THE CONVICT TRAIN
When Nekhlyudov arrived at the station the prisoners were all seated in railway carriages with grated windows. Some people, who had come to see them off, stood on the platform, but were not allowed to approach the carriages.
The convoy was much troubled that day. On the way from the prison to the station, besides the two Nekhlyudov had seen, three other prisoners had fallen and died of sunstroke. One was taken to the nearest police station like the first two, and the others died at the railway station. The convoy men were not troubled because five men who might have been alive died while in their charge. This did not trouble them, but they were concerned lest anything that the law required in such cases should be omitted. To convey the bodies to the places appointed, to deliver up their papers and belongings, to take them off the list of those to be conveyed to Nizhny – all this was very troublesome, especially on such a hot day.
It was this that occupied the convoy men, and until it was all accomplished Nekhlyudov and the others who asked for permission to do so were not allowed to go up to the carriages. Nekhlyudov, however, tipped the convoy sergeant, and was soon allowed to go up. The sergeant let Nekhlyudov pass, but asked him to be quick and get his talk over before any of the officials noticed him. There were eighteen carriages in all, and, except one for the officials, they were all quite full of prisoners. As Nekhlyudov passed the carriages he listened to what was going on in them. In all the carriages was heard the clanking of chains and the sound of bustle mixed with loud and senseless language, but not a word was being said about their dead fellow-prisoners. The talk was all about sacks, drinking-water, and the choice of seats.
Looking into one of the carriages, Nekhlyudov saw two convoy soldiers taking the manacles off the hands of the prisoners. The prisoners held out their arms, and one of the soldiers unlocked the manacles with a key and took them off, and the other collected them.
Passing all the men’s carriages Nekhlyudov came up to the women’s. From the second of these he heard a woman’s groans: “Oh, oh, oh! O God! Oh, oh! O God!”
Nekhlyudov passed this carriage and went up to a window of the third carriage, which a soldier had pointed out to him. When he put his face near the window he felt the hot air, heavy with the smell of human perspiration, coming out of it, and heard distinctly the shrill sound of women’s voices.