Chelkash did not speak; he grinned like a wolf. Gavrilo still went on pouring out his heart: "Do you know what I was thinking about? As we rowed here-- I saw--the money--thinks I--I'll give it him--you--with the oar-- one blow! the money's mine, and into the sea with him--you, that is--eh! Who'll miss him? said I. And if they do find him, they won't be inquisitive how--and who it was killed him. He's not a man, thinks I, that there'd be much fuss about! He's of no use in the world! Who'd stand up for him? No, indeed--eh?" "Give the money here!" growled Chelkash, clutching Gavrilo by the throat. Gavrilo struggled away once, twice. Chelkash's other arm twisted like a snake about him--there was the sound of a shirt tearing-- and Gavrilo lay on the sand, with his eyes staring wildly, his fingers clutching at the air and his legs waving. Chelkash, erect, frigid, rapacious--looking, grinned maliciously, laughed a broken, biting laugh, and his mustaches twitched nervously in his sharp, angular face. Never in all his life had he been so cruelly wounded, and never had he felt so vindictive. "Well, are you happy now?" he asked Gavrilo through his laughter, and turning his back on him he walked away in the direction of the town. But he had hardly taken two steps when Gavrilo, crouched like a cat on one knee, and with a wide sweep of his arm, flung a round stone at him, viciously, shouting: "O--one!" Chelkash uttered a cry, clapped his hands to the nape of his neck, staggered forward, turned round to Gavrilo, and fell on his face on the sand. Gavrilo's heart failed him as he watched him. He saw him stir one leg, try to lift his head, and then stretch out, quivering like a bowstring. Then Gavrilo rushed fleeing away into the distance, where a shaggy black cloud hung over the foggy steppe, and it was dark. The waves whispered, racing up the sand, melting into it and racing back. The foam hissed and the spray floated in the air. It began to rain, at first slightly, but soon a steady, heavy downpour was falling in streams from the sky, weaving a regular network of fine threads of water that at once hid the steppe and the sea. Gavrilo vanished behind it. For a long while nothing was to be seen but the rain and the long figure of the man stretched on the sand by the sea. But suddenly Gavrilo ran back out of the rain. Like a bird he flew up to Chelkash, dropped down beside him, and began to turn him over on the ground. His hand dipped into a warm, red stickiness. He shuddered and staggered back with a face pale and distraught. "Brother, get up!" he whispered through the patter of the lain into Chelkash's ear. Revived by the water on his face, Chelkash came to himself, and pushed Gavrilo away, saying hoarsely: "Get--away!" "Brother! Forgive me--it was the devil tempted me," Gavrilo whispered, faltering, as he kissed Chelkash's band. "Go along. Get away!" he croaked. "Take the sin from off my soul! Brother! Forgive me!"