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All were silent. Tushin appeared at the threshold and made his

way timidly from behind the backs of the generals. As he stepped

past the generals in the crowded hut, feeling embarrassed as he

always was by the sight of his superiors, he did not notice the

staff of the banner and stumbled over it. Several of those

present laughed.

"How was it a gun was abandoned?" asked Bagration, frowning, not

so much at the captain as at those who were laughing, among whom

Zherkov laughed loudest.

Only now, when he was confronted by the stern authorities, did

his guilt and the disgrace of having lost two guns and yet

remaining alive present themselves to Tushin in all their horror.

He had been so excited that he had not thought about it until

that moment. The officers' laughter confused him still more. He

stood before Bagration with his lower jaw trembling and was

hardly able to mutter: "I don't know... your excellency... I had

no men... your excellency."