Page:Henryk Sienkiewicz - Potop - The Deluge (1898 translation by Jeremiah Curtin) - Vol 1.djvu/437

Rh they let them enter the cabin. Soroka ordered his soldiers to change the watch about midnight, and threw himself down on the plank bed beside Kmita.

It had become quiet in the cabin; only the crickets raised their usual music in the adjoining closet, and the mice gnawed from moment to moment among the rubbish piled up there. The sick man woke at intervals and seemed to have dreams in his fever, for to Soroka's ears came the disconnected words, —

"Gracious king, pardon — Those men are traitors — I will tell all their secrets — The Commonwealth is a red cloth — Well, I have you, worthy prince — Hold him! — Gracious king, this way, for there is treason!"

Soroka rose on the bed and listened; but the sick man, when he had screamed once and a second time, fell asleep, and then woke and cried, —

"Olenka, Olenka, be not angry!"

About midnight he grew perfectly calm and slept soundly. Soroka also began to slumber; but soon a gentle knocking at the door of the cabin roused him.

The watchful soldier opened his eyes at once, and springing to his feet went out.

"But what is the matter?" asked he.

"Sergeant, the pitch-maker has escaped."

"A hundred devils! he'll bring robbers to us right away."

"Who was watching him?"

"Biloüs."

"I went with him to water our horses," said Biloüs, explaining." I ordered him to draw the water, and held the horses myself."

"And what? Did he jump into the well?"

"No, Sergeant, but between the logs, of which there are many near the well, and into the stump-holes. I let the horses go; for though they scattered there are others here, and sprang after him, but I fell into the first hole. It was night, — dark; the scoundrel knows the place, and ran away. May the pest strike him!"

"He will bring those devils here to us, — he'll bring them. May the thunderbolts split him!"

The sergeant stopped, but after a while said, —

"We will not lie down; we must watch till morning. Any moment a crowd may come."

And giving an example to the others, he took his place on the threshold of the cabin with a musket in his hand. The