A.P. Chekhov - The Swedish Match
I
II
I
ON the morning of October 6, 1885, a well-dressed young man
presented himself at the office of the police superintendent of
the 2nd division of the S. district, and announced that his
employer, a retired cornet of the guards, called Mark Ivanovitch
Klyauzov, had been murdered. The young man was pale and
extremely agitated as he made this announcement. His hands
trembled and there was a look of horror in his eyes.
"To whom have I the honour of speaking?" the superintendent
asked him.
"Psyekov, Klyauzov's steward. Agricultural and engineering
expert."
The police superintendent, on reaching the spot with Psyekov and
the necessary witnesses, found the position as follows.
Masses of people were crowding about the lodge in which Klyauzov
lived. The news of the event had flown round the neighbourhood
with the rapidity of lightning, and, thanks to its being a
holiday, the people were flocking to the lodge from all the
neighbouring villages. There was a regular hubbub of talk. Pale
and tearful faces were to be seen here and there. The door into
Klyauzov's bedroom was found to be locked. The key was in the
lock on the inside.
"Evidently the criminals made their way in by the window"
Psyekov observed, as they examined the door.
They went into the garden into which the bedroom window looked.
The window had a gloomy, ominous air. It was covered by a faded
green curtain. One corner of the curtain was slightly turned
back, which made it possible to peep into the bedroom.
"Has anyone of you looked in at the window?" inquired the
superintendent.
"No, your honour," said Yefrem, the gardener, a little,
grey-haired old man with the face of a veteran non-commissioned
officer. "No one feels like looking when they are shaking in
every limb!"
"Ech, Mark Ivanitch! Mark Ivanitch!" sighed the superintendent,
as he looked at the window. "I told you that you would come to a
bad end! I told you, poor dear--you wouldn't listen! Dissipation
leads to no good!"
"It's thanks to Yefrem," said Psyekov. "We should never have
guessed it but for him. It was he who first thought that
something was wrong. He came to me this morning and said: 'Why
is it our master hasn't waked up for so long? He hasn't been out
of his bedroom for a whole week! When he said that to me I was
struck all of a heap. . . . The thought flashed through my mind
at once. He hasn't made an appearance since Saturday of last
week, and to-day's Sunday. Seven days is no joke!"
"Yes, poor man," the superintendent sighed again. "A clever
fellow, well-educated, and so good-hearted. There was no one
like him, one may say, in company. But a rake; the kingdom of
heaven be his! I'm not surprised at anything with him! Stepan,"
he said, addressing one of the witnesses, "ride off this minute
to my house and send Andryushka to the police captain's, let him
report to him. Say Mark Ivanitch has been murdered! Yes, and run
to the inspector--why should he sit in comfort doing nothing?
Let him come here. And you go yourself as fast as you can to the
examining magistrate, Nikolay Yermolaitch, and tell him to come
here. Wait a bit, I will write him a note."
The police superintendent stationed watchmen round the lodge,
and went off to the steward's to have tea. Ten minutes later he
was sitting on a stool, carefully nibbling lumps of sugar, and
sipping tea as hot as a red-hot coal.
"There it is! . . ." he said to Psyekov, "there it is! . . . a
gentleman, and a well-to-do one, too . . . a favourite of the
gods, one may say, to use Pushkin's expression, and what has he
made of it? Nothing! He gave himself up to drinking and
debauchery, and . . . here now . . . he has been murdered!"
Two hours later the examining magistrate drove up. Nikolay
Yermolaitch Tchubikov (that was the magistrate's name), a tall,
thick-set old man of sixty, had been hard at work for a quarter
of a century. He was known to the whole district as an honest,
intelligent, energetic man, devoted to his work. His invariable
companion, assistant, and secretary, a tall young man of six and
twenty, called Dyukovsky, arrived on the scene of action with
him.
"Is it possible, gentlemen?" Tchubikov began, going into
Psyekov's room and rapidly shaking hands with everyone. "Is it
possible? Mark Ivanitch? Murdered? No, it's impossible!
Imposs-i-ble!"
"There it is," sighed the superintendent
"Merciful heavens! Why I saw him only last Friday. At the fair
at Tarabankovo! Saving your presence, I drank a glass of vodka
with him!"
"There it is," the superintendent sighed once more.
They heaved sighs, expressed their horror, drank a glass of tea
each, and went to the lodge.
"Make way!" the police inspector shouted to the crowd.
