I at once sat up and looked about me, expecting to see a village of some kind, but instead of that I perceived a wide open space, and at a short distance a group of haystacks.

Close to the tarantass stood two figures in long cloaks, armed with big sticks, and speaking to each other in an unknown tongue.
My first idea was that we had been somehow led into a trap, so I drew my revolver in order to be ready for all emergencies.

My companion was still snoring loudly by my side, and stoutly resisted all my efforts to awaken him.
"What's this ?" I said, in a gruff, angry voice, to the yamstchik.

"Where have you taken us to ?" "To where I was ordered, master!" For the purpose of getting a more satisfactory explanation I took to shaking my sleepy companion, but before he had returned to consciousness the moon shone out brightly from behind a thick bank of clouds, and cleared up the mystery.

The supposed haystacks turned out to be tents.