The Master and Margarita. Light But there was absolutely nothing on the asphalt in the courtyard.

Light But there was absolutely nothing on the asphalt in the courtyard.

She was left to assume that the strange and sleepy individual had flown out of the house like a bird, leaving no trace of himself. Annushka crossed herself and thought. " That No. 50 really is cursed! No wonder people are talking! That's some apartment, that is! "

No sooner had she thought this, than the door upstairs banged again, and down ran a second someone. Annushka pressed herself to the wall and saw a rather respectable-looking citizen with a beard but with a slightly piglike face, or so it seemed to Annushka, dart past her and, like the preceding individual, leave the house through the window, again with no thought of smashing himself on the asphalt. Annushka had now forgotten the purpose of her outing and she just stayed on the stairs, crossing herself, groaning, and talking to herself.

Shortly after that, a third man, beardless, with a round, clean-shaven face, wearing a peasant blouse, ran out of the apartment upstairs—and flew out the window in similar fashion.

To give Annushka her due, it must be said that she was inquisitive and decided to wait a little longer to see if there would be any new marvels. The door upstairs opened again, and now a whole group of people headed down the stairs, but this time they were walking like normal people, and not running. Annushka ran away from the window, went back down to her own door, opened it hastily, hid behind it, and her eye, in a frenzy of curiosity, glimmered through the crack.

Someone who looked neither sick, nor not sick, a strange, pale man in need of a shave, and wearing a black cap and some kind of robe, was going down the stairs, supported by a lady in a black cassock, or so it appeared to Annushka in the semidarkness. The lady was not exactly barefoot, but was wearing transparent, obviously foreign-made evening slippers that had been torn to shreds. Phoo! Never mind the shoes! Why, the lady's actually naked! Well almost, that cassock's thrown right over her naked body! " That's some apartment, that is! " Annushka's soul sang with anticipation of the stories she would tell her neighbors the next day.

Behind the strangely clad lady came a completely naked one carrying a small suitcase, and prowling nearby was a huge, black cat. Rubbing her eyes, Annushka almost squealed out loud

Bringing up the rear of the procession was a short, limping, walleyed foreigner, jackedess, wearing a white dress vest and black tie. The whole company passed Annushka on its way downstairs. At this point something made a soft thump on the landing.

Hearing the footsteps fade, Annushka slithered out from behind the door like a snake, stood her oil can against the wall, lay down on her stomach and started feeling around on the floor of the landing. Her hands picked up something heavy wrapped in a napkin. Annushka's eyes bulged out of her head when she undid the bundle. She held the jewel up to her eyes, and her eyes burned with a wolfish fire. Thoughts

The Liberation of the Matter 253

whirled through Annushka's head, " I don't know nothing, I don't know a thing! Should I show it to my nephew? Or break it into pieces?... The stones could be pried out... And sold one at a time: one on the Petrovka, another on Smolensky... But the main thing is—I don't know nothing, and I don't know a thing! "

Annushka hid her find in her bosom, grabbed her oil can, and was about to slither back into her apartment, having decided to postpone her trip to town, when there arose before her, the devil knows from where, that same fellow with the white shirtfront and no jacket, and he whispered quietly, " Give me the horseshoe and the napkin."

" What horseshoe-napkin? " asked Annushka, feigning ignorance very skillfully. " I don't know nothing about no napkin. What are you, citizen, drunk or something? "

Without saying another word, the white-chested man squeezed Annushka's throat with fingers as hard as the handrail on a bus, and just as cold, cutting off the air to her lungs. The oil can dropped out of Annushka's hands and fell onto the floor. After cutting off Annushka's air for some moments, the jacketless foreigner removed his fingers from her neck. Gulping for air, Annushka smiled.

" Oh, you mean me little horseshoe, " she began. " Here it is! So it belongs to you? I look, and I see it there in the napkin... I took it on purpose, so that nobody would pick it up, otherwise, you could kiss it good-bye! "

After receiving the horseshoe and napkin, the foreigner began to bow and scrape before Annushka, shaking her hand firmly and thanking her warmly with a very pronounced foreign accent, in expressions like these: " I am deeply grateful to you, madam. I cherish this horseshoe as a keepsake and please allow me to present you with 200 rubles, for keeping it safe." And he took the money out of his vest pocket at once and handed it to Annushka.

She, grinning foolishly, could only blurt out, " Oh, I thank you most humbly! Merci! Merci! "