On going into the lodge the examining magistrate first of all
set to work to inspect the door into the bedroom. The door
turned out to be made of deal, painted yellow, and not to have
been tampered with. No special traces that might have served as
evidence could be found. They proceeded to break open the door.
"I beg you, gentlemen, who are not concerned, to retire," said
the examining magistrate, when, after long banging and cracking,
the door yielded to the axe and the chisel. "I ask this in the
interests of the investigation. . . . Inspector, admit no one!"
Tchubikov, his assistant, and the police superintendent opened
the door and hesitatingly, one after the other, walked into the
room. The following spectacle met their eyes. In the solitary
window stood a big wooden bedstead with an immense feather bed
on it. On the rumpled feather bed lay a creased and crumpled
quilt. A pillow, in a cotton pillow case--also much creased, was
on the floor. On a little table beside the bed lay a silver
watch, and silver coins to the value of twenty kopecks. Some
sulphur matches lay there too. Except the bed, the table, and a
solitary chair, there was no furniture in the room. Looking
under the bed, the superintendent saw two dozen empty bottles,
an old straw hat, and a jar of vodka. Under the table lay one
boot, covered with dust. Taking a look round the room, Tchubikov
frowned and flushed crimson.
"The blackguards!" he muttered, clenching his fists.
"And where is Mark Ivanitch?" Dyukovsky asked quietly.
"I beg you not to put your spoke in," Tchubikov answered
roughly. "Kindly examine the floor. This is the second case in
my experience, Yevgraf Kuzmitch," he added to the police
superintendent, dropping his voice. "In 1870 I had a similar
case. But no doubt you remember it. . . . The murder of the
merchant Portretov. It was just the same. The blackguards
murdered him, and dragged the dead body out of the window."
Tchubikov went to the window, drew the curtain aside, and
cautiously pushed the window. The window opened.
"It opens, so it was not fastened. . . . H'm there are traces on
the window-sill. Do you see? Here is the trace of a knee. . . .
Some one climbed out. . . . We shall have to inspect the window
thoroughly."
"There is nothing special to be observed on the floor," said
Dyukovsky. "No stains, nor scratches. The only thing I have
found is a used Swedish match. Here it is. As far as I remember,
Mark Ivanitch didn't smoke; in a general way he used sulphur
ones, never Swedish matches. This match may serve as a clue. . .
."
"Oh, hold your tongue, please!" cried Tchubikov, with a wave of
his hand. "He keeps on about his match! I can't stand these
excitable people! Instead of looking for matches, you had better
examine the bed!"
On inspecting the bed, Dyukovsky reported:
"There are no stains of blood or of anything else. . . . Nor are
there any fresh rents. On the pillow there are traces of teeth.
A liquid, having the smell of beer and also the taste of it, has
been spilt on the quilt. . . . The general appearance of the bed
gives grounds for supposing there has been a struggle."
"I know there was a struggle without your telling me! No one
asked you whether there was a struggle. Instead of looking out
for a struggle you had better be . . ."
"One boot is here, the other one is not on the scene."
"Well, what of that?"
"Why, they must have strangled him while he was taking off his
boots. He hadn't time to take the second boot off when . . . ."
"He's off again! . . . And how do you know that he was
strangled?"
"There are marks of teeth on the pillow. The pillow itself is
very much crumpled, and has been flung to a distance of six feet
from the bed."
"He argues, the chatterbox! We had better go into the garden.
You had better look in the garden instead of rummaging about
here. . . . I can do that without your help."
When they went out into the garden their first task was the
inspection of the grass. The grass had been trampled down under
the windows. The clump of burdock against the wall under the
window turned out to have been trodden on too. Dyukovsky
succeeded in finding on it some broken shoots, and a little bit
of wadding. On the topmost burrs, some fine threads of dark blue
wool were found.
"What was the colour of his last suit? Dyukovsky asked Psyekov.
"It was yellow, made of canvas."
"Capital! Then it was they who were in dark blue. . . ."
Some of the burrs were cut off and carefully wrapped up in
paper. At that moment Artsybashev-Svistakovsky, the police
captain, and Tyutyuev, the doctor, arrived. The police captain
greeted the others, and at once proceeded to satisfy his
curiosity; the doctor, a tall and extremely lean man with sunken
eyes, a long nose, and a sharp chin, greeting no one and asking
no questions, sat down on a stump, heaved a sigh and said:
"The Serbians are in a turmoil again! I can't make out what they
want! Ah, Austria, Austria! It's your doing!"
