'If you come another step nearer----' began Insarov.

'Well? What then'

'I'll throw you in the water!'

'In the water? _Herr Je_! Is that all? Well, let us see that, that
would be very curious, too.'

The officer lifted his fists and moved forward, but suddenly something
extraordinary happened. He uttered an exclamation, his whole bulky
person staggered, rose from the ground, his legs kicking in the air,
and before the ladies had time to shriek, before any one had time to
realise how it had happened, the officer's massive figure went plop
with a heavy splash, and at once disappeared under the eddying water.

'Oh!' screamed the ladies with one voice. '_Mein Gott_!' was heard
from the other side. An instant passed . . . and a round head, all
plastered over with wet hair, showed above water, it was blowing
bubbles, this head; and floundering with two hands just at its very
lips. 'He will be drowned, save him! save him!' cried Anna Vassilyevna
to Insarov, who was standing with his legs apart on the bank,
breathing heavily.

'He will swim out,' he answered with contemptuous and unsympathetic
indifference. 'Let us go on,' he added, taking Anna Vassilyevna by
the arm. 'Come, Uvar Ivanovitch, Elena Nikolaevna.'

'A--a--o--o' was heard at that instant, the plaint of the hapless