The esaul looked in the direction Denísov indicated.

“There are two, an officer and a Cossack. But it is not presupposable that it is the lieutenant colonel himself,” said the esaul , who was fond of using words the Cossacks did not know.

The approaching riders having descended a decline were no longer visible, but they reappeared a few minutes later. In front, at a weary gallop and using his leather whip, rode an officer, disheveled and drenched, whose trousers had worked up to above his knees. Behind him, standing in the stirrups, trotted a Cossack. The officer, a very young lad with a broad rosy face and keen merry eyes, galloped up to Denísov and handed him a sodden envelope.

“From the general,” said the officer. “Please excuse its not being quite dry.”