upwards—and head foremost, with his hands thrust

out before him and the lapels of his jacket fluttering, he described

an arc in the air (as frightened frogs jump on hot days from a high

bank into a pond) and instantly vanished behind the parapet of the

bridge … and then flop! and a tremendous splash below.

What happened to me I am utterly unable to describe. I was some steps

from David when he leapt off the parapet … but I don’t even remember

whether I cried out; I don’t think that I was even frightened: I was

stunned, stupefied. I could not stir hand or foot. People were running

and hustling round me; some of them seemed to be people I knew. I had

a sudden glimpse of Trofimitch, the soldier with the pike dashed off

somewhere, the horses and the waggons passed by quickly, tossing up

their noses covered with string. Then everything was green before my

eyes and someone gave me a violent shove on my head and all down my

back … I fell fainting.

I remember that I came to myself afterwards and seeing that no one was

paying any attention to me went up to the parapet but not on the side

that David had jumped. It seemed terrible to me to approach it, and as

I began gazing into the dark blue muddy swollen river, I remember that

I noticed a boat moored to the bridge not far from the bank, and

several people in the boat, and one of these, who was drenched all

over and sparkling in the sun, bending over the edge of the boat was

pulling something out of the water, something not very big, oblong, a

dark thing which at first I took to be a portmanteau or a basket; but

when I looked more intently I saw that the thing was—David. Then in

violent excitement I shouted at the top of my voice and ran towards

the boat, pushing my way through the people, but when I had run down

to it I was overcome with timidity and began looking about me. Among

the people who were crowding about it I recognised Trankvillitatin,

the cook Agapit with a boot in his hand, Yushka, Vassily … the wet

and shining man held David’s body under the arms, drew him out of the

boat and laid him on his back on the mud of the bank. Both David’s

hands were raised to the level of his face as though he were trying to

hide himself from strange eyes; he did not stir but lay as though

standing at attention, with his heels together and his stomach out.

His face was greenish—his eyes were staring and water was dripping

from his hair. The wet man who had pulled him out, a factory hand,

judging by his clothes, began describing how he had done it, shivering

with cold and continually throwing back his hair from his forehead as

he talked. He told his story in a very proper and painstaking way.

«What do I see, friends? This young lad go flying from the bridge….

Well! … I ran down at once the way of the current for I knew he had

fallen into mid-stream and it would carry him under the bridge and

there … talk of the devil! … I looked: something like a fur cap was

floating and it was his head. Well, quick as thought, I was in the

water and caught hold of him…. It didn’t need much cleverness for

that!»

Two or three words of approval were audible in the crowd.

«You ought to have something to warm you now. Come along and we will

have a drink,» said someone.

But at this point all at once somebody pushed forward abruptly: it was

Vassily.

«What are you doing, good Christians?» he cried, tearfully. «We must

bring him to by rolling him; it’s our young gentleman!»

«Roll him, roll him,» shouted the crowd, which was continually

growing.

«Hang him up by the feet! it’s the best way!»

«Lay him with his stomach on the barrel and roll him backwards and

forwards…. Take him, lads.»

«Don’t dare to touch him,» put in the soldier with the pike. «He must

be taken to the police station.»

«Low brute,» Trofimitch’s bass voice rang out.

«But he is alive,» I shouted at the top of my voice and almost with

horror. I had put my face near to his. «So that is what the drowned

look like,» I thought, with a sinking heart…. And all at once I saw

David’s lips stir and a little water oozed from them….

At once I was pushed back and dragged away; everyone rushed up to him.

«Roll him, roll him,» voices clamoured.

«No, no, stay,» shouted Vassily. «Take him home…. Take him home!»

«Take him home,» Trankvillitatin himself chimed in.

«We will bring him to. We can see better there,» Vassily went on….

(I have liked him from that day.) «Lads, haven’t you a sack? If not we

must take him by his head and his feet….»

«Stay! Here’s a sack! Lay him on it! Catch hold! Start! That’s fine.

As though he were driving in a chaise.»

A few minutes later David, borne in triumph on the sack, crossed the

threshold of our house again.

