He was sitting by her side, staring at her, and thinking of something to say, when in rushed the Voyt, who had by this time made it up with Boryna. He called out from the very threshold:
“News for you! You are to appear in court tomorrow at noon.”
“In the action about my cow?”
“Aye, against the manor.”
“I must be off betimes tomorrow; it is a long way. Vitek, go this instant to Pete and get everything ready. You are to go, too, as a witness.—Is Bartek notified?”
“I have brought all the summonses from the court bureau today: there will be a lot of you together. And if the manor is at fault, let it pay up.”
“Pay it must!—Such a cow as that!”
“Come with me into the other rooms,” the Voyt whispered; “I have to talk with you.”
They went out, and remained so long that Yuzka had to take supper in to them.
The Voyt, as he had more than once done already, entreated him not to make enemies of the manor folk, to put matters off, see how things would turn out, and beware of joining with Klemba and his party. Boryna had hitherto seemed to waver, calculating chances. He did not refuse to listen, but did not care to join the Voyt’s side, still feeling indignant at the slight offered him by the Squire, when he had come to the miller’s lately.
Seeing that he made no impression, the Voyt tried alluring him with a bait.
“Ye know that I, with the miller and the smith, have come to an agreement with the manor: that we are to cart the trunks to the sawmill and, when sawn into planks, to the town.”
“Yes, yes, of course I know: tongues wag about it quite enough, and say you prevent folk from earning any money.”
“Much do I care! But let me tell you now what we three have settled. Hearken to what I say.”
The old man shot a glance at him and listened attentively.
“We want you to be one of us. You shall cart the very same quantity of timber. Ye have a good pair of draught-horses, the wagoner will only have to drive, and the profit is certain. Payment is by the cubic metre. You will have earned fivescore roubles ere it be possible to work in the fields.”
Boryna pondered long. “When do you begin work?” he asked.
“From tomorrow. They are already cutting down timber in the nearest clearings. The roads are fairly good, sledges being still available. My man is to start off on Thursday.”
“A plague upon it! If I but knew whether my action will succeed tomorrow!”
“Only join us, and all will be well.—I, the Voyt, have spoken.”
Boryna remained plunged for a while in dubious musings; he eyed the Voyt with attention, chalked something on the bench, scratched his head, and said finally:
“I am with you in this undertaking.”
“Good. Come to the miller’s tomorrow, after the judgment, and we shall talk the matter over further. I must be off now, to get my sledge-runners tinkered up at the blacksmith’s.”
Away he went in high glee, assured that he had, by this offer of partnership in cartage, bought the old man over to his side.
Truly, though, the miller might make one with the manor: his land was not on the village register, nor had he any rights over the forest. So too might the Voyt, whose lands had been taken from the clergy by the Russians; so might the smith: but not he, not Boryna! He said: “Cartage is one thing, and the forest dispute is another. Ere an agreement is come to, or we have a complete rupture, many a day must elapse. Why not, then, get my immediate profit out of the partnership, and yet hold fast to our rights? There are, in any case, some scores of roubles of clear gain. I should have to keep the servant and feed the horses, in any case.”
He smiled, rubbed his hands, and chuckled over the situation.
“They have no more sense than so many sheep, thinking to take me in like a silly calf. Silly themselves!”
In rare good humour, he went back to his womenfolk. Yagna was out of the room. She had, they told him, gone out to feed the swine.
He talked gaily, bantered Yasyek and Dominikova, awaiting his wife the while with increasing uneasiness. She was absent very long. Quietly and without a word, he went out into the yard. The lads were in the barn, making ready the sledge for the morrow’s ride. He looked into the stables, the byre, the sties: Yagna was nowhere to be seen. For a time he stood waiting under the eaves in the dark. It was a sombre night with a cold howling gale, great dark clouds chasing each other across the sky and, from time to time, some white flakes falling.
Presently a dusky figure loomed in the path beyond the stile. Dashing forward, Boryna leaped the stile, and whispered fiercely:
“Where have you been, say?”
Yagna, though scared, carried it off boldly:
“ ‘Covering my feet.’ Would you pry into everything?” she said with a mocking laugh, and went in.
He spoke no more about that; and when they went to bed, he said in a quiet friendly tone, though without raising his eyes:
“Would ye like to go to the Klembas’ tomorrow?”
“Surely, along with Yuzka.—Unless ye forbid.”
“I must go to the law-court, and leave my house to the care of Providence. It were better ye should stay at home.”
“But will ye not be back by dusk?”
“I fear not. Perhaps only late in the night. It looks like snow, and we may have hard work coming home. But if ye will go, you may; I do not forbid you.”
