stale smell. The only thing of any
value was the German lock. They called up Okeanov and cross-questioned
him sternly; but Okeanov was ready to take his oath. They asked for the
pillow, they examined it; it was extremely dirty, but in other respects
it was like all other pillows. They attacked the mattress, they were
about to lift it up, but stopped for a moment's consideration, when
suddenly and quite unexpectedly something heavy fell with a clink on the
floor. They bent down and saw on the floor a screw of paper and in the
screw some dozen roubles. "A-hey!" said Yaroslav Ilyitch, pointing to a
slit in the mattress from which hair and stuffing were sticking out.
They examined the slit and found that it had only just been made with a
knife and was half a yard in length; they thrust hands into the gap and
pulled out a kitchen knife, probably hurriedly thrust in there after
slitting the mattress. Before Yaroslav Ilyitch had time to pull the
knife out of the slit and to say "A-hey!" again, another screw of money
fell out, and after it, one at a time, two half roubles, a quarter
rouble, then some small change, and an old-fashioned, solid five-kopeck
piece--all this was seized upon. At this point it was realized that it
would not be amiss to cut up the whole mattress with scissors. They
asked for scissors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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