![](https://static.penana.com/images/chapter/749499/5y_459c70760a7d6b04b8f7af02275949be.jpg)
Kransnoyarsk242Please respect copyright.PENANAFuszw1vCH2
May 29th, 1880242Please respect copyright.PENANAA1mpKEzm3u
242Please respect copyright.PENANA7PRTZCMjN6
How are you, Ludmilla, my favorite stargazer?242Please respect copyright.PENANA7rt8HZyzwf
242Please respect copyright.PENANAs22V1mHJZD
Here I am in Siberia, and you're oh, so far away. Ah, but how I wish you had been at my side last night so that I could squeeze your hand in the starlight and ask for your advice on matters interplanetary, of which a humble doctor and scribbler knows nothing. (Apart from the fact that the heavens are vast and dreary, and that time stretches out intolerably till this planet will be as cold as space itself...)242Please respect copyright.PENANAHKm7lvlAjn
242Please respect copyright.PENANAp8Sd1Z1zSR
But first a scribbler should set the scene, don't you think?242Please respect copyright.PENANAvMVLIdxpjO
242Please respect copyright.PENANA0LQYuhs7Zo
Kransnoyarsk is a first-rate town---particularly after such vile Oriental shitholes at Tomsk. God alone knows why they send exiles here to Kransnoyarsk! This must seem more like a reward, what with the grand forested mountains encompassing the city like high walls, and the broad swift Yenisey winding its way through---worthier of Levitan's deft brush than the Volga will ever be! And I mustn't forget the town itself. Why, there are paved streets and gracious churches and handsome houses built of stone! But they do send exiles here, and they've done so for years. Result? Krasnoyarsk is quite cultured in addition to being picturesque.242Please respect copyright.PENANAA8pnMrq5DL
242Please respect copyright.PENANAlTpPG6tPsA
Anyhow, I have fallen in with an army doctor and two lieutenants all on their way to the Amur. We intend to travel onward together, so I shall hardly have need of my revolver. Boldly would I harrow Hell itself in company with this trio.242Please respect copyright.PENANAPshAwPBbwQ
242Please respect copyright.PENANAsNb5WZ8bHC
Can you read my writing? This ink is disgusting. Blot and splotch and splotch and blot!242Please respect copyright.PENANAyQmso1oVJV
242Please respect copyright.PENANAYzk8Yk1nv8
And now, I shall tell you about these brave fellows. Dr. Aho is something of a philosopher and pessimist---and, by turns, an idealist. Half the time he speaks of the new and happy life awaiting us in some distant future epoch when we'll all fly across Siberia by balloon, and when a sixth sense will be developed so that our brains can reach out to the stars. Then he grows gloomy (worn down by his own enthusiasm) and it's all a case of: "We can't be real. The present can't be real. This is all a nightmare in someone's mind a thousand years ahead!"242Please respect copyright.PENANAFPLWSFnL6D
242Please respect copyright.PENANA0JP3YlHg6q
Then there's the great Baron Kuzma Mishin. The Baron really puts it out as a military man, growling the letter 'R' deep in his through like the doyen of some posh cavalry regiment. He is forever barking at people. You'd think he was ordering a Cossack to be flogged for cowardice when he calls for a cup of tea and jam on black bread. Generally, he's abusive in company that he doesn't know, but just you get him on his own and he's quite a kindly, sensible man---with a concern for society. "The avalanche is coming," he'll warn you. He thinks Science might save us, though. And he has read Herber Spencer, or at least claims to have. But he does throw his weight around, and there's quite a lot of weight to throw.242Please respect copyright.PENANAIk6aGguX8O
242Please respect copyright.PENANAZwn5pKdMuF
Last, but not least, is Rudolph Abramovich, who never glances at any reading matter save a newspaper. I'm sure he hasn't lifted an intellectual finger for the past two decades. All that interests our Rudolph is hunting and boozing, and once he has made up his mind on a subject it would be far too much trouble to alter his opinion. Only thing he had fixed in his mind is that Aho and Mishin are both excellent wise fellows, so he has a habit of dropping the drollest apercus into the conversation, which are all warped echoes of something the other two men have said. Invariably these "mottos" are way off the beaten path, like the wisdom of some demented old babushka.242Please respect copyright.PENANA0Cmdw8tKUO
242Please respect copyright.PENANAxkwNF4rQQ8
Yesterday evening, out I sailed in company with these three musketeers to see the town...242Please respect copyright.PENANAyD785EcQ89
242Please respect copyright.PENANATzPqJ8SCQZ
Everything on the journey thus far has turned out contrary to expectation. In Tomsk where the local ladies are as charming as a butt of frozen herrings---fit males for a walrus---who would have imagined that the Assistant Chief of Police would be a connoisseur of my works? Who would have expected him to do me the honor of driving me on a tour of the local house of prostitution, as his way of paying respect to my literary achievements?242Please respect copyright.PENANAjwcpM6KEwR
242Please respect copyright.PENANA7MvR3qsHUC
Anyhow, there was I forming a wholly favorable impression of the town on our promenade around its surprisingly clean streets---when Mishin must suffer a sudden attack of drought. So, we all had to perform an about-turn into the less salubrious quarter of town to find him an inn on the double for medicinal relief. Oh ho, thought I: Tomsk revisited?
