Thors lay groaning under the scourge, and the Countess Lanovitch shut
herself within her stone walls, shivering with fear, begging her
daughter to return to Petersburg.
It was nearly dark when Karl Steinmetz and the Moscow doctor rode into
the little village, to find the starosta, a simple Russian farmer,
awaiting them outside the kabak.
Steinmetz knew the man, and immediately took command of the situation
with that unquestioned sense of authority which in Russia places the
barin on much the same footing as that taken by the Anglo-Indian in our
eastern empire.
"Now, starosta," he said, "we have only an hour to spend in Thors. This
is the Moscow doctor. If you listen to what he tells you, you will soon
have no sickness in the village. The worst houses first--and quickly.
You need not be afraid, but if you do not care to come in, you may stay
outside."
As they walked down the straggling village-street the Moscow doctor told
the starosta in no measured terms, as was his wont, wherein lay the
heart of the sickness. Here, as in Osterno, dirt and neglect were at the
base of all the trouble. Here, as in the larger village, the houses were
more like the abode of four-footed beasts than the dwellings of human
beings.
The starosta prudently remained outside the first house to which he
introduced the visitors.
Pages:
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136