THREE MEN
A NOVEL
BY
MAXIM GORKY
Author of "Foma Gordyeeff," etc.
TRANSLATED BY
CHARLES HORNE
LONDON
ISBISTER AND COMPANY LIMITED
15 & 16 TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN
1902
THREE MEN
I.
There are many solitary graves amid the woods of Kerschentz; withinthem moulder the bones of old men, men of an ancient piety, and ofone of these old men, Antipa, this tale is told in the villages ofKerschentz.
Antipa Lunev, a rich peasant of austere disposition, lived to hisfiftieth year, sunken in worldly sins, then was moved to profoundself-examination, and seized with agony of soul, forsook his familyand buried himself in the loneliness of the forest. There on the edgeof a ravine he built his hermit's cell, and lived for eight years,summer and winter. He let no one approach him, neither acquaintancesnor kindred. Sometimes people who had lost their way in the woods cameby chance on his hut and saw Antipa kneeling on the threshold, praying.He was terrible to see—worn with fasting and prayer, and covered withhair like a wild beast. If he caught sight of any one, he rose up andbowed himself to the ground before him. If he were asked the way outof the forest, he indicated the path with his hand without speaking,bowed to the ground again, went into his cell and shut himself in.He was seen many times during the eight years, but no man ever heardhis voice. His wife and children used to visit him, he took food andclothing from them, bowed himself before them as before others, but,during the time of his anchorite life, spoke no word with them any morethan with strangers.
He died the same year that the hermitages of the wood were swept away,and his death came in this fashion.
The Chief of Police came through the forest with a detachment ofsoldiers, and saw Antipa kneeling, silently praying in his cell.
"You there!" shouted the officer. "Clear out of this, we're going tosmash up this den of yours!"
But Antipa heard nothing, and however loudly the captain shouted, thepious hermit answered him never a word. Then the officer ordered hismen to drag Antipa out of his cell. But the soldiers were troubledbefore the gaze of the old man, who continued in prayer so steadfastlyand earnestly, and paid no heed to them, and, shaken by such strengthof soul, they hesitated to carry out the command. Then the captainordered them to break up the hut, and they began to remove the roofsilently and very carefully, to avoid hurting the worshipper within.
The axes rang over Antipa's head, the boards split and fell to theground, the dull echo of the blows sounded through the wood, the birdsterrified by the noise fluttered uneasily round the cell, and theleaves trembled on the trees. But the old man prayed on as though heneither saw nor heard. They began to break up the flooring of the hut,and still its owner knelt undisturbed, and only when the last timberswere thrown aside and the captain himself went up to Antipa and caughthim by the hair, only then did he speak, his eyes lifted to heaven,quietly, to God, "Merciful Father, forgive them."
Then he fell back and died.
When this happened, Jakov, the eldest son of Antipa, was twenty-threeyears old, and Terenti, the youngest, eighteen. Jakov, handsome andstrong, gained the name of "scatter-brain," while still a youngster,and by the time his father died, was already the chief loafer and bullyin the country-side. All complained of him—his mother, the Starost,the neighbours: he was impriso