Summary of the “Malice” Chekhov
Before the court investigator was a very skinny peasant. In his eyes, a sullen severity could be seen from behind thick brows. His hair was tangled and uncombed, which gave him a spider’s harshness.
“Denis Grigoriev, come here and answer my questions,” the investigator tells him. – On the 7th of July this year the railway guard Ivan Akinfov, when he was walking along the line in the morning, saw you unscrewing the nuts on the rails. With this nut he detained you. All right?
– All right, I said? Was that all so?
– Why did you twist it?
– Stop your “c chauvo”, answer the question clearly: why did the nut unscrew?
“I would not need it, I did not unscrew it,” croaked Denis, looking at the ceiling.
– I repeat: why do you need it?
“We’re making weights out of nuts.”
– Well, we, the people, all the muzhiks, Klimovsky.
“So, do not
“He never lied, but now he’s lying…” muttered Denis, blinking. – And what about without a sinker? Neither that without a sinker is not caught, all space loves: both perch and pike with burbot on the bottom float.
“What are you telling me here?” What pike? What burbot?
“Well, you asked why.” I say, everyone is caught.
“So you say that you untwisted the nut on the tracks to make the sinker out of it?”
– Well, of course. Do not play it to them.
– Well, you can take lead, a piece of scrap metal, a nail….
“Lead is something to buy, but carnations and scrap metal do not fit.” A better nut is not, it is heavy, and with a hole already.
“Stop fooling around.” It’s like a newborn, do not you understand what consequences such unscrewing can lead to? If the watchman had overlooked, the train would have gone under the slope, people would have perished
“Forgive me, Lord, and deliver me, Your Honor!” I did not kill anyone. I’m baptized and not a villain. The century has lived and in a head such was not. We do not unscrew everything, we leave. With the mind do.
“Now it’s clear why last year the train got off the track,” the investigator said. – Clear…
– I say, it is now clear to me why the train left the last year under the slope.
“Then you are educated to understand, your honor.”
“You found a nut when you searched.” Where did you unscrew it? In which place of the road?
– I did not unscrew it, Ignashka brought it to me, and the one that was lying in the sleigh With Mitrofan was unscrewed.
“Yes, Mitrofan, have you heard?” He’s making seines in our country, and selling them to the gentlemen. And on each of them pieces for ten something is necessary.
– All, under Article 1081 you are sentenced to exile to hard labor, for the damage done to the railway.
– Ciao? For what on hard labor, then? I did not do any harm to anyone, I did not know anything!
“You’re lying, you all understand, you’re pretending to be here!”
– I’m not lying, without a sinker, nothing is caught. Ask the village if you do not believe it…
In the silence that has come, Denis is shifting from foot to foot, the investigator’s desk is examining, and the other is quickly writing quickly.
“Can I go now?” Denis could not stand the silence.
– No. I must arrest you, and send to prison.
“Why in prison?” Your Honor? I did not steal, I did not fight. For what.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)