Part 51 (1/2)
”But was there no one with him?”
”There was another, a lean, thin, young man.”
”Not they,” said Pan Serafin to the priest in a whisper.
”But they may have been Martsian's company.”
Then he said aloud to the man,--
”What did they tell you to do?”
”This: 'Do what ye like with the people,' said they; 'the wagons and plunder are yours; but in the company there is a young lady whom ye are to take and bring by roundabout ways between Radom and Zvolenie to Polichna. Beyond Polichna a party will attack you and take the lady. Ye will pretend to defend her, but not so as to harm our men. Ye will get a thaler apiece for this, besides what ye find in the wagons.'”
”That is as if on one's palm,” said the priest.
”Then did only those two talk with Kos and thee?”
”Later, a third person came in the night with them; he gave us a ducat apiece to bind the agreement. Though the place was as dark as in a cellar, one of our men who had been a serf of his recognized that third person as Pan Krepetski.”
”Ha! that is he!” cried Pan Serafin.
”And is that man here, or has he fallen?” inquired Father Voynovski.
”I am here!” called out a voice from some distance.
”Come nearer. Didst thou recognize Pan Krepetski? But how, since it was so dark, that thou couldst hit a man on the snout without knowing it?”
”Because I know him from childhood. I knew him by his bow-legs and his head, which sits, as it were, in a hole between his shoulders, and by his voice.”
”Did he speak to you?”
”He spoke with us, and afterward I heard him speak to those who came with him.”
”What did he say to them?”
”He said this: 'If I could have trusted money with you, I should not have come, even if the night were still darker.'”
”And wilt thou testify to this before the mayor in the town, or the starosta?”
”I will.”
”When he heard this, Pan Zbierhovski turned to his attendants and said,--
”Guard this man with special care, for me.”
CHAPTER XXV
They began now to counsel. The advice of the Bukoyemskis was to disguise some peasant woman in the dress of a lady, put her on horseback, give her attendants and soldiers dressed up as bandits, and go to the place designated by Martsian, and, when he made the attack as agreed upon, surround him immediately, and either wreak vengeance there, or take him to Cracow and deliver him to justice. They offered to go themselves, with great willingness, to carry out the plan, and swore that they would throw Martsian in fetters at the feet of Panna Anulka.