“Adam!” Roch exclaimed; “wait a minute!”
Young Klemba just stopped long enough to roar:
“Know that two people lie murdered in the forest. O Lord! how frightened I am! I had been just by, tending the horses, and was coming home with the lad Gulbas, when—just at Boryna’s cross—my horse shied. I looked and saw two people lying in the juniper-bushes. I called out to them; but they made no more answer than if dead.”
“O fool, what fable are you telling us now?” his hearers cried.
“Then go look yourselves: there they lie! Gulbas saw them as well, but he ran away to the komorniki.”
“Good God!—Then make haste to the Voyt and tell him.”
“He is not yet back from town,” someone said.
“Then to the Soltys! He is near the blacksmith’s, mending the road with other workmen,” they called after him as he clattered away.
The news of the murder had flashed round the village, and people were crossing themselves with fear. Someone informed his Reverence, who came out to ask about it; and all most impatiently awaited the return of the Soltys, who at once had gone in a cart, with Klemba and some labourers.
They waited for ever so long. It was growing dusk when he came back, and—to everybody’s amazement—along with the Voyt’s horse and britzka; in a very ferocious humour too, cursing, slashing at his poor jade, and doing his best to pass through the crowd. But someone seized the bridle; and, forced to stop, he cried:
“Those mischievous boys! they have been trying a practical joke. There was no one slain: only some people asleep in the bushes. Oh, let me but catch that young Klemba, he shall pay for the fright given—and that soundly!—So I met the Voyt and brought him home with me … and that’s all!—Vee—o! Little One!”
“But,” one man remarked, looking into the open cart, “what ails the Voyt? He is sprawling there like a sick man!”
“He’s asleep, that’s all!” And the Soltys whipped the horses into a trot.
“What mischievous rascals! To make up such a story!”
“It’s all young Gulbas’ doing: he is always the first in such games!”
“Rub them both down with an oaken towel! Teach them to scare folk for nothing!”
Very indignant over the whole affair, they were going home, when on their way they met the komorniki, with heavy faggots on their backs, and Kozlova marching at their head, though nearly bent double with her load. Seeing them, she leant back, and remained propped up by her burden.
“He has duped you finely, has the Soltys!” she sneered, almost speechless with fatigue. “Ha! No dead men indeed were in the forest, but worse perchance.”
A large group was soon attracted by her words; and then she burst forth with her tale.
“I was going back to the cross by the forest-path, when Gulbas, scared to death, came running to me, telling of dead folk that lay in the juniper-bushes hard by. I thought it were well to look at them, at any rate. We went, and I saw from afar two people lying as dead. Filipka pulled my sleeve to drag me away, and Gregory’s wife was pattering her prayers, and I too felt creepy all over. … But I crossed myself, went up to them, and looked—and what do I see? My lord the Voyt, lying, with his coat off, and beside him Yagna Borynova: both sleeping very deep. … And how they reeked of vodka! … And she, unclad in such guise that I shame to say. … It was as bad as Sodom! I am old, but such a scandal I never yet heard of.—So the Soltys came up, and Yagna ran off; but his Lordship the Voyt was hard to get into the cart.—Drunk as a pig!”
A voice was heard: “Merciful Lord! this is a new thing in Lipka!”
“If it had been only a farmhand with a wench!—But a husbandman, a father, and our Voyt!”
“Boryna lies close to death, with no one to give him to drink; and she! …”
“I would escort her with tapers out of the place, the harlot! Nay, I’d beat her with rods before the church!” Kozlova shouted once more.
“And where is Dominikova?”
“They left her in town; she was in their way.”
“Oh, the sin, the scandal of it! And the shame extends to us all.”
“That Yagna—so careless of honour—ready to do the same again tomorrow!”
In their huts, they went on complaining, full of horror and indignation, some of the kinder-hearted women also weeping, in fear of God’s judgment upon all of them; and all the village was full of talk and lamentation.
Some young fellows took Gulbas aside to question him about particulars.
“A famous fellow with women, that Voyt of ours,” said Adam Vahnik.
“He’ll have to pay for this: his wife will tear his hair out!”
“And hold aloof from him for six months.”
“Oh, he will not care so much for that now!”
“Yes, one might do any folly for such a lass as Yagna!”
“Surely. Among the Manor damsels, none more fair than she, and when she but looks at any man, she sends a thrill through him!”
“So honey-sweet!—No wonder if Antek Boryna …”
“Hold your tongues, men! Gulbas is a liar; so is Kozlova: all this they say out of spite, and we do not know the truth as yet,” Matthew interfered, in tones of great concern; but he was interrupted by Gregory the Voyt’s brother’s arrival.
“Well? Is Peter still asleep?” they asked him. He answered:
“That man was my own brother; but after what he has done, he’s no more to me than a dog!—But,” he added with a burst of fury, “that carrion is the cause of all!”
“ ’Tis a lie!” vociferated Pete, the farm-servant at Boryna’s, pushing forward towards Gregory; “and he that utters it is a yelping cur!”
They all were amazed at this unexpected explosion; and he went on, with clenched trembling fists:
“No one is guilty but the Voyt. Was it she gave him corals? or enticed him to the