The inspection of the window from outside yielded absolutely no
result; the inspection of the grass and surrounding bushes
furnished many valuable clues. Dyukovsky succeeded, for
instance, in detecting a long, dark streak in the grass,
consisting of stains, and stretching from the window for a good
many yards into the garden. The streak ended under one of the
lilac bushes in a big, brownish stain. Under the same bush was
found a boot, which turned out to be the fellow to the one found
in the bedroom.
"This is an old stain of blood," said Dyukovsky, examining the
stain.
At the word "blood," the doctor got up and lazily took a cursory
glance at the stain.
"Yes, it's blood," he muttered.
"Then he wasn't strangled since there's blood," said Tchubikov,
looking malignantly at Dyukovsky.
"He was strangled in the bedroom, and here, afraid he would come
to, they stabbed him with something sharp. The stain under the
bush shows that he lay there for a comparatively long time,
while they were trying to find some way of carrying him, or
something to carry him on out of the garden."
"Well, and the boot?"
"That boot bears out my contention that he was murdered while he
was taking off his boots before going to bed. He had taken off
one boot, the other, that is, this boot he had only managed to
get half off. While he was being dragged and shaken the boot
that was only half on came off of itself. . . ."
"What powers of deduction! Just look at him!" Tchubikov jeered.
"He brings it all out so pat! And when will you learn not to put
your theories forward? You had better take a little of the grass
for analysis instead of arguing!"
After making the inspection and taking a plan of the locality
they went off to the steward's to write a report and have lunch.
At lunch they talked.
"Watch, money, and everything else . . . are untouched,"
Tchubikov began the conversation. "It is as clear as twice two
makes four that the murder was committed not for mercenary
motives."
"It was committed by a man of the educated class," Dyukovsky put
in.
"From what do you draw that conclusion?"
"I base it on the Swedish match which the peasants about here
have not learned to use yet. Such matches are only used by
landowners and not by all of them. He was murdered, by the way,
not by one but by three, at least: two held him while the third
strangled him. Klyauzov was strong and the murderers must have
known that."
"What use would his strength be to him, supposing he were
asleep?"
"The murderers came upon him as he was taking off his boots. He
was taking off his boots, so he was not asleep."
"It's no good making things up! You had better eat your lunch!"
"To my thinking, your honour," said Yefrem, the gardener, as he
set the samovar on the table, "this vile deed was the work of no
other than Nikolashka."
"Quite possible," said Psyekov.
"Who's this Nikolashka?"
"The master's valet, your honour," answered Yefrem. "Who else
should it be if not he? He's a ruffian, your honour! A drunkard,
and such a dissipated fellow! May the Queen of Heaven never
bring the like again! He always used to fetch vodka for the
master, he always used to put the master to bed. . . . Who
should it be if not he? And what's more, I venture to bring to
your notice, your honour, he boasted once in a tavern, the
rascal, that he would murder his master. It's all on account of
Akulka, on account of a woman. . . . He had a soldier's wife. .
. . The master took a fancy to her and got intimate with her,
and he . . . was angered by it, to be sure. He's lolling about
in the kitchen now, drunk. He's crying . . . making out he is
grieving over the master . . . ."
"And anyone might be angry over Akulka, certainly," said Psyekov.
"She is a soldier's wife, a peasant woman, but . . . Mark
Ivanitch might well call her Nana. There is something in her
that does suggest Nana . . . fascinating . . ."
"I have seen her . . . I know . . ." said the examining
magistrate, blowing his nose in a red handkerchief.
Dyukovsky blushed and dropped his eyes. The police
superintendent drummed on his saucer with his fingers. The
police captain coughed and rummaged in his portfolio for
something. On the doctor alone the mention of Akulka and Nana
appeared to produce no impression. Tchubikov ordered Nikolashka
to be fetched. Nikolashka, a lanky young man with a long
pock-marked nose and a hollow chest, wearing a reefer jacket
that had been his master's, came into Psyekov's room and bowed
down to the ground before Tchubikov. His face looked sleepy and
showed traces of tears. He was drunk and could hardly stand up.
"Where is your master?" Tchubikov asked him.
"He's murdered, your honour."
As he said this Nikolashka blinked and began to cry.
"We know that he is murdered. But where is he now? Where is his
body?"
"They say it was dragged out of window and buried in the
garden."
"H'm . . . the results of the investigation are already known in
the kitchen then. . . . That's bad. My good fellow, where were
you on the night when your master was killed? On Saturday, that
is?"
Nikolashka raised his head, craned his neck, and pondered.
"I can't say, your honour," he said. "I was drunk and I don't
remember."
"An alibi!" whispered Dyukovsky, grinning and rubbing his hands.