May 29th, 1880242Please respect copyright.PENANAA1mpKEzm3u
242Please respect copyright.PENANA7PRTZCMjN6
How are you, Ludmilla, my favorite stargazer?242Please respect copyright.PENANA7rt8HZyzwf
242Please respect copyright.PENANAs22V1mHJZD
Here I am in Siberia, and you're oh, so far away. Ah, but how I wish you had been at my side last night so that I could squeeze your hand in the starlight and ask for your advice on matters interplanetary, of which a humble doctor and scribbler knows nothing. (Apart from the fact that the heavens are vast and dreary, and that time stretches out intolerably till this planet will be as cold as space itself...)242Please respect copyright.PENANAHKm7lvlAjn
242Please respect copyright.PENANAp8Sd1Z1zSR
But first a scribbler should set the scene, don't you think?242Please respect copyright.PENANAvMVLIdxpjO
242Please respect copyright.PENANA0LQYuhs7Zo
Kransnoyarsk is a first-rate town---particularly after such vile Oriental shitholes at Tomsk. God alone knows why they send exiles here to Kransnoyarsk! This must seem more like a reward, what with the grand forested mountains encompassing the city like high walls, and the broad swift Yenisey winding its way through---worthier of Levitan's deft brush than the Volga will ever be! And I mustn't forget the town itself. Why, there are paved streets and gracious churches and handsome houses built of stone! But they do send exiles here, and they've done so for years. Result? Krasnoyarsk is quite cultured in addition to being picturesque.242Please respect copyright.PENANAA8pnMrq5DL
242Please respect copyright.PENANAlTpPG6tPsA
Anyhow, I have fallen in with an army doctor and two lieutenants all on their way to the Amur. We intend to travel onward together, so I shall hardly have need of my revolver. Boldly would I harrow Hell itself in company with this trio.242Please respect copyright.PENANAPshAwPBbwQ
242Please respect copyright.PENANAsNb5WZ8bHC
Can you read my writing? This ink is disgusting. Blot and splotch and splotch and blot!242Please respect copyright.PENANAyQmso1oVJV
242Please respect copyright.PENANAYzk8Yk1nv8
And now, I shall tell you about these brave fellows. Dr. Aho is something of a philosopher and pessimist---and, by turns, an idealist. Half the time he speaks of the new and happy life awaiting us in some distant future epoch when we'll all fly across Siberia by balloon, and when a sixth sense will be developed so that our brains can reach out to the stars. Then he grows gloomy (worn down by his own enthusiasm) and it's all a case of: "We can't be real. The present can't be real. This is all a nightmare in someone's mind a thousand years ahead!"242Please respect copyright.PENANAFPLWSFnL6D
242Please respect copyright.PENANA0JP3YlHg6q
Then there's the great Baron Kuzma Mishin. The Baron really puts it out as a military man, growling the letter 'R' deep in his through like the doyen of some posh cavalry regiment. He is forever barking at people. You'd think he was ordering a Cossack to be flogged for cowardice when he calls for a cup of tea and jam on black bread. Generally, he's abusive in company that he doesn't know, but just you get him on his own and he's quite a kindly, sensible man---with a concern for society. "The avalanche is coming," he'll warn you. He thinks Science might save us, though. And he has read Herber Spencer, or at least claims to have. But he does throw his weight around, and there's quite a lot of weight to throw.242Please respect copyright.PENANAIk6aGguX8O
242Please respect copyright.PENANAZwn5pKdMuF
