'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?
...' 'I've killed an abrek, that's what I fired at,' muttered Lukashka in a voice choked by emotion, as he jumped to his feet.

'A man was swimming...' he said, pointing to the sandbank.

'I killed him.