Summary

Chapter 4 starts with a knock on the door of Helene’s compartment, which frightened her and Aliocha. Aliocha climbed into a luggage storage area above the door. Helene opened the door and saw the two provodnitsas. The dark-haired provodnitsa searched the compartment with her eyes and then left, disappointed. The blonde provodnitsa took Helene by the hand and thanked her.

Later, Helene fell asleep. Aliocha examined Helene’s travel documents. He saw that her ticket had cost more than 27,000 roubles and that her destination was Vladivostok.

Aliocha planned to escape from the train at the next station, Irkutsk, because it is near Lake Baikal, a popular tourist destination, and lots of people will disembark at the station for that reason. He remembered a night he spent with a woman, who he complimented by telling her that her eyes were like Lake Baikal, although he...