“Take them and go!”

“I won’t take them, brother. I can’t! Forgive me!”

“T-take them, I say!” bellowed Chelkash, glaring horribly.

“Forgive me! Then I’ll take them,” said Gavrila, timidly, and he fell at Chelkash’s feet on the damp sand, that was being liberally drenched by the rain.

“You lie, you’ll take them anyhow, sniveler!” Chelkash said with conviction, and with an effort, pulling Gavrila’s head up by the hair, he thrust the notes in his face.

“Take them! Take them! You didn’t work for nothing, I suppose. Take it, don’t be frightened! Don’t be ashamed of having nearly killed a man! On account of people like me, no one will punish you. They’ll say thank you, indeed, when they know of it. There, take it!”

Gavrila saw that Chelkash was laughing, and he felt relieved. He crushed the notes up tight in his hand.

“Brother! You forgive me? Won’t you? Eh?” he asked tearfully.

“Brother of mine!” Chelkash mimicked him as he got, reeling, on to his legs. “What for? There’s nothing to forgive. Today you do for me, tomorrow I’ll do for you.”

“Oh, brother, brother!” Gavrila sighed mournfully, shaking his head.

Chelkash stood facing him, he smiled strangely, and the rag on his head, growing gradually redder, began to look like a Turkish fez.

The rain streamed in bucketsful. The sea moaned with a hollow sound, and the waves beat on the shore, lashing furiously and wrathfully against it.

The two men were silent.

“Come, good-by!” Chelkash said, sarcastically.

He reeled, his legs shook, and he held his head queerly, as though he were afraid of losing it.

“Forgive me, brother!” Gavrila besought him once more.

“All right!” Chelkash answered, coldly, setting off on his way.

He walked away, staggering, and still holding his head in his left hand, while he slowly tugged at his brown mustache with the right.

Gavrila looked after him a long while, till he had disappeared in the rain, which still poured down in fine, countless streams, and wrapped everything in an impenetrable steel-gray mist.

Then Gavrila took off his soaked cap, made the sign of the cross, looked at the notes crushed up in his hand, heaved a deep sigh of relief, thrust them into his bosom, and with long, firm strides went along the shore, in the opposite direction from that Chelkash had taken.

The sea howled, flinging heavy, breaking billows on the sand of the shore, and dashing them into spray; the rain lashed the water and the earth; the wind blustered. All the air was full of roaring, howling, moaning. Neither the sea nor sky could be seen through the rain.