“It would be a good deal better if you thought more and chattered less.”
“What do you mean by lecturing me? Are you schoolmaster here, I’d like to know?”
“Oh, you want putting to the right-about.”
“Who are you, I’d like to know?”
“I’m a man! What are you?”
“A man! You’re——”
“You’re——”
“I say! Shut up, do! What’s the good of all this row?” was the cry from all sides.
On the evening of the day the “mutiny” took place, I met Petroff behind the barracks after the day’s work. He was looking for me. As he came near me, I heard him exclaim something, which I didn’t understand, in a muttering sort of way; then he said no more, and walked by my side in a listless, mechanical fashion.
“I say, Petroff, your fellows are not vexed with us, are they?”