the tossing of the ship and closed his
eyes; his head alternately fell back and dropped forward on his
breast. Several times he tried to lie down but nothing came of it; his
difficulty in breathing prevented it.

"And what did you hit the four Chinamen for?" he asked a little while
afterwards.

"Oh, nothing. They came into the yard and I hit them."

And a stillness followed.... The card-players had been playing for two
hours with enthusiasm and loud abuse of one another, but the motion of
the ship overcame them, too; they threw aside the cards and lay down.
Again Gusev saw the big pond, the brick building, the village.... Again
the sledge was coming along, again Vanka was laughing and Akulka, silly
little thing, threw open her fur coat and stuck her feet out, as much as
to say: "Look, good people, my snowboots are not like Vanka's, they are
new ones."

"Five years old, and she has no sense yet," Gusev muttered in delirium.
"Instead of kicking your legs you had better come and get your soldier
uncle a drink. I will give you something nice."

Then Andron with a flintlock gun on his shoulder was carrying a hare he
had killed, and he was followed by the decrepit old Jew Isaitchik, who
offers to barter the hare for a piece of soap; then the black calf in
the shed, then Domna sewing at a shirt and crying about something, and
then again the bull's head without eyes, black smoke....

Overhead someone gave a loud shout, several sailors ran by, they seemed
to be dragging something bulky over the deck, something fell with a
crash. Again they ran by.... Had something gone wrong? Gusev raised
his head, listened, and saw that the two soldiers and the sailor were
playing cards again; Pavel Ivanitch was sitting up moving his lips. It
was stifling, one hadn't strength to breathe, one was thirsty, the water
was warm, disgusting. The ship heaved as much as ever.

Suddenly something strange happened to one of the soldiers playing
cards.... He called hearts diamonds, got muddled in his score, and
dropped his cards, then with a frightened, foolish smile looked round at
all of them.

"I shan't be a minute, mates, I'll..." he said, and lay down on the
floor.

Everybody was amazed. They called to him, he did not answer.

"Stephan, maybe you are feeling bad, eh?" the soldier with his arm in a
sling asked him. "Perhaps we had better bring the priest, eh?"

"Have a drink of water, Stepan..." said the sailor. "Here, lad, drink."

"W