"Wait a moment!
Leave me alone!
Don't ask questions!"
Jenny's father picked her up, sat down on the sofa and took her in his lap.
He looked at her face and wiped her spattered forehead with his palm.
"Well done, Jenny!
Good girl!"
"But you're all covered with mud—your face is black!
How did you get here?" Olga asked again.
Jenny pointed to the hangings at the door, and Olga saw Timur standing there.
He was pulling off his leather driving gloves.
His temple was smeared with yellow grease.
His face was moist and tired, the face of a working man who has done his job well.
He nodded his head in greeting.
"Dad!" cried Jenny, jumping from her father's lap and running over to Timur. "Don't you believe anyone!
They don't know anything.
This is Timur—my very good comrade."
Her father rose and, without hesitation, shook Timur's hand.
A triumphant smile flitted over Jenny's face. She flashed a quick, searching look at Olga, who, still quite baffled, went up to Timur:
"Well, hello, then. . . ."
Soon the clock struck three.
"Dad," Jenny said anxiously. "Are you going already?
Our clock is fast."
"No, Jenny, that's the correct time."
"Dad, your watch is fast too." She ran over to the telephone and dialled the time. A measured metallic voice answered: "The time is now four minutes past three."
Jenny glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed.
"It's fast, but only one minute fast.
Dad, take us to the station with you; we'll see you off."
"Sorry, Jenny, I can't.
I'll be much too busy."
"Why?
You've got your ticket already, haven't you?"
"Yes."
"In a first-class sleeper?"
"Yes, in a first-class sleeper."
"Oh, how I'd love to travel far, far away with you in a first-class sleeper!"
It was not a regular station but a sort of shunting yard where the trains halted before being switched onto their right lines.
There were tracks, switches, trains and carriages—but no passengers.
An armoured train was drawn up at the platform.
An iron window opened and, for a second, the face of the engine-driver was visible in the light of the fire-box.
Jenny's father, Colonel Alexandrov, stood on the platform in his leather coat.
A lieutenant came up to him, saluted and said:
"Comrade Colonel, may we start?"
"Yes!" The colonel glanced at his watch: three fifty-three. "The orders are to leave at three fifty-three."
Colonel Alexandrov went up to his carriage and looked about him.
It was growing light, but the sky was overcast.
He turned the moist handle and the heavy door opened.
As he placed his foot on the step he smiled and said to himself:
"In a first-class sleeper?"
"Yes, in a first-class sleeper."