Last, but not least, is Rudolph Abramovich, who never glances at any reading matter save a newspaper. I'm sure he hasn't lifted an intellectual finger for the past two decades. All that interests our Rudolph is hunting and boozing, and once he has made up his mind on a subject it would be far too much trouble to alter his opinion. Only thing he had fixed in his mind is that Aho and Mishin are both excellent wise fellows, so he has a habit of dropping the drollest apercus into the conversation, which are all warped echoes of something the other two men have said. Invariably these "mottos" are way off the beaten path, like the wisdom of some demented old babushka.242Please respect copyright.PENANA0Cmdw8tKUO
242Please respect copyright.PENANAxkwNF4rQQ8
Yesterday evening, out I sailed in company with these three musketeers to see the town...242Please respect copyright.PENANAyD785EcQ89
242Please respect copyright.PENANATzPqJ8SCQZ
Everything on the journey thus far has turned out contrary to expectation. In Tomsk where the local ladies are as charming as a butt of frozen herrings---fit males for a walrus---who would have imagined that the Assistant Chief of Police would be a connoisseur of my works? Who would have expected him to do me the honor of driving me on a tour of the local house of prostitution, as his way of paying respect to my literary achievements?242Please respect copyright.PENANAjwcpM6KEwR
242Please respect copyright.PENANA7MvR3qsHUC
Anyhow, there was I forming a wholly favorable impression of the town on our promenade around its surprisingly clean streets---when Mishin must suffer a sudden attack of drought. So, we all had to perform an about-turn into the less salubrious quarter of town to find him an inn on the double for medicinal relief. Oh ho, thought I: Tomsk revisited?
"This fatal attraction for low life!" proclaimed the good Dr. Aho, as we hastened towards the dives. "It proves how democratic we Russians are..."
"Quite right," said Mishin. "The prince shall sit down with the pauper."
"Probably the Prince is a pauper," observed the Baron, with a raucous laugh.242Please respect copyright.PENANAxTU5DHk6ck
242Please respect copyright.PENANA5lKTzMHUz9
"That's because there are too many Princes and Counts, and Barons, if you'll forgive me," said Aho. "But who's to say that's such a bad thing? In the future everybody may be ennobled."
242Please respect copyright.PENANA5lKTzMHUz9
"That's because there are too many Princes and Counts, and Barons, if you'll forgive me," said Aho. "But who's to say that's such a bad thing? In the future everybody may be ennobled."
Mishin nodded. "Ennobled by the magic of Science. One chap will be a Count of Chemistry, and another a Grand Duke of Dentistry."
"The trouble with all these intellectual blokes," said Abramovich, "is that they have their heads too far up their asses." And he remembered to add, "Present company excepted, naturally."
"That's when we Russians feel most at home," Aho said. "With our heads stuck up our asses. And why should that be? Is it because our ordinary lives are so stuck in the mud? Is it because we're all just stuck in a bad dream, anyway?"242Please respect copyright.PENANAM9rMmhKZag
242Please respect copyright.PENANAf3N8OAUrOw
Abramovich seems to possess an uncanny sixth sense for inns; quite soon we found a fairly decent one. Decent, if one overlooked the blue fog of wood smoke proceeding from the stove...242Please respect copyright.PENANAcFrAQIjgEL
242Please respect copyright.PENANAytc3ez0rTm
We ordered ourselves a bottle of Smirnov 21 (would you believe it?) and drank a toast to our journey's next phase.242Please respect copyright.PENANAFhLoWStgtx
242Please respect copyright.PENANAjduFugLthx
Sitting nearby there was a man whose face was as flabby as a boiled turnip. From time to time he buttoned up his coat resolutely then unbuttoned it again in a perfect imitation of frustration---as if he ought to set out on some trip but was unable to make up his mind. Every time this happened, he edged a little closer to us, trying to eavesdrop on our conversation in the usual manner of inebriates, the better to rudely butt in....242Please respect copyright.PENANAQULyOrJCBN
