The Invaders and Other Stories Author:Leo Tolstoy Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE. PRINCE NEKH1LUDOF RELATES HOW, DURINO AN EXPEDITION III THB CAUCASUS, HE MET AS ACQUAINTANCE FROM MOSCOW. Ocr division had been out in... more » the field. The work in hand was accomplished : we had cut a way through the forest, and each day we were expecting from headquarters orders for our return to the fort. Our division of field-pieces was stationed at the top of a steep mountain-crest which was terminated by the swift mountain river Meehik, and had to command the plain that stretched before us. Here and there on this picturesque plain, out of the reach of gunshot, now and then, especially at evening, groups of mounted mountaineers showed themselves, attracted by curiosity to ride up and view the Russian camp. The evening was clear, mild, and fresh, as it is apt to be in December in the Caucasus ; the sun was setting behind the steep chain of the mountains at the left, and threw rosy rays upon the tents scattered over the slope, upon the soldiers moving about, and upon our two guns, which seemed to crane their necks as they rested motionless on the earthwork two paces from us. The infantry picket, stationed on the knoll at the left, stood in perfect silhouette against the hght of the sunset ; no less distinct were the stacks of muskets, theform of the sentry, the groups of soldiers, and the smoke of the smouldering camp-fire. At the right and left of the slope, on the black, sodden earth, the tents gleamed white; and behind the tents, black stood the bare trunks of the platane forest, which rang with the incessant sound of axes, the crackling of the bonfires, and the crashing of the trees as they fell under the axes. . The bluish smoke arose from tobacco-pipes on all sides, and vanished in the transparent blue of the frosty sky. By the tents and on th...« less