We left Ivan filled with suspicion and bitterness toward the new convict Makar Semyonitch.

After fortnight of sleeplessness nights and miserable days Ivan did not know what to do. One night, as he was walking about the prison he noticed some earth that came rolling out from one of the bunks on which the prisoners slept. He stopped to see what it was. Suddenly, Makar Semyonitch crept out from under the bed, and looked up at Ivan with a frightened face. Ivan tried to pass without looking at him, but Makar seized his hand and told him that he had dug a hole under the wall, getting rid of the earth by putting it into his high boots, and emptying it out every day on the road when the prisoners were driven to their work.

“Just you keep quiet, old man, and you shall get out too. If you blab they’ll flog the life out of me, but I will kill you first.”

Ivan trembled with anger as he looked at his enemy. He drew his hand away saying, “I have no wish to escape, and you have no need to kill me; you killed me long ago! As to tell of you–I may do so or not, as God shall direct.”

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Will Ivan tell on Makar? Would you? Come back on Thursday to find out!

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Story adapted from “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” in Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy