to be quite near--just at the end of his rifle's barrel. He
glanced cross. 'Right enough it is an abrek! he thought joyfully,
and suddenly rising to his knees he again took aim. Having found
the sight, barely visible at the end of the long gun, he said: 'In
the name of the Father and of the Son,' in the Cossack way learnt
in his childhood, and pulled the trigger. A flash of lightning lit
up for an instant the reeds and the water, and the sharp, abrupt
report of the shot was carried across the river, changing into a
prolonged roll somewhere in the far distance. The piece of
driftwood now floated not across, but with the current, rocking
and whirling.

'Stop, I say!' exclaimed Ergushov, seizing his musket and raising
himself behind the log near which he was lying.

'Shut up, you devil!' whispered Lukashka, grinding his teeth.
'abreks!'

'Whom have you shot?' asked Nazarka. 'Who was it, Lukashka?'

Lukashka did not answer. He was reloading his gun and watching the
floating wood. A little way off it stopped on a sand-bank, and
from behind it something large that rocked in the water came into
view.

'What did you shoot? Why don't you speak?' insisted the Cossacks.

'Abreks, I tell you!' said Lukashka.

'Don't humbug! Did the gun go off? ...'