The cold bland captain looked over at Dugan without anger, without fear, and said, "You must kill him."
"Kill him?" said Byelov. "Make him dead?"
"Yes," the captain nodded.
"Why?" said Byelov. "If he is good Russian man, he can live. Get punishments for bad soldier, but live. If he is not good Russian man, special governments find out and then shoot him for spy. You too busy to working with him. I just work this machinery. Don't know things like that."
Without glancing at Dugan, the captain said, "I think I'll shoot him now." Then he swung around and stared sharply at Dugan.
Dugan grinned at him and said in Chinese, "You are a filthy Fascist turtle egg and I ought to kill you."
The blank face burst momentarily into expression, showing fury. Then the fury was gone and the captain asked calmly, "For what reason do you insult me?"
"You are an American. A bad man," said Dugan in Chinese. Switching back to Russian, he said to Byelov:
"Sarzhant, why do you keep American Fascists in such a nice Communist headquarters? In Mukden I got very tired of the Americans and the Kuomintang and all the time I hear English talk everywhere, with nobody talking Russian. Now I come here and you talk English, too."
"Sorry, comrade," said Byelov. "This is a good anti-Fascist American. This is Kapitan Stearns."