The skiff turned and went lightly back towards the haven, where the lights of the lanterns were jogging together in a parti-coloured group, and the shafts of the masts were visible.
"Hie! who was making that row?" the voice sounded again. This time it was further off than before. Chelkash felt easier.
"You're making all the row yourself, my friend!" he cried in the direction of the voice, and then he turned again to Gabriel, who was still muttering a prayer: "Well, my friend, you're in luck! If those devils had come after us there would have been an end of you! Do you hear? I'd have thrown you to the fishes in a twinkling!"
Now when Chelkash spoke calmly, and even good-naturedly, Gabriel trembled still more with terror and fell to beseeching.
"Listen! Let me go! For Christ's sake let me go! Land me somewhere—oh, oh, oh! I'm ruined altogether. Now, in the name of God, let me go! What am I to you? I'm not up to it. I'm not used to such things. It's the very first time. Oh, Lord! It's all up with me! How could you so deceive me, my friend? It is wilful of you. You have lost your soul. A pretty business."
"What business do you mean?" asked Chelkash surlily. "Ha! What business, eh?"
He was amused at the terror of the rustic, and he took a delight in Gabriel's terror, because it showed what a terrible fellow he, Chelkash, was.
"A dark business, my friend! Let me go, for God's sake. What harm have I done you?... Mercy...!"
"Silence! If you were of no use to me I would not have taken you. Do you understand?—And now be quiet!"
"Oh, Lord!" sighed the sobbing Gabriel.