“That’s the truth, lads,” he went on calmly. “I heard it last week. There’s a general coming, a very important one, he’ll inspect the whole of Siberia. We all know he will be bribed too, but not by our old Eight-eyes; he wouldn’t dare to come near him. There are generals and generals, brothers. There are some of all sorts. Only I tell you our major will stay where he is, anyway. That’s a sure thing. We can’t speak, and none of the officers will speak against one of their own lot. The inspector will look into the prison and then he’ll go away and report that he found everything all right.⁠ ⁠…”

“That’s right, lads, but the major’s in a funk he’s drunk from morning till night.”

“But in the evening he drives a different sort of cart. Fedka was saying so.”

“You’ll never wash a black dog white. It’s not the first time he’s drunk, is it?”

“I say, what if the general really does nothing? It is high time they took notice of their goings on!” the convicts said to each other in excitement.