'You are lying!' 'No, I am not,' is your dogged reply.

'It is only that last night I could not return him his passport, because I came home late; so I handed it to Antip Prochorov, the bell-ringer, for him to take care of.' 'Bell-ringer, indeed! Then HE gave you a passport ?' 'No; I did not receive a passport from him either.' 'What ?'--and here the Captain shouts another expletive--'How dare you keep on lying?
Where is YOUR OWN passport ?' 'I had one all right,' you reply cunningly, 'but must have dropped it somewhere on the road as I came along.' 'And what about that soldier's coat ?' asks the Captain with an impolite addition.
'Whence did you get it?
And what of the priest's cashbox and copper money ?'' 'About them I know nothing,' you reply doggedly.

'Never at any time have I committed a theft.' 'Then how is it that the coat was found at your place ?' 'I do not know.

Probably some one else put it there.' 'You rascal, you rascal!' shouts the Captain, shaking his head, and closing in upon you.

'Put the leg-irons upon him, and off with him to prison!' 'With pleasure,' you reply as, taking a snuff-box from your pocket, you offer a pinch to each of the two gendarmes who are manacling you, while also inquiring how long they have been discharged from the army, and in what wars they may have served.