158 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



find him there. He had gone from home for six days ; 

 and that was one of the helping circumstances of the 

 plot, for otherwise Asamat could hardly have carried 

 off his sister. 



But when the father returned, there was neither 

 son nor daughter in the place. The thieving villain ! 

 he well knew he could never save his neck if he let 

 himself be caught. So from that hour he was never 

 seen again. Probably he joined some band of Abreks, 

 or had his hot head cooled for him beyond the Terek 

 or the Kuban. His route was in that direction. 

 The father soon afterwards paid the penalty of his 

 son's crime. Kasbitch never doubted but that Asa- 

 mat had stolen the horse with the privity and consent 

 of his father ; at least so I conjecture. Accordingly 

 he lay in lurk one day, by the road, some two versts 

 from the hamlet. The old man was returning from 

 a fruitless search after his daughter ; his usdens (reti- 

 nue of vassals) were some distance behind him. It 

 was dusk, and he was riding slowly along, as a man 

 in deep grief might do, when Kasbitch sprang, like a 

 cat, from behind a bush, leaped up behind the old 

 man, stabbed and flung him on the ground, then seized 

 the reins and away ! Some usdens saw the whole 

 proceeding from a hill, and hotly pursued the murder- 

 er, but in vain. 



[Honest Maxim Maximitch severely remonstrated 

 with his subaltern when he became aware of the 



