their eyes, the culprit would be flogged. If she was a spirited girl, capable of lodging a complaint, she was flogged with a heavy leather strap, so as not to cut the skin, and through a wet sheet, so as not to raise welts. Long thin bags filled with sand and gravel were also used. A blow on the buttocks with such a bag caused the victim a dull pain that lasted a long time.…

The cruelty of the punishment depended, however, not so much upon the culprit’s character as upon the degree of her guilt and Red’s sympathy. Sometimes he flogged even daring girls mercilessly, without taking any precautions. In the pocket of his trousers he always carried a three-tailed whip with a short crop of oak polished by frequent use. Into the leather of the tails were woven thin metal wires that formed a tassel at the end. The first blow with such a whip cut through the skin to the bone, and often, to increase the pain, a mustard plaster or rags soaked in brine were applied to the sore back.

When he punished the girls Vaska never showed any emotion; he was always equally taciturn and stolid, and his eyes never lost their expression of ravenous hunger. Sometimes he screwed them up, which made them look even sharper.

The methods of punishment were not confined to these. Vaska was inexhaustibly fertile in inventing new ones, and indeed, he reached creative heights in the refinements of the tortures he thought up.

Take, for example, the case of Vera Kopteva, a girl in one of the establishments who fell under the suspicion of having stolen 5000 rubles from a guest. This guest, a Siberian merchant, informed the police that he had been in Vera’s room with her and another girl, Sara Sherman. After about an hour, the latter went away, and he spent the rest of the night with Vera and was in a drunken state when he left her.

The affair took its due course. The investigation dragged on and on. Both defendants were detained in prison, tried, and, because of insufficient evidence, acquitted.

When they returned to their employer after the trial, the two girls were subjected to another investigation. The madam was certain that they were guilty of the theft and wanted her share.

Sara succeeded in proving that she had had nothing to do with the theft. Then the madam began to work on Vera Kopteva. She locked her in a bath-house and kept her on a diet of salty caviar, but in spite of this, the girl would not confess where she had hidden the money. It became necessary to resort to Vaska’s help.

He was promised a hundred rubles if he discovered the whereabouts of the money.

And so, one night, the devil appeared to Vera, as she lay crouched in the bath-house, tormented by thirst, darkness, and dread. From his black shaggy hide came a smell of phosphorus and a glowing bluish smoke. Two fiery sparks took the place of eyes. He stood before the girl and asked in a terrifying voice:

“Where’s the money?”

She lost her mind from terror.

This happened in winter. Next morning, barefoot, and dressed in nothing but her chemise, she was taken through the deep snow from the bath-house to the house. She was laughing gently and saying happily:

“Tomorrow I shall go to mass with Mamma again, I shall go to mass again.”

When Sara Sherman saw her in this state, she said before everybody in quiet bewilderment:

“But I was the one who stole the money.”