In spite of all our precautions, news of Pugachev’s appearance spread through the fortress. Ivan Kuzmich had great respect for his wife, but not for anything in the world would he have revealed to her a secret entrusted to him by the service. On receiving the general’s letter, he had contrived to send Vasilisa Egorovna away, telling her that Father Gerasim had received some remarkable news from Orenburg, which he was keeping in great secrecy. Vasilisa Egorovna immediately wanted to go and visit the priest’s wife, and, on Ivan Kuzmich’s advice, took Masha along with her, so that she would not be bored alone.
Ivan Kuzmich, left in full control, at once sent for us and locked Palashka in the storeroom, so that she could not overhear us.
Vasilisa Egorovna came home, having failed to find out anything from the priest’s wife, and learned that during her absence Ivan Kuzmich had held a meeting and that Palashka had been locked up. She realized that her husband had tricked her and accosted him with questions. But Ivan Kuzmich was prepared for the attack. He was not put out in the least and cheerfully answered his inquisitive consort:
“You know, dearest, our womenfolk took it into their heads to heat their stoves with straw; and since that could lead to disaster, I gave strict orders that in future our womenfolk heat their stoves, not with straw, but with brushwood and fallen branches.”
“And why did you have to lock up Palashka?” asked his wife. “Why was the poor girl left sitting in the storeroom till we came back?”
Ivan Kuzmich was not prepared for such a question; he became muddled and muttered something quite incoherent. Vasilisa Egorovna saw her husband’s perfidy; but knowing that she would get nothing out of him, she broke off her questions and started talking about pickled cucumbers, which Akulina Pamfilovna prepared in a totally unusual way. Vasilisa Egorovna could not sleep all night and simply could not figure out what was in her husband’s head that she was not allowed to know.
The next day, coming back from church, she saw Ivan Ignatyich pulling out of the cannon rags, gravel, wood chips, knucklebones, and all sorts of trash that the children had stuffed into it.
“What might these military preparations mean?” the commandant’s wife thought. “Are they expecting an attack from the Kirghiz? Can it be that Ivan Kuzmich would conceal such trifles from me?”
She called Ivan Ignatyich with the firm intention of wheedling out of him the secret that tormented her feminine curiosity.
Vasilisa Egorovna made several observations to him concerning household matters, like a judge who begins an investigation with unrelated questions, so as to put the defendant off guard. Then, after a few moments’ silence, she sighed deeply and said, shaking her head: “Lord God! Such news! What will come of it?”
“Eh, dear lady!” Ivan Ignatyich replied. “God is merciful, we’ve got enough soldiers, plenty of powder, and I’ve cleaned the cannon. Maybe we’ll fend off Pugachev. If God doesn’t forget us, the pigs won’t get us.”
“And what sort of man is this Pugachev?”asked the commandant’s wife.
Here Ivan Ignatyich realized that he had made a gaffe and bit his tongue. But it was too late. Vasilisa Egorovna forced him to confess everything, giving him her word that she would not tell anybody.
Vasilisa Egorovna kept her promise and did not say a word to anybody, except for the priest’s wife, and then only because her cow grazed on the steppe and could be seized by the villains.
Soon everybody was talking about Pugachev. The rumors varied. The commandant sent the Cossack sergeant out, charging him to thoroughly reconnoiter the surrounding villages and fortresses. The sergeant came back in two days and reported that on the steppe, about forty miles from the fortress, he had seen many lights, and he had heard from the Bashkirs that an unknown force was coming. However, he could not say anything definite, because he had been afraid to go on further.
In the fortress an unusual agitation could be noticed among the Cossacks; they clustered everywhere in little groups, talked softly among themselves, and dispersed on seeing a dragoon or a garrison soldier. Spies were sent among them. Yulai, a baptized Kalmyk, brought important intelligence to the commandant. The sergeant’s information, according to Yulai, was false: on his return, the cunning Cossack told his comrades that he had gone to the rebels, had presented himself to their leader in person, who had allowed him to kiss his hand and talked at length with him. The commandant immediately put the sergeant under guard and appointed Yulai in his place. The Cossacks received this news with obvious displeasure. They murmured loudly, and Ivan Ignatyich, who carried out the commandant’s order, with his own ears heard them say: “You’re going to get it, you garrison rat!” The commandant intended to question his prisoner that same day; but the sergeant escaped from the guard, probably with the help of his accomplices.