"Ah! And why is it there's blood under your master's window!"
Nikolashka flung up his head and pondered.
"Think a little quicker," said the police captain.
"In a minute. That blood's from a trifling matter, your honour.
I killed a hen; I cut her throat very simply in the usual way,
and she fluttered out of my hands and took and ran off. . .
.That's what the blood's from."
Yefrem testified that Nikolashka really did kill a hen every
evening and killed it in all sorts of places, and no one had
seen the half-killed hen running about the garden, though of
course it could not be positively denied that it had done so.
"An alibi," laughed Dyukovsky, "and what an idiotic alibi."
"Have you had relations with Akulka?"
"Yes, I have sinned."
"And your master carried her off from you?"
"No, not at all. It was this gentleman here, Mr. Psyekov, Ivan
Mihalitch, who enticed her from me, and the master took her from
Ivan Mihalitch. That's how it was."
Psyekov looked confused and began rubbing his left eye.
Dyukovsky fastened his eyes upon him, detected his confusion,
and started. He saw on the steward's legs dark blue trousers
which he had not previously noticed. The trousers reminded him
of the blue threads found on the burdock. Tchubikov in his turn
glanced suspiciously at Psyekov.
"You can go!" he said to Nikolashka. "And now allow me to put
one question to you, Mr. Psyekov. You were here, of course, on
the Saturday of last week?
"Yes, at ten o'clock I had supper with Mark Ivanitch."
"And afterwards?"
Psyekov was confused, and got up from the table.
"Afterwards . . . afterwards . . . I really don't remember," he
muttered. "I had drunk a good deal on that occasion. . . . I
can't remember where and when I went to bed. . . . Why do you
all look at me like that? As though I had murdered him!"
"Where did you wake up?"
"I woke up in the servants' kitchen on the stove . . . . They
can all confirm that. How I got on to the stove I can't say. . .
."
"Don't disturb yourself . . . Do you know Akulina?"
"Oh well, not particularly."
"Did she leave you for Klyauzov?"
"Yes. . . . Yefrem, bring some more mushrooms! Will you have
some tea, Yevgraf Kuzmitch?"
There followed an oppressive, painful silence that lasted for
some five minutes. Dyukovsky held his tongue, and kept his
piercing eyes on Psyekov's face, which gradually turned pale.
The silence was broken by Tchubikov.
"We must go to the big house," he said, "and speak to the
deceased's sister, Marya Ivanovna. She may give us some
evidence."
Tchubikov and his assistant thanked Psyekov for the lunch, then
went off to the big house. They found Klyauzov's sister, a
maiden lady of five and forty, on her knees before a high family
shrine of ikons. When she saw portfolios and caps adorned with
cockades in her visitors' hands, she turned pale.
"First of all, I must offer an apology for disturbing your
devotions, so to say," the gallant Tchubikov began with a
scrape. "We have come to you with a request. You have heard, of
course, already. . . . There is a suspicion that your brother
has somehow been murdered. God's will, you know. . . . Death no
one can escape, neither Tsar nor ploughman. Can you not assist
us with some fact, something that will throw light?"
"Oh, do not ask me!" said Marya Ivanovna, turning whiter still,
and hiding her face in her hands. "I can tell you nothing!
Nothing! I implore you! I can say nothing . . . What can I do?
Oh, no, no . . . not a word . . . of my brother! I would rather
die than speak!"
Marya Ivanovna burst into tears and went away into another room.
The officials looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders,
and beat a retreat.
"A devil of a woman!" said Dyukovsky, swearing as they went out
of the big house. "Apparently she knows something and is
concealing it. And there is something peculiar in the
maid-servant's expression too. . . . You wait a bit, you devils!
We will get to the bottom of it all!"
In the evening, Tchubikov and his assistant were driving home by
the light of a pale-faced moon; they sat in their waggonette,
summing up in their minds the incidents of the day. Both were
exhausted and sat silent. Tchubikov never liked talking on the
road. In spite of his talkativeness, Dyukovsky held his tongue
in deference to the old man. Towards the end of the journey,
however, the young man could endure the silence no longer, and
began:
"That Nikolashka has had a hand in the business," he said, "non
dubitandum est. One can see from his mug too what sort of a chap
he is. . . . His alibi gives him away hand and foot. There is no
doubt either that he was not the instigator of the crime. He was
only the stupid hired tool. Do you agree? The discreet Psyekov
plays a not unimportant part in the affair too. His blue
trousers, his embarrassment, his lying on the stove from fright
after the murder, his alibi, and Akulka."
