their hurry, no doubt, to put a bullet in
my pistol. I beg you to load it afresh -- and
properly!"

"Impossible!" cried the captain, "impossible!
I loaded both pistols. Perhaps the bullet has
rolled out of yours. . . That is not my fault!
And you have no right to load again. . . No
right at all. It is altogether against the rules,
I shall not allow it" . . .

"Very well!" I said to the captain. "If so,
then you and I shall fight on the same terms" . . .

He came to a dead stop.

Grushnitski stood with his head sunk on his
breast, embarrassed and gloomy.

"Let them be!" he said at length to the cap-
tain, who was going to pull my pistol out of the
doctor's hands. "You know yourself that they
are right."

In vain the captain made various signs to him.
Grushnitski would not even look.

Meanwhile the doctor had loaded the pistol and
handed it to me. On seeing that, the captain spat
and stamped his foot.