242Please respect copyright.PENANARauUyKYEnM
His chance arose when Aho said something or other to me, "speaking as one man of science to another...."242Please respect copyright.PENANAV6pysS9bRa
242Please respect copyright.PENANAIfc5qiH07C
"Pardon me, gentlemen," interrupted our rotten turnip, "but science is the most noble and beautiful pursuit of all!" His voice had a self-righteous lilt, with undertones of wheedling incrimination. "Pardon me, but in my opinion your scientist struggles with Nature---out of his love for Humanity!"242Please respect copyright.PENANA3RWwQeuhu3
242Please respect copyright.PENANAHoL1nvAWz4
Our Russian genius for soulful generalizations....242Please respect copyright.PENANAbzPOdhb8TO
242Please respect copyright.PENANA7oelvvlqNa
"Quite right," agreed Abramovich. "Nature, red in tooth and claw, must be tamed by the brave hunter!" He poured himself another glassful.242Please respect copyright.PENANAJaMXjRlspJ
242Please respect copyright.PENANAMsHcHSP0Eb
Mishin went bright red in the face. "Just who the hell do you think you are, anyway?"242Please respect copyright.PENANAi0C5CJzoOV
242Please respect copyright.PENANARg54mmIr02
"Milorad Yanovich, by your leave, sir!"242Please respect copyright.PENANAHfdGvNz3yp
242Please respect copyright.PENANAUXddGdMXGW
"Away with you, you banal Milorad Yanovich! How could someone by your name know one iota of the heights of human thought?"
242Please respect copyright.PENANAf3N8OAUrOw
Abramovich seems to possess an uncanny sixth sense for inns; quite soon we found a fairly decent one. Decent, if one overlooked the blue fog of wood smoke proceeding from the stove...242Please respect copyright.PENANAcFrAQIjgEL
242Please respect copyright.PENANAytc3ez0rTm
We ordered ourselves a bottle of Smirnov 21 (would you believe it?) and drank a toast to our journey's next phase.242Please respect copyright.PENANAFhLoWStgtx
242Please respect copyright.PENANAjduFugLthx
Sitting nearby there was a man whose face was as flabby as a boiled turnip. From time to time he buttoned up his coat resolutely then unbuttoned it again in a perfect imitation of frustration---as if he ought to set out on some trip but was unable to make up his mind. Every time this happened, he edged a little closer to us, trying to eavesdrop on our conversation in the usual manner of inebriates, the better to rudely butt in....242Please respect copyright.PENANAQULyOrJCBN
242Please respect copyright.PENANARauUyKYEnM
His chance arose when Aho said something or other to me, "speaking as one man of science to another...."242Please respect copyright.PENANAV6pysS9bRa
242Please respect copyright.PENANAIfc5qiH07C
"Pardon me, gentlemen," interrupted our rotten turnip, "but science is the most noble and beautiful pursuit of all!" His voice had a self-righteous lilt, with undertones of wheedling incrimination. "Pardon me, but in my opinion your scientist struggles with Nature---out of his love for Humanity!"242Please respect copyright.PENANA3RWwQeuhu3
242Please respect copyright.PENANAHoL1nvAWz4
Our Russian genius for soulful generalizations....242Please respect copyright.PENANAbzPOdhb8TO
242Please respect copyright.PENANA7oelvvlqNa
"Quite right," agreed Abramovich. "Nature, red in tooth and claw, must be tamed by the brave hunter!" He poured himself another glassful.242Please respect copyright.PENANAJaMXjRlspJ
242Please respect copyright.PENANAMsHcHSP0Eb
Mishin went bright red in the face. "Just who the hell do you think you are, anyway?"242Please respect copyright.PENANAi0C5CJzoOV
242Please respect copyright.PENANARg54mmIr02
"Milorad Yanovich, by your leave, sir!"242Please respect copyright.PENANAHfdGvNz3yp
242Please respect copyright.PENANAUXddGdMXGW
"Away with you, you banal Milorad Yanovich! How could someone by your name know one iota of the heights of human thought?"
