“Well, wife, we have simply murdered a man for nothing.  To-day we killed a man at dinner-time, we killed him all right, but not a farthing did we find.”

So this fellow in the crimson shirt turned out to be the forester, the woman’s husband.

“The man’s dead for nothing,” said his ragged companions.  “In vain we have taken a sin on our souls.”

The forester’s wife looked at all three and laughed.

“What are you laughing at, silly?”

“I am laughing because I haven’t murdered anyone, and I have not taken any sin on my soul, but I have found the money.”

“What money?  What nonsense are you talking!”

“Here, look whether I am talking nonsense.”

The forester’s wife untied the parcel and, wicked woman, showed them the money.  Then she described how Anyutka had come, what she had said, and so on.  The murderers were delighted and began to divide the money between them, they almost quarrelled, then they sat down to the table, you know, to drink.  And Anyutka lay there, poor child, hearing every word and shaking like a Jew in a frying-pan.  What was she to do?  And from their words she learned that father was dead and lying across the road, and she fancied, in her foolishness, that the wolves and the dogs would eat father, and that our horse had gone far away into the forest, and would be eaten by wolves too, and that she, Anyutka herself, would be put in prison and beaten, because she had not taken care of the money.  The robbers got drunk and sent the woman for vodka.  They gave her five roubles for vodka and sweet wine.  They set to singing and drinking on other people’s money.  They drank and drank, the dogs, and sent the woman off again that they might drink beyond all bounds.

“We will keep it up till morning,” they cried.  “We have plenty of money now, there is no need to spare!  Drink, and don’t drink away your wits.”

And so at midnight, when they were all fairly fuddled, the woman ran off for vodka the third time, and the forester strode twice up and down the cottage, and he was staggering.

“Look here, lads,” he said, “we must make away with the girl, too!  If we leave her, she will be the first to bear witness against us.”

They talked it over and discussed it, and decided that Anyutka must not be left alive, that she must be killed.  Of course, to murder an innocent child’s a fearful thing, even a man drunken or crazy would not take such a job on himself.  They were quarrelling for maybe an hour which was to kill her, one tried to put it on the other, they almost fought again, and no one would agree to do it; then they cast lots.  It fell to the forester.  He drank another full glass, cleared his throat, and went to the outer room for an axe.