"But thou wilt be sure to lose, and thou wilt not pay."

"I will not pay in money, that's true--but I will shoot a hole through
my left hand with this pistol here!"

"But what profit is there for me in that?"

"No profit whatever--but it's a curious thing, nevertheless."

This conversation took place after a carouse, in the presence of
witnesses. Whether Mísha's proposal really did strike the officer as
curious or not,--at all events, he consented. The cards were brought,
the game began. Mísha was lucky; he won one hundred rubles. And
thereupon his opponent smote himself on the forehead.

"What a blockhead I am!" he cried.--"On what a bait was I caught! If
thou hadst lost, much thou wouldst have shot thyself through the
hand!--so it's just an assault on my pocket!"

"That's where thou art mistaken," retorted Mísha:--"I have won--but I'll
shoot the hole through my hand."

He seized his pistol, and bang! shot himself through the hand. The
bullet went clear through ... and a week later the wound was completely
healed!

On another occasion still, Mísha is riding along the road by night with
his comrades.... And they see yawning, right by the side of the road, a
narrow ravine in the nature of a cleft, dark, very dark, and the bottom
of it not visible.