United States or Oman ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


Gavrilo inquired again with surprised suspicion in his tone. "What sort? lines and " But Chelkash felt ashamed to lie to this boy, to conceal his real plans, and he was sorry to lose what this peasant-lad had destroyed in his heart by this question. He flew into a rage.

On one of them moved a light; some one was walking up and down with a lantern. The sea stroked their sides with a hollow sound of supplication, and they responded with an echo, cold and resonant, as though unwilling to yield anything. "The coastguards!" Chelkash whispered hardly above a breath.

And over all was flung a delicate veil of ash-colored mist, that made things seem far from one another. "Ah, there'll be a pretty dance by evening!" said Chelkash, nodding his head at the sea. "A storm?" queried Gavrilo, working vigorously at the waves with his oars. He was already wet through from head to foot with the splashing the wind blew on him from the sea. "Aye, aye!" Chelkash assented.

The sky was again all covered with clouds, and fine, warm rain had come on, pattering gayly on the crests of the waves. "Stop! easy!" commanded Chelkash. The boat's nose knocked against the hull of the vessel. "Are they asleep, the devils?" grumbled Chelkash, catching with his boat-hook on to some ropes that hung over the ship's side. "The ladder's not down. And this rain, too.

You're a lost man, you see you couldn't make your way while I oh, give it to me!" Chelkash, dismayed, amazed, and wrathful, sat on the sand, thrown backward with his hands supporting him; he sat there in silence, rolling his eyes frightfully at the young peasant, who, ducking his head down at his knees, whispered his prayer to him in gasps.

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!" "For go away, do! Go to the devil!"

It was a vague feeling of annoyance, that grew instinctively, stirred deep down in his heart, and hindered him from concentrating himself on the consideration of all that he had to do that night. The lad he had thus reviled muttered something, casting occasionally a dubious glance at Chelkash.

Wherever you go, you've home to come back to! It's snug! There's peace! You're a king! Aren't you really?" Chelkash concluded enthusiastically his long reckoning of the peasant's advantages and privileges, forgetting, somehow, his duties. Gavrilo looked at him with curiosity, and he, too, warmed to the subject.

Soon the rain and the spray had washed away the red patch on the spot where Chelkash had lain, washed away the traces of Chelkash and the peasant lad on the sandy beach. And no trace was left on the seashore of the little drama that had been played out between two men. I met him in the harbor of Odessa. For three successive days his square, strongly-built figure attracted my attention.

Get ready!" "Why, I've nothing to do! I'm ready." And soon they were in the boat again, Chelkash at the rudder, Gavrilo at the oars. Above them the sky was gray, with clouds stretched evenly across it. The muddy green sea played with their boat, tossing it noisily on the waves that sportively flung bright salt drops into it.