He took a seat beside his rifle and laid his ax on the floor below.
"What?
Is it your wife ?" asked one of the drunken soldiers, pointing to the ax.
The tall peasant looked calmly at him from the quiet eyes under their heavy brows and as calmly answered: "One meets a different folk these days and with an ax it is much safer." He began to drink tea very greedily, while his eyes looked at me many times with sharp inquiry in them and ran often round the whole cabin in search of the answer to his doubts.

Very slowly and with a guarded drawl he answered all the questions of the soldiers between gulps of the hot tea, then he turned his glass upside down as evidence of having finished, placed on the top of it the small lump of sugar left and remarked to the soldiers: "I am going out to look after my horse and will unsaddle your horses for you also." "All right," exclaimed the half-sleeping young soldier, "bring in our rifles as well." The soldiers were lying on the benches and thus left for us only the floor.

The stranger soon came back, brought the rifles and set them in the dark corner.

He dropped the saddle pads on the floor, sat down on them and began to take off his boots.

The soldiers and my guest soon were snoring but I did not sleep for thinking of what next to do.
Finally as dawn was breaking, I dozed off only to awake in the broad daylight and find my stranger gone.