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More Tales from Tolstoi "Tell him, thou dog, that if he wants to frighten me, I won't give him a kopeck, neither will I write at all. I have never feared, and I will not fear you now, you dog."

The interpreter interpreted, and again they all began talking at once.

For a long time they debated, and then the swarthy man leaped to his feet and came to Zhilin.

"Urus!" said he, "dzhiget, dzhiget urus!"—and then he laughed.

"Dzhiget" in their language signifies "youth."

Then he said something to the interpreter, and the interpreter said: "Give a thousand roubles!"

Zhilin stood to his guns. "More than five hundred I will not give," said he. "You may kill me if you like, but you'll get no more out of me."

The Tatars fell a talking together again, then they sent out the labourer for someone, and kept looking at the door and at Zhilin. Presently the workman came back and brought with him a man—stout, barelegged, and cheery-looking, he also had a kolodka fastened to his leg.

Then Zhilin sighed indeed, for he recognised Kostuilin. So they had taken him too then! The Tatars placed them side by side, they began talking to each other, and the Tatars were silent and looked on. Zhilin related how it had fared with him, Kostuilin told him that his horse had sunk under him, that his musket had missed fire, and that that selfsame Abdul had chased and captured him.

Abdul leaped to his feet, pointed at Kostuilin, and said something. The interpreter interpreted that