be seen in the ravines. "Well," thought Zhilin, "all that is their part of the country." Then he began looking towards the Russian side — at his feet were the stream, his own aul, and little gardens all around. By the stream, like so many little puppets, the women were sitting and rinsing clothes. Behind the aul, somewhat lower down, was a mountain with two other mountains in between, and after that came woods; and between the two mountains, looking blue in the distance, was a level space, and far, far away in this level space some smoke was rising. Zhilin tried to remember where the sun used to rise and where it used to set when he lived at home in the fortress. And then he saw that "our"[1] fortress must needs be on that very plain. Thither, then, between the two mountains, his flight must lie.
The sun was beginning to set. The snow-covered mountains turned from white to rosy red; the black mountains grew darker; the mist began to ascend from the gullies, and that very valley in which the Russian fortress needs must be glowed like a fire in the distant West. Zhilin looked steadily in that direction — something was dimly visible in the valley like smoke from a tube. And he thought to himself that must be the Russian fortress itself.
It was getting late. The cry of the mullah could be heard from where they were. The flocks were being driven homewards, the cows were lowing. The little lad kept on saying : "Let's be going!" but Zhilin did not want to go.
At last, however, they turned homewards. "Well,"
- ↑ I.e. — the Russian fortress.
