Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [336]
‘How shall we proceed? I see it’s an excellent marsh, and there are hawks,’ said Stepan Arkadyich, pointing at two big birds circling over the sedge. ‘Where there are hawks, there must be game as well.’
‘So you see, gentlemen,’ said Levin, pulling up his boots and examining the percussion caps on his gun with a slightly glum expression. ‘You see that sedge?’ He pointed to a little black-green island showing dark against the huge, half-mowed wet meadow that stretched to the right side of the river. ‘The swamp begins there, right in front of us, where it’s greener. From there it goes to the right, where those horses are; it’s hummocky and there are great snipe; and then around the sedge to that alder grove over there and right up to the mill. See, where that creek is. That’s the best spot. I once shot seventeen snipe there. We’ll split up in two directions with the two dogs and meet there at the mill.’
‘Well, who goes right and who left?’ asked Stepan Arkadyich. ‘It’s wider to the right, the two of you go that way, and I’ll go left,’ he said as if casually.
‘Excellent! We’ll outshoot him. Well, let’s go, let’s go!’ Vasenka picked up.
Levin could not but consent, and they went their separate ways.
As soon as they entered the marsh, both dogs began searching together and drew towards a rusty spot. Levin knew this searching of Laska‘s, cautious and vague; he also knew the spot and was expecting a wisp of snipe.
‘Walk beside me, Veslovsky, beside me!’ he said in a muted voice to his comrade, who was splashing behind him through the water, and the direction of whose gun, after the accidental shot by the Kolpeno marsh, involuntarily interested him.
‘No, I don’t want to hamper you, don’t think about me.’
But Levin could not help remembering Kitty’s words as he parted from her: ‘See that you don’t shoot each other.’ The dogs came closer and closer, passing by each other, each following its own thread; the expectation was so intense that the sucking of his own boot as he pulled it out of the rusty water sounded to Levin like the call of a snipe, and he tightened his grip on the stock of his gun.
‘Bang! bang!’ rang out by his ear. It was Vasenka shooting at a flock of ducks that was circling above the swamp, far out of range, and just then came flying over the hunters. Levin had barely turned to look when a snipe creeched, then another, a third, and some eight more rose one after the other.
Stepan Arkadyich brought one down just as it was about to start zigzagging and the snipe fell like a lump into the mire. Oblonsky unhurriedly aimed at another that was still flying low towards the sedge, and that snipe dropped; it could be seen thrashing about in the mowed sedge, beating its unhurt wing, white underneath.
Levin was not so lucky: his first snipe was too close when he fired, and he missed; he aimed at it again as it flew up, but just then another flew out from under his feet and distracted him, and he missed a second time.
While they were reloading their guns another snipe rose, and Veslovsky, who had had time to reload, sent another two charges of small shot over the water. Stepan Arkadyich picked up his snipe and glanced at Levin with shining eyes.
‘Well, let’s split up now,’ said Stepan Arkadyich, and, limping slightly on his left leg and holding his gun ready, he whistled to his dog and went off in one direction. Levin and Veslovsky went in the other.
It always happened with Levin that when the first shots were unsuccessful, he would become angry, vexed, and shoot badly all day. That was happening now. There were a great many snipe. Snipe kept flying up from under the dog, from under the hunters’ feet, and Levin might have recovered; but the more shots he fired, the more he disgraced himself in front of Veslovsky, who merrily banged away, in and out of range, hit nothing and was not the least embarrassed by it. Levin rushed, could not control himself, became more and more feverish and finally reached the point of shooting almost without hope of hitting anything. Even Laska seemed to understand