rokes of his white arms, lifting his back high out of
the water and breathing deeply, he swam across the current of the Terek
towards the shallows. A crowd of Cossacks stood on the bank talking
loudly. Three horsemen rode off to patrol. The skiff appeared round a
bend. Lukashka stood up on the sandbank, leaned over the body, and gave
it a couple of shakes.

'Quite dead!' he shouted in a shrill voice.

The Chechen had been shot in the head. He had on a pair of blue
trousers, a shirt, and a Circassian coat, and a gun and dagger were
tied to his back. Above all these a large branch was tied, and it was
this which at first had misled Lukashka.

'What a carp you've landed!' cried one of the Cossacks who had
assembled in a circle, as the body, lifted out of the skiff, was laid
on the bank, pressing down the grass.

'How yellow he is!' said another.

'Where have our fellows gone to search? I expect the rest of them are
on the other bank. If this one had not been a scout he would not have
swum that way. Why else should he swim alone?' said a third.

'Must have been a smart one to offer himself before the others; a
regular brave!' said Lukashka mockingly, shivering as he wrung out his
clothes that had got wet on the bank.

'His beard is dyed and cropped.'

'And he has tied a bag with a coat in it to his back.'

'That would make it easier for him to swim,' said some one.

'I say, Lukashka,' said the corporal, who was holding the dagger and
gun taken from the dead man. 'Keep the dagger for yourself and the coat
too; but I'll give you three rubles for the gun. You see it has a hole
in it,' said he, blowing into the muzzle. 'I want it just for a
souvenir.'

Lukashka did not answer. Evidently this sort of begging vexed him but
he knew it could not be avoided.

'See, what a devil!' said he, frowning and throwing down the Chechen's
coat. 'If at least it were a good coat, but it's a mere rag.'

'It'll do to fetch firewood in,' said one of the Cossacks.

'Mosev, I'll go home,' said Lukashka, evidently forgetting his vexation
and wishing to get some advantage out of having to give a present to
his superior.

'All right, you may go!'

'Take the body beyond the cordon, lads,' said the corporal, still
examining the gun, 'and put a shelter over him from the sun. Perhaps
they'll send from the mountains to ransom it.'

'It isn't hot yet,' said someone.

'And supposing a jackal tears him? Would that be well?' remarked
ano