"The red laugh!" cried I, interrupting him. "Help. Again I hear the red laugh!"
"Friends!" continued the doctor, addressing himself to the groaning mutilated shadows. "Friends! we shall have a red moon and a red sun, and the animals will have a merry red coat, and we will skin all those that are too white--that are too white.... You have not tasted blood? It is slightly sticky and slightly warm, but it is red and has such a merry red laugh!..."
... It was godless and unlawful. The red cross is respected by the whole world, as a thing sacred, and they saw that it was a train full of harmless wounded and not soldiers, and they ought to have warned us of the mine. The poor fellows, they were dreaming of home....
... Around a samovar, around a real samovar, out of which the steam was rising as out of an engine--the glass on the lamp had even grown dim, there was so much steam. And the cups were the same, blue outside and white inside, very pretty little cups, a wedding present. My wife's sister gave them--she is a very kind and good woman.
"Is it possible they are all whole?" asked I, incredulously, mixing the sugar in my glass with a clean silver spoon.
"One was broken," said my wife, absently; she was holding the tap open just then and the water was running out easily and prettily.
"Oh, nothing. Wheel me into the study just once more. You may as well trouble yourself for the sake of a hero. You idled away your time while I was away, but now that is over. I'll bring you to order," and I began singing, as a joke of course,--"My friends, we're bravely hurrying towards the foe...."
They understood the joke and smiled, only my wife did not lift up her face, she was wiping the cups with a clean embroidered cloth. And in the study I saw once again the light-blue wall-paper, a lamp with a green shade and a table with a water-bottle upon it. And it was a little dusty.
"Pour me some water out of this," ordered I, merrily.
"That doesn't matter, pour me out some. And you," said I to my wife, "take our son and go into the next room for a minute. Please."
And I drank the water with delight in small sips, while my wife and son were in the next room, and I could not see them.
"That's all right. Now come here. But why is he not in bed by this time?"