"It's yourself, friend, that's shouting!" he said in the direction of the shouts, and then he turned to Gavrilo, who was muttering a prayer. "Well, mate, you're in luck! If those devils had overtaken us, it would have been all over with you. D'you see? I'd have you over in a trice--to the fishes!" Now, when Chelkash was speaking quietly and even good-humoredly, Gavrilo, still shaking with terror, besought him! "Listen, forgive me! For Christ's sake, I beg you, let me go! Put me on shore somewhere! Aie-aie-aie! I'm done for entirely! Come, think of God, let me go! What am I to you? I can't do it! I've never been used to such things. It's the first time. Lord! Why, I shall be lost! How did you get round me, mate? eh? It's a shame of you! Why, you're ruining a man's life! Such doings." "What doings?" Chelkash asked grimly. "Eh? Well, what doings?" He was amused by the youth's terror, and he enjoyed it and the sense that he, Chelkash, was a terrible person. "Shady doings, mate. Let me go, for God's sake! What am I to you? eh? Good--dear--!" "Hold your tongue, do! If you weren't wanted, I shouldn't have taken you. Do you understand? So, shut up!" "Lord!" Gavrilo sighed, sobbing. "Come, come! you'd better mind!" Chelkash cut him short. But Gavrilo by now could not restrain himself, and quietly sobbing, he wept, sniffed, and writhed in his seat, yet rowed vigorously, desperately. The boat shot on like an arrow. Again dark hulks of ships rose up on their way and the boat was again lost among them, winding like a wolf in the narrow lanes of water between them. "Here, you listen! If anyone asks you anything,--hold your tongue, if you want to get off alive! Do you see?" "Oh--oh!" Gavrilo sighed hopelessly in answer to the grim advice, and bitterly he added: "I'm a lost man!" "Don't howl!" Chelkash whispered impressively. This whisper deprived Gavrilo of all power of grasping anything and transformed him into a senseless automaton, wholly absorbed in a chill presentiment of calamity. Mechanically he lowered the oars into the water, threw himself back, drew them out and dropped them in again, all the while staring blankly at his plaited shoes. The waves splashed against the vessels with a sort of menace, a sort of warning in their drowsy sound that terrified him. The dock was reached. From its granite wall came the sound of men's voices, the splash of water, singing, and shrill whistles. "Stop!" whispered Chelkash. "Give over rowing! Push along with your hands on the wall! Quietly, you devil!" Gavrilo, clutching at the slippery stone, pushed the boat alongside the wall. The boat moved without a sound, sliding alongside the green, shiny stone.