Naturally, Yanovich shuffled himself even closer to us.242Please respect copyright.PENANATMCVi9ssF0
242Please respect copyright.PENANAkEqRRmtuhf
"Pardon me, gentlemen, but banality is the whole trouble---you've hit the nail on the head. The ordinary human being is downright idiotic. You can see that easily in these God-forsaken Siberian hellholes."242Please respect copyright.PENANAnbbh9PKVVO
242Please respect copyright.PENANAP4mMyrmCqK
"Present premises excused," chipped in Abramovich.242Please respect copyright.PENANAo0X7RjIDDg
242Please respect copyright.PENANAASeGAZFhJd
"But nature is even stupider. The Earth whirls around the Sun, like a child's spinning top: how trivial it all is! At any moment a dark star or a wandering moon might crash into us. Splat! And that's all. Goodbye to the Parthenon and to Venice Srenissima." Tears rose to Yanovich's eyes. "Look at your average Siberian---a beast is he not? Mind you, he's your ordinary run of Russian peasant who's been brutalized."242Please respect copyright.PENANAeLCBkl4LG6
242Please respect copyright.PENANAp3Rka3nYPw
"A brute needs the whip," quoted Abramovich.242Please respect copyright.PENANAv4kBzTu3K8
242Please respect copyright.PENANAKbiOGDynj8
"Mark my words, sirs, compared with him the tribes a few hundred versts north of here are noble..." and Yanovich hunted for the word, "savages. Well, almost. Compared to him they're quite magnificent. They're heroes. But how can they be heroes if they've always stayed here?---that's what mystifies me. They never rose above their condition. Whereas we Russians have sunk down to it. Ah, the disgusting flatness of it all! And under the surface everything is rotten and decayed....What was I talking about?"242Please respect copyright.PENANAlvWnhtoqRC
242Please respect copyright.PENANA8wYKduKyHt
At this moment, the wick in the nearest lam started humming loudly. Yanovich pricked up his ears as if he heard something rush through the sky above the roofs of Krasnoyarsk. He buttoned his coat swiftly and ran out of the inn, leaving the door wide open. Thus, we were able to see him standing in the street, staring up at the night sky as if to reassure himself that all the stars were in their right places. Or maybe he was only wondering whether it was going to rain, since his boots had holes in them. Presently, he returned, unbuttoned and subsided right up against us.242Please respect copyright.PENANAVQwe0HMR9Z
242Please respect copyright.PENANATMxkTqJCAI
"Excuse me, but I'm sacrificing myself to science," he confided to me in a loud whisper. (I swear to you, Ludmilla---by Mars and Jupiter---that I am not inventing this Yanovich is a mirror for my own personal soul!) "Why, if I went to Moscow to present a proper report to the authorities, they'd make me a professor or even a privy councilor on the spot. You have the floor of Moscow all about you, sir, is this not so?"242Please respect copyright.PENANA0aK6vYkPMi
242Please respect copyright.PENANAwqE4Y3FpH9
Reluctantly, I conceded the fact.242Please respect copyright.PENANAcRvevon1Il
242Please respect copyright.PENANAKiKCPqe8UL
Mishin nudged Abramovich in the ribs. "We've got ourselves a provincial bore. Sic the dogs on him, Rudolph!"242Please respect copyright.PENANAgJQJCY2pWR
242Please respect copyright.PENANAamOXULPuna
"Ah, Moscow!" cried Vasilyev, in tipsy torment. "Freedom, fulfillment! Afterwards I could drain the bogland. With all the trees down, I could sell the timber and plant wheat. Alas, it's too cold for that...Anyway, the mosquitoes! And the people: too corrupted. Maybe you two men of Science might help me present a good report?"242Please respect copyright.PENANAaa7trbLF4X
242Please respect copyright.PENANALLucVljzaJ
As soon as those words were out, to my not very great surprise Yanovich became jealously hostile.242Please respect copyright.PENANAYZBUeCa1U6
242Please respect copyright.PENANARjo0Rd538A
"Scientists! You ordinary scientists!" he sneered. "If the Earth blew up tomorrow, they'd go on staring down their microscopes like England's Lord Nelson at Gibraltar!"242Please respect copyright.PENANAGEppPUZZEI
242Please respect copyright.PENANAqrkPE4jts9
"Turning a blind eye," Abramovich dutifully supplied.242Please respect copyright.PENANAF8t83GaIvx
242Please respect copyright.PENANA97KZyl7NCS
