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"I feel poorly, mates," he said. "I want to go on deck. For Christ's sake take me on deck." Goussiev flung his arms round the soldier's neck and the soldier held him with his free arm and supported him up the gangway. On deck there were rows and rows of sleeping soldiers and sailors; so many of them that it was difficult to pick a way through them. "Stand up," said the bandaged soldier gently.
He was losing strength through his cough and his illness and the suffocating heat, and he breathed heavily and was always moving his dry lips. Noticing that Goussiev was looking at him, he turned toward him and said: "I'm beginning to understand.... Yes.... Now I understand." "What do you understand, Pavel Ivanich?"
At Kharkhov I have a friend, a literary man. I shall go to him and I shall say, 'now, my friend, give up your rotten little love-stories and descriptions of nature, and expose the vileness of the human biped.... There's a subject for you." He thought for a moment and then he said: "Goussiev, do you know how I swindled them?" "Who, Pavel Ivanich?"
The three patients two soldiers and a sailor who had played cards all day were now asleep and tossing to and fro. The vessel began to shake. The hammock under Goussiev slowly heaved up and down, as though it were breathing one, two, three.... Something crashed on the floor and began to tinkle: the jug must have fallen down. "The wind has broken loose...." said Goussiev, listening attentively.
"And why did you go for the four Chinamen?" he asked after a while. "For no reason. They came into the yard and I went for them." Silence fell.... The gamblers played for a couple of hours, absorbed and cursing, but the tossing of the ship tired even them; they threw the cards away and laid down. Once more Goussiev thought of the big pond, the pottery, the village.
"Will he go to heaven?" "Who?" "Pavel Ivanich." "He will. He suffered much. Besides, he was a priest's son, and priests have many relations. They will pray for his soul." The bandaged soldier sat down on Goussiev's hammock and said in an undertone: "You won't live much longer, Goussiev. You'll never see Russia." "Did the doctor or the nurse tell you that?" asked Goussiev.
Less than a minute later, like arrows they darted at Goussiev, zigzagging through the water around him.... Later came another dark body, a shark. Gravely and leisurely, as though it had not noticed Goussiev, it swam up under him, and he rolled over on its back; it turned its belly up, taking its ease in the warm, translucent water, and slowly opened its mouth with its two rows of teeth.
Pavel Ivanich no longer sat up, but lay full length; his eyes were closed and his nose seemed to be sharper than ever. "Pavel Ivanich!" called Goussiev, "Pavel Ivanich." Pavel Ivanich opened his eyes and moved his lips. "Aren't you well?" "It's nothing," answered Pavel Ivanich, breathing heavily. "It's nothing. No. I'm much better. You see I can lie down now. I'm much better."
But my legs are giving way, mate, and it is hot here.... Let me go to bed." Goussiev went back to the ward and lay down in his hammock. As before, a vague desire tormented him and he could not make out what it was. There was a congestion in his chest; a noise in his head, and his mouth was so dry that he could hardly move his tongue.
The boat was rolling violently so that it was impossible to get up or to drink tea or to take medicine. "You were an orderly?" Pavel Ivanich asked Goussiev. "That's it. An orderly." "My God, my God!" said Pavel Ivanich sorrowfully. "To take a man from his native place, drag him fifteen thousand miles, drive him into consumption ... and what for? I ask you.
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