Part 26 (1/2)

”Because it would only betray us outside here; nor do we want it, for the moon is still high.”

”But the cellar might catch fire?”

”All the better for us, for then they will not be able to pursue us that way if they find out how we have escaped.”

”But if the cellar burn, the house may burn too.”

”And what then? Is there anything burning there which my pretty mistress or myself would greatly miss?”

CHAPTER XXIV.

A true relation of the thoughtlessness of youth, and the artifices whereby women enthrall their lovers.

”I am afraid!” said Michal, when she found herself in the middle of the dark forest.

”What's there to be afraid of?” cried Pirka. ”The wild beasts, the bears, and the wolves, have been scared away into other regions by the shooting match between the county militia and the robbers, so that they won't come back again in a hurry. The robber bands, too, have been rooted out. At this moment they are dancing in the air round the bastions of Eperies. We shall have peace and quiet now for at least a year to come. Not that the people have been terrified by the fate of the executed robbers; not a bit of it. On the contrary, many a man will be thereby stimulated to live and die as bravely as they have done. But it will be a year at least before the new robber bands seek (and perhaps find) the treasures hidden by the older ones. No amount of torture could force from the prisoners the secret of their hidden treasures. They endured everything rather than give up their gold and silver. Till there is another outbreak of highwaymen, therefore, every traveler may go singing through the woods without the slightest fear. From robbers and wild beasts you are now quite secure.”

”It is G.o.d that I am afraid of,” said Michal.

The witch pressed the wrists of the young woman together till they cracked again.

”If ever you dare to repeat that word again,” said she, ”I'll leave you in the midst of this dark wood, and then you may either fly or seek Him whom you fear so much; I'll wash my hands of you.”

Then Michal said not another word, but followed the witch, who led her so surely through the sylvan labyrinth that she actually stopped at a place in the midst of the thickest thicket, drew a knife from out of the trunk of a tree, and showed it to Michal.

”Look! This knife I stuck into that tree in the broad daylight, as I pa.s.sed by this way, and now I have found it again in darkest night.”

Not an hour had pa.s.sed, and the moon still stood in the sky, when they arrived at the kopanitscha of Gorgo.

”Here we stop,” cried Pirka. ”This is the house where the doves bill one another on the gables.”

Just then, however, all the doves were asleep; but in the courtyard a woman was wandering about, who raised her hands toward the moon, and made all sorts of frantic gestures.

Pirka greeted her with strangely sounding words, not one of which Michal understood, and the kopanitschar's wife answered in the same fas.h.i.+on.

”Have you offered up a witch's prayer, and if so, for what have you prayed?”

”I have prayed that the devil may take the old vihodar.”

”He has got him already. Janko bit him in the neck, and immediately he was a dead man.”

”Beelzebub be praised!” cried the kopanitschar's wife, and she frisked about for joy.

”Cook us some supper, sisterkin,” said Pirka to Annie.

”What sort of a guest have you brought me?” asked the latter.

”You know well enough without being told.”