Zhilín kept silence. Then Abdul-Murat began to speak. He pointed to Zhilín, and laughed, and kept repeating: "Soldier Uruss! Goot Uruss!" The interpreter said: "He wants you to write a letter home that they may send a ransom for you. When they send it, you will be set free." Zhilín thought awhile and said: "How much ransom does he want?" The Tartars talked together; then the interpreter said: "Three thousand in silver." "No," said Zhilín, "I cannot pay that." Abdul jumped up, began to wave his hands and to talk to Zhilín, thinking that he would understand him. The interpreter translated. He said: "How much will you give?" Zhilín thought awhile, and said: "Five hundred roubles." Then the Tartars began to talk a great deal, all at the same time. Abdul shouted at the red Tartar. He was so excited that the spittle just spirted from his mouth. But the red Tartar only scowled and clicked his tongue. They grew silent, and the interpreter said: "The master is not satisfied with five hundred roubles. He has himself paid two hundred for you. Kazi-Muhammed owed him a debt. He took you for that debt. Three thousand roubles, nothing less will do. And if you do not write, you will be put in a hole and beaten with a whip." "Oh," thought Zhilín, "it will not do to show that I am frightened; that will only be worse." He leaped to his feet, and said: "Tell that dog that if he is going to frighten me, I will not give him a penny, and I will refuse to write. I have never been afraid of you dogs, and I never will be." The interpreter translated, and all began to speak at the same time. They babbled for a long time; then the swarthy Tartar jumped up and walked over to Zhilín: "Uruss," he said, "dzhigit, dzhigit Uruss!" Dzhigit in their language means a "brave." And he laughed; he said something to the interpreter, and the interpreter said: "Give one thousand roubles!" Zhilín stuck to what he had said: "I will not give more than five hundred. And if you kill me, you will get nothing." The Tartars talked awhile and sent the labourer somewhere, and themselves kept looking now at Zhilín and now at the door. The labourer came, and behind him walked a fat man; he was barefoot and tattered; he, too, had on the stocks. Zhilín just shouted, for he recognized Kostylín. He, too, had been caught. They were placed beside each other. They began to talk to each other, and the Tartars kept silence and looked at them. Zhilín told what had happened to him; and Kostylín told him that his horse had stopped and his gun had missed fire, and that the same Abdul had overtaken and captured him. Abdul jumped up, and pointed to Kostylín, and said something. The interpreter translated it, and said that both of them belonged to the same master, and that the one who would first furnish the money would be the first to be released.