"Certainly, they ought not to have stolen the boat. If they are not punished now, they will probably do something worse next time." The old man interrupted me, without paying any heed to my protestations.
The old man spoke with revolting indifference. When he had finished speaking, his comrades nodded their heads in token of assent.
"Yes, if a man steals, he has to bear the consequences, when he's caught—— Michael! what about the boat? Is it there?"
"Oh, it's there all right!"
"Are you sure the waves won't wash it away?"
"Quite sure."
"Well, that's all right. Then let it stay there. Tomorrow the boatmen
will be going over to Kertch, and they can take it with them.
They will not mind taking an empty boat along with them, will they?
Well—so you mean to say you were not frightened, you vagabonds?
Weren't you indeed? La! la! la!
"Half a mile farther out, and you would have been by this time at the bottom of the sea! What would you have done if the waves had cast you back into the sea? Ay, sure enough, you would have sunk to the bottom like a couple of axes. And that would have been the end of you both!"
As the old man finished speaking, he looked at me with an ironical smile on his lips.
"Well, why don't you speak, lad?" he inquired.