"Bravo!... I like that."
"And I also, I shall go!" said Jakoff.
"Who invites you?" said Sereja, screwing up his eyes.
The harsh tinkle of a cracked bell was heard; it was the call to work. The sounds rang out through the air, one following rapidly the other, as if they feared to be late, or to be drowned in the sound of the waves.
"She will invite me," said Jakoff.
He glanced at Malva defiantly.
"I?... What should I want with you?" she replied, with surprise in her voice.
"Let's speak plainly, Jakoff," said Sereja. "If you bother her I'll beat you into a jelly. And if you touch her with a finger, I'll crush you like a fly. I'll give you one over the head that will just finish you altogether. I'm very straightforward in my ways." His face, his whole figure and his knotted arms threatened Jakoff's throat, and seemed to prove eloquently, that in reality, to kill a man was to Sereja a very simple matter.
Jakoff stepped back and said in a stifled voice—
"Wait a minute! It's she who..."