"Would they listen to me? As for the authorities...well, that's our whole sickness, is it not? Authority: how we worship authority. Ah, I can see how you hate me for not acting like a hero and setting off forthwith to Moscow and fame---but it's not so easy. There aren't many authorities on an event like this---except for the Biblical narrative of Sodom and Gamora, destroyed by God. I can't persuade anyone in Krasnoyarsk to do anything about it. In Moscow, who gives a shit about Krasnoyarsk?"242Please respect copyright.PENANA28hZuYf9AB
242Please respect copyright.PENANAsawayWm6vv
By now Baron Kuzma was in an orgy of wrath. He grabbed Yanovich by the lapels. "What in the hell are you going on about?" he shouted into the man's face.242Please respect copyright.PENANAv1Fo188mzZ
242Please respect copyright.PENANANhns2EwSOw
Our turnip was shaken, but all the drink he had swilled gave him courage.242Please respect copyright.PENANA9eIzMHyn6g
242Please respect copyright.PENANAUHn6gIx8GN
"You smart Muscovites haven't even heard! And it's the greatest mystery of the age."242Please respect copyright.PENANALBARAgMRfl
242Please respect copyright.PENANA0nB8pBf5Z6
"If you don't tell me, then, by God, I'll beat the living shit out of you!"242Please respect copyright.PENANASYB6IV7MiX
242Please respect copyright.PENANAdhq8FVnw1J
"The explosion that devastated the Taiga. The visitor from beyond. You haven't heard."242Please respect copyright.PENANAPVKY2MpWaB
242Please respect copyright.PENANA1s30oJR0oS
"Hang on," said I..."242Please respect copyright.PENANAQjPWCpPC9l
242Please respect copyright.PENANADqLtGbobp4
Because my celestial charmer, I had heard of it---hadn't you? I refer to the enclosed clipping from the Siberian Herald, which I originally intended for quite another 'sanitary' purpose.242Please respect copyright.PENANAPCT4nsrhn6
242Please respect copyright.PENANA4re5EBqrEl
Yanovich went on to spin us the tallest tale I'd ever heard, of massive destruction a few hundred versts north of Kransoyarsk up by the Stony Tunguska River. I shall list his "details" in a moment, since I want to ask you quite seriously, Ludmilla: What do you make of this? My telescopic tormentress, I wish your frank scientific opinion....242Please respect copyright.PENANAyfLT50pMBe
242Please respect copyright.PENANAmhbDJk23os
242Please respect copyright.PENANAQfMLMO37xe
242Please respect copyright.PENANAu7GSTHk1hI
242Please respect copyright.PENANAkEqRRmtuhf
"Pardon me, gentlemen, but banality is the whole trouble---you've hit the nail on the head. The ordinary human being is downright idiotic. You can see that easily in these God-forsaken Siberian hellholes."242Please respect copyright.PENANAnbbh9PKVVO
242Please respect copyright.PENANAP4mMyrmCqK
"Present premises excused," chipped in Abramovich.242Please respect copyright.PENANAo0X7RjIDDg
242Please respect copyright.PENANAASeGAZFhJd
"But nature is even stupider. The Earth whirls around the Sun, like a child's spinning top: how trivial it all is! At any moment a dark star or a wandering moon might crash into us. Splat! And that's all. Goodbye to the Parthenon and to Venice Srenissima." Tears rose to Yanovich's eyes. "Look at your average Siberian---a beast is he not? Mind you, he's your ordinary run of Russian peasant who's been brutalized."242Please respect copyright.PENANAeLCBkl4LG6
242Please respect copyright.PENANAp3Rka3nYPw
"A brute needs the whip," quoted Abramovich.242Please respect copyright.PENANAv4kBzTu3K8
242Please respect copyright.PENANAKbiOGDynj8
"Mark my words, sirs, compared with him the tribes a few hundred versts north of here are noble..." and Yanovich hunted for the word, "savages. Well, almost. Compared to him they're quite magnificent. They're heroes. But how can they be heroes if they've always stayed here?---that's what mystifies me. They never rose above their condition. Whereas we Russians have sunk down to it. Ah, the disgusting flatness of it all! And under the surface everything is rotten and decayed....What was I talking about?"242Please respect copyright.PENANAlvWnhtoqRC
242Please respect copyright.PENANA8wYKduKyHt
At this moment, the wick in the nearest lam started humming loudly. Yanovich pricked up his ears as if he heard something rush through the sky above the roofs of Krasnoyarsk. He buttoned his coat swiftly and ran out of the inn, leaving the door wide open. Thus, we were able to see him standing in the street, staring up at the night sky as if to reassure himself that all the stars were in their right places. Or maybe he was only wondering whether it was going to rain, since his boots had holes in them. Presently, he returned, unbuttoned and subsided right up against us.242Please respect copyright.PENANAVQwe0HMR9Z