"Keep it up, you're in your glory! According to you, if a man
knows Akulka he is the murderer. Ah, you hot-head! You ought to
be sucking your bottle instead of investigating cases! You used
to be running after Akulka too, does that mean that you had a
hand in this business?"
"Akulka was a cook in your house for a month, too, but . . . I
don't say anything. On that Saturday night I was playing cards
with you, I saw you, or I should be after you too. The woman is
not the point, my good sir. The point is the nasty, disgusting,
mean feeling. . . . The discreet young man did not like to be
cut out, do you see. Vanity, do you see. . . . He longed to be
revenged. Then . . . His thick lips are a strong indication of
sensuality. Do you remember how he smacked his lips when he
compared Akulka to Nana? That he is burning with passion, the
scoundrel, is beyond doubt! And so you have wounded vanity and
unsatisfied passion. That's enough to lead to murder. Two of
them are in our hands, but who is the third? Nikolashka and
Psyekov held him. Who was it smothered him? Psyekov is timid,
easily embarrassed, altogether a coward. People like Nikolashka
are not equal to smothering with a pillow, they set to work with
an axe or a mallet. . . . Some third person must have smothered
him, but who?"
Dyukovsky pulled his cap over his eyes, and pondered. He was
silent till the waggonette had driven up to the examining
magistrate's house.
"Eureka!" he said, as he went into the house, and took off his
overcoat. "Eureka, Nikolay Yermolaitch! I can't understand how
it is it didn't occur to me before. Do you know who the third
is?"
"Do leave off, please! There's supper ready. Sit down to
supper!"
Tchubikov and Dyukovsky sat down to supper. Dyukovsky poured
himself out a wine-glassful of vodka, got up, stretched, and
with sparkling eyes, said:
"Let me tell you then that the third person who collaborated
with the scoundrel Psyekov and smothered him was a woman! Yes! I
am speaking of the murdered man's sister, Marya Ivanovna!"
Tchubikov coughed over his vodka and fastened his eyes on
Dyukovsky.
"Are you . . . not quite right? Is your head . . . not quite
right? Does it ache?"
"I am quite well. Very good, suppose I have gone out of my mind,
but how do you explain her confusion on our arrival? How do you
explain her refusal to give information? Admitting that that is
trivial--very good! All right!--but think of the terms they were
on! She detested her brother! She is an Old Believer, he was a
profligate, a godless fellow . . . that is what has bred hatred
between them! They say he succeeded in persuading her that he
was an angel of Satan! He used to practise spiritualism in her
presence!"
"Well, what then?"
"Don't you understand? She's an Old Believer, she murdered him
through fanaticism! She has not merely slain a wicked man, a
profligate, she has freed the world from Antichrist--and that
she fancies is her merit, her religious achievement! Ah, you
don't know these old maids, these Old Believers! You should read
Dostoevsky! And what does Lyeskov say . . . and Petchersky! It's
she, it's she, I'll stake my life on it. She smothered him! Oh,
the fiendish woman! Wasn't she, perhaps, standing before the
ikons when we went in to put us off the scent? 'I'll stand up
and say my prayers,' she said to herself, 'they will think I am
calm and don't expect them.' That's the method of all novices in
crime. Dear Nikolay Yermolaitch! My dear man! Do hand this case
over to me! Let me go through with it to the end! My dear
fellow! I have begun it, and I will carry it through to the
end."
Tchubikov shook his head and frowned.
"I am equal to sifting difficult cases myself," he said. "And
it's your place not to put yourself forward. Write what is
dictated to you, that is your business!"
Dyukovsky flushed crimson, walked out, and slammed the door.
"A clever fellow, the rogue," Tchubikov muttered, looking after
him. "Ve-ery clever! Only inappropriately hasty. I shall have to
buy him a cigar-case at the fair for a present."
Next morning a lad with a big head and a hare lip came from
Klyauzovka. He gave his name as the shepherd Danilko, and
furnished a very interesting piece of information.
"I had had a drop," said he. "I stayed on till midnight at my
crony's. As I was going home, being drunk, I got into the river
for a bathe. I was bathing and what do I see! Two men coming
along the dam carrying something black. 'Tyoo!' I shouted at
them. They were scared, and cut along as fast as they could go
into the Makarev kitchen-gardens. Strike me dead, if it wasn't
the master they were carrying!"
Towards evening of the same day Psyekov and Nikolashka were
arrested and taken under guard to the district town. In the town
they were put in the prison tower.
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