"Are you sure he was a Slav, and not a Turk?"
"We, on board, spoke to him in Turkish, because he knew the language like a Turk, but he was a Christian for all that; his country is somewhere in the interior, not far from here. Now another of my men has fallen ill——"
"The man with the one eye?"
"What! you know Vassili?" asked the captain, with a smile. "Yes, he's ill."
"What's the matter with him?"
"I really don't know; he's lying down, skulking in a hole; the devil take him."
"Since when?"
"Ten days, I think."
"But is he really ill?"
"He says he is; but why do you ask—do you know him?"