242Please respect copyright.PENANATMxkTqJCAI
"Excuse me, but I'm sacrificing myself to science," he confided to me in a loud whisper. (I swear to you, Ludmilla---by Mars and Jupiter---that I am not inventing this Yanovich is a mirror for my own personal soul!) "Why, if I went to Moscow to present a proper report to the authorities, they'd make me a professor or even a privy councilor on the spot. You have the floor of Moscow all about you, sir, is this not so?"242Please respect copyright.PENANA0aK6vYkPMi
242Please respect copyright.PENANAwqE4Y3FpH9
Reluctantly, I conceded the fact.242Please respect copyright.PENANAcRvevon1Il
242Please respect copyright.PENANAKiKCPqe8UL
Mishin nudged Abramovich in the ribs. "We've got ourselves a provincial bore. Sic the dogs on him, Rudolph!"242Please respect copyright.PENANAgJQJCY2pWR
242Please respect copyright.PENANAamOXULPuna
"Ah, Moscow!" cried Vasilyev, in tipsy torment. "Freedom, fulfillment! Afterwards I could drain the bogland. With all the trees down, I could sell the timber and plant wheat. Alas, it's too cold for that...Anyway, the mosquitoes! And the people: too corrupted. Maybe you two men of Science might help me present a good report?"242Please respect copyright.PENANAaa7trbLF4X
242Please respect copyright.PENANALLucVljzaJ
As soon as those words were out, to my not very great surprise Yanovich became jealously hostile.242Please respect copyright.PENANAYZBUeCa1U6
242Please respect copyright.PENANARjo0Rd538A
"Scientists! You ordinary scientists!" he sneered. "If the Earth blew up tomorrow, they'd go on staring down their microscopes like England's Lord Nelson at Gibraltar!"242Please respect copyright.PENANAGEppPUZZEI
242Please respect copyright.PENANAqrkPE4jts9
"Turning a blind eye," Abramovich dutifully supplied.242Please respect copyright.PENANAF8t83GaIvx
242Please respect copyright.PENANA97KZyl7NCS
"Would they listen to me? As for the authorities...well, that's our whole sickness, is it not? Authority: how we worship authority. Ah, I can see how you hate me for not acting like a hero and setting off forthwith to Moscow and fame---but it's not so easy. There aren't many authorities on an event like this---except for the Biblical narrative of Sodom and Gamora, destroyed by God. I can't persuade anyone in Krasnoyarsk to do anything about it. In Moscow, who gives a shit about Krasnoyarsk?"242Please respect copyright.PENANA28hZuYf9AB
242Please respect copyright.PENANAsawayWm6vv
By now Baron Kuzma was in an orgy of wrath. He grabbed Yanovich by the lapels. "What in the hell are you going on about?" he shouted into the man's face.242Please respect copyright.PENANAv1Fo188mzZ
242Please respect copyright.PENANANhns2EwSOw
Our turnip was shaken, but all the drink he had swilled gave him courage.242Please respect copyright.PENANA9eIzMHyn6g
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"You smart Muscovites haven't even heard! And it's the greatest mystery of the age."242Please respect copyright.PENANALBARAgMRfl
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"If you don't tell me, then, by God, I'll beat the living shit out of you!"242Please respect copyright.PENANASYB6IV7MiX
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"The explosion that devastated the Taiga. The visitor from beyond. You haven't heard."242Please respect copyright.PENANAPVKY2MpWaB
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"Hang on," said I..."242Please respect copyright.PENANAQjPWCpPC9l
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Because my celestial charmer, I had heard of it---hadn't you? I refer to the enclosed clipping from the Siberian Herald, which I originally intended for quite another 'sanitary' purpose.242Please respect copyright.PENANAPCT4nsrhn6
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Yanovich went on to spin us the tallest tale I'd ever heard, of massive destruction a few hundred versts north of Kransoyarsk up by the Stony Tunguska River. I shall list his "details" in a moment, since I want to ask you quite seriously, Ludmilla: What do you make of this? My telescopic tormentress, I wish your frank scientific opinion....242Please respect copyright.PENANAyfLT50pMBe
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