Part 78 (1/2)
He put the pistol down beside him and took out a goodly pile of dollars.
”A plague upon your jesting eyes!” hissed the robber through the knife.
”Why do you frighten a fellow? The darts of Heaven destroy you!”
He was still trembling, so frightened had he been.
The loaded weapon in another's hand had driven away all his courage.
The robber could only be audacious, not courageous.
”Hold your cap.”
Sarvolgyi shovelled the heap of silver coins into the robber's cap.
”Now perhaps you can believe it is not fear that makes me confide in you?”
”A plague upon you. How you alarmed me!”
”Well, now collect your wits and listen to me.”
The robber stuffed the money into his pockets and listened with contracted eyebrows.
”You may see it was not I who stole your money; for, had I done so, I should just now have planted two bullets in your carca.s.s, one in your heart, the other in your skull. And I should have got one hundred gold pieces by it, that being the price on your head.”
The robber smiled bashfully, like one who is flattered. He took it as a compliment that the county had put a price of one hundred gold pieces on his head.
”You may be quite sure that it was not I, but those folks yonder, who took away your money.”
”The highwaymen!”
”You are right--highwaymen:--worse even than that. Atheists! The earth will be purified if they are wiped out. He who kills them is doing as just an action as the man that shoots a wolf or a hawk.”
”True, true;” Kandur nodded a.s.sent.
”This rogue who stole away your daughter laid a snare for another innocent creature. He must have two, one for his right hand, the other for his left. And when the persecuted innocent girl escaped from the deceiver to my house and became my wife, those folks yonder swore deadly revenge against me. Because I rescued an innocent soul from the cave of crime, they thrice wished to slay me. Once they poured poison into my drinking-well. Fortunately the horses drank of the water first and all fell sick from it. Then they drove mad dogs out in the streets, when I was walking there, to tear me to pieces. They sent me letters, which, had I opened them, would have gone off in my hands and blown me to pieces. These malicious fellows wish to kill me.”
”I understand.”
”That young stripling thinks that if he succeeds he can carry off my wife too, so as to have her for his mistress one day, Czipra, your daughter, the next.”
”You make my anger boil within me!”
”They acknowledge neither G.o.d nor law. They do as they please. When did you last see your daughter?”
”Two weeks ago.”
”Did you not see how worn she is? That cursed fellow has enchanted her and is spoiling her.”
”I'll spoil his head!”
”What will you do with him?”