Page 915 - the-brothers-karamazov

him, faint with suspense.
‘It’s... Zhutchka!’ he cried suddenly, in a voice breaking
with joy and suffering.
‘And who did you think it was?’ Krassotkin shouted with
all his might, in a ringing, happy voice, and bending down
he seized the dog and lifted him up to Ilusha.
‘Look, old man, you see, blind of one eye and the left ear
is torn, just the marks you described to me. It was by that I
found him. I found him directly. He did not belong to any-
one!’ he explained, to the captain, to his wife, to Alyosha
and then again to Ilusha. ‘He used to live in the Fedotovs’
backyard. Though he made his home there, they did not
feed him. He was a stray dog that had run away from the
village... I found him.... You see, old man, he couldn’t have
swallowed what you gave him. If he had, he must have died,
he must have! So he must have spat it out, since he is alive.
You did not see him do it. But the pin pricked his tongue,
that is why he squealed. He ran away squealing and you
thought he’d swallowed it. He might well squeal, because
the skin of dogs’ mouths is so tender... tenderer than in men,
much tenderer!’ Kolya cried impetuously, his face glowing
and radiant with delight. Ilusha could not speak. White as a
sheet, he gazed open-mouthed at Kolya, with his great eyes
almost starting out of his head. And if Krassotkin, who had
no suspicion of it, had known what a disastrous and fatal
effect such a moment might have on the sick child’s health,
nothing would have induced him to play such a trick on
him. But Alyosha was perhaps the only person in the room
who realised it. As for the captain he behaved like a small

1 The Brothers Karamazov