“First to Perm . . .”  Lentilov said, in an undertone, “from there to Tiumen, then Tomsk . . . then . . . then . . .  Kamchatka.  There the Samoyedes take one over Behring’s Straits in boats . . . .  And then we are in America. . . .  There are lots of furry animals there. . . .”

“And California?” asked Volodya.

“California is lower down. . . .  We’ve only to get to America and California is not far off. . . .  And one can get a living by hunting and plunder.”

All day long Lentilov avoided the little girls, and seemed to look at them with suspicion.  In the evening he happened to be left alone with them for five minutes or so.  It was awkward to be silent.

He cleared his throat morosely, rubbed his left hand against his right, looked sullenly at Katya and asked: 

“Have you read Mayne Reid?”

“No, I haven’t. . . .  I say, can you skate?”

Absorbed in his own reflections, Lentilov made no reply to this question; he simply puffed out his cheeks, and gave a long sigh as though he were very hot.  He looked up at Katya once more and said: 

“When a herd of bisons stampedes across the prairie the earth trembles, and the frightened mustangs kick and neigh.”

He smiled impressively and added: 

“And the Indians attack the trains, too.  But worst of all are the mosquitoes and the termites.”

“Why, what’s that?”

“They’re something like ants, but with wings.  They bite fearfully.  Do you know who I am?”

“Mr. Lentilov.”

“No, I am Montehomo, the Hawk’s Claw, Chief of the Ever Victorious.”

Masha, the youngest, looked at him, then into the darkness out of window and said, wondering: 

“And we had lentils for supper yesterday.”

Lentilov’s incomprehensible utterances, and the way he was always whispering with Volodya, and the way Volodya seemed now to be always thinking about something instead of playing . . . all this was strange and mysterious.  And the two elder girls, Katya and Sonya, began to keep a sharp look-out on the boys.  At night, when the boys had gone to bed, the girls crept to their bedroom door, and listened to what they were saying.  Ah, what they discovered!  The boys were planning to run away to America to dig for gold:  they had everything ready for the journey, a pistol, two knives, biscuits, a burning glass to serve instead of matches, a compass, and four roubles in cash.  They learned that the boys would have to walk some thousands of miles, and would have to fight tigers and savages on the road:  then they would get gold and ivory, slay their enemies, become pirates, drink gin, and finally marry beautiful maidens, and make a plantation.

The boys interrupted each other in their excitement.  Throughout the conversation, Lentilov called himself “Montehomo, the Hawk’s Claw,” and Volodya was “my pale-face brother!”

“Mind you don’t tell mamma,” said Katya, as they went back to bed.  “Volodya will bring us gold and ivory from America, but if you tell mamma he won’t be allowed to go.”