XX

He was undressed and put to bed. He began to give signs of life while

in the street, moaned, moved his hands…. Indoors he came to himself

completely. But as soon as all anxiety for his life was over and there

was no reason to worry about him, indignation got the upper hand

again: everyone shunned him, as though he were a leper.

«May God chastise him! May God chastise him!» my aunt shrieked, to be

heard all over the house. «Get rid of him, somehow, Porfiry

Petrovitch, or he will do some mischief beyond all bearing.»

«Upon my word, he is a viper; he is possessed with a devil,»

Trankvillitatin chimed in.

«The wickedness, the wickedness!» cackled my aunt, going close to the

door of our room so that David might be sure to hear her. «First of

all he stole the watch and then flung it into the water … as though

to say, no one should get it….»

Everyone, everyone was indignant.

«David,» I asked him as soon as we were left alone, «what did you do

it for?»

«So you are after that, too,» he answered in a voice that was still

weak; his lips were blue and he looked as though he were swollen all

over. «What did I do?»

«But what did you jump into the water for?»

«Jump! I lost my balance on the parapet, that was all. If I had known

how to swim I should have jumped on purpose. I shall certainly learn.

But the watch now—ah….»

But at that moment my father walked with a majestic step into our

room.

«You, my fine fellow,» he said, addressing me, «I shall certainly

whip, you need have no doubt about that, though you are too big to lie

on the bench now.»

Then he went up to the bed on which David was lying. «In Siberia,» he

began in an impressive and dignified tone, «in Siberia, sir, in penal

servitude, in the mines, there are people living and dying who are

less guilty, less criminal than you. Are you a suicide or simply a

thief or altogether a fool? Be so kind as to tell me just that!»

«I am not a suicide and I am not a thief,» answered David, «but the

truth’s the truth: there are good men in Siberia, better than you or I

… who should know that, if not you?»

My father gave a subdued gasp, drew back a step, looked intently at

David, spat on the floor and, slowly crossing himself, walked away.

«Don’t you like that?» David called after him and put his tongue out.

Then he tried to get up but could not.

«I must have hurt myself somehow,» he said, gasping and frowning. «I

remember the water dashed me against a post.»

«Did you see Raissa?» he added suddenly.

«No. I did not…. Stay, stay, stay! Now I remember, wasn’t it she

standing on the bank by the bridge? … Yes … yes … a dark dress…

a yellow kerchief on her head, yes it must have been Raissa.»

«Well, and afterwards…. Did you see her?»

«Afterwards … I don’t know, I had no thought to spare for her….

You jumped in …»

David was suddenly roused. «Alyosha, darling, go to her at once, tell

her I am all right, that there’s nothing the matter with me. Tomorrow

I shall be with them. Go as quickly as you can, brother, for my sake!»

David held out both hands to me…. His red hair, by now dry, stuck up

in amusing tufts…. But the softened expression of his face seemed

the more genuine for that. I took my cap and went out of the house,

trying to avoid meeting my father and reminding him of his promise.

XXI

«Yes, indeed,» I reflected as I walked towards the Latkins’, «how was

it that I did not notice Raissa? What became of her? She must have

seen….»

And all at once I remembered that the very moment of David’s fall, a

terrible piercing shriek had rung in my ears.

«Was not that Raissa? But how was it I did not see her afterwards?»

Before the little house in which Latkin lodged there stretched a

waste-ground overgrown with nettles and surrounded by a broken hurdle.

I had scarcely clambered over the hurdle (there was no gate anywhere)

when the following sight met my eyes: Raissa, with her elbows on her

knees and her chin propped on her clasped hands, was sitting on the

lowest step in front of the house; she was looking fixedly straight

before her; near her stood her little dumb sister with the utmost

composure brandishing a little whip, while, facing the steps with his

back to me, old Latkin, in torn and shabby drawers and high felt

boots, was trotting and prancing up and down, capering and jerking his

elbows. Hearing my footsteps he suddenly turned round and squatted

on his heels—then at once, skipping up to me, began speaking

very rapidly in a trembling voice, incessantly repeating,

«Tchoo—tchoo—tchoo!» I was dumbfoundered. I had not seen him for a

long time and should not, of course,