In the distance, on the dead waves of sand, was a small dark human figure moving slowly away; on his right beamed the sun and the powerful sea, and on the left, to the horizon, there was sand, nothing but sand, uniform, deserted,—­gloomy.  Iakov watched the receding figure of the lonely man and blinked his eyes, filled with tears—­tears of humiliation and painful uncertainty.

On the fishing grounds everyone was busy at work.  Iakov heard Malva’s sonorous voice ask, angrily: 

“Who has taken my knife?”

The waves murmured, the sun shone and the sea laughed.

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