Chelkash looked at him angrily. The youth had quite recovered himself; he was calm, merry, and, in a way, even triumphant. He was very young, he had the whole of life still before him. And he knew nothing. That was stupid. Perhaps it was the land that kept him back. When such thoughts flashed through the head of Chelkash, he became still surlier, and in reply to Gabriel's question he growled: "I was tired ... and there was the rocking of the sea...." "Yes, it does rock.... But now, suppose we are nabbed with that?" he asked, and he touched the parcels with his foot. "No fear ... be easy! I'm going to hand them over immediately and get the money. Come!" "Five hundred, eh?" "Not much less, I should think." "What a lot of money! If only it had come to a poor wretch like me! I'd have sung a pretty song with it." "In clodhopper fashion, eh?" "Nothing less. Why, I would straight off...." And Gabriel was carried away on the wings of his imagination. Chelkash seemed depressed. His moustaches hung down, his right side, sprinkled by the waves, was wet, his eyes were sunken, and had lost their brilliance. He was very miserable and depressed. All that was predatory in his appearance seemed to have been steeped in a lowering melancholy, which even came to light in the folds of his dirty shirt. "Tired, eh? and I'm so well.... You've over-done it...." "We shall be there in a moment.... Look!... yonder!" Chelkash turned the boat sharply round, and steered it in the direction of a black something emerging from the water. The sky was once more all covered with clouds, and rain had begun to descend--a fine, warm rain pattering merrily down on the crests of the waves. "Stop! slower!" commanded Chelkash. The nose of the skiff bumped against the hull of a barque. "Are the devils asleep," growled Chelkash, grasping with his boat-hook a rope dangling down the side of the ship.... "Why, the ladder's not let down! And it's raining, too! Why don't they look sharp! Hie! sluggards! hie!" "Is that Chelkash?" murmured a friendly voice above them. "Yes, let down the ladder." "How goes it, Chelkash?" "Let down the ladder, you devil!" roared Chelkash. "Oh, he's waxy to-day, eh? There you are, then." "Up you go, Gabriel," said Chelkash, turning to his companion. In a moment they were on the deck, where three dark-bearded figures, jabbering vigorously together in a strange pricky sort of tongue, were looking over-board into Chelkash's skiff. The fourth, wrapped round in a long cloak, came to him and pressed his hand in silence, and then glanced suspiciously at Gabriel. "Have the money ready by morning," said Chelkash curtly. "And now I'll have a little sleep. Come, Gabriel. Do you want anything to eat?"