She screamed, the blood spurted out, I threw down the knife, flung my arms round her, lay down on the ground, embraced her and screamed over her, yelling; she screamed and I screamed; she was fluttering all over, struggling to get out of my arms, and the blood was simply streaming, simply streaming on to my face and on to my hands. I left her, a panic came over me, and I left the horse and set off running, and ran home along the backs of the houses and straight to the bathhouse. We had an old bathhouse we didn’t use I squeezed myself into a corner under the steps and there I sat. And there I sat till nightfall.”

“And Akulka?”

“She must have got up, too, after I had gone and walked homewards too. They found her a hundred paces from the place.”

“Then you hadn’t killed her.”

“Yes.⁠ ⁠…” Shishkov paused for a moment.