Page:Hours Spent in Prison.djvu/103

 The last objects he saw were a piece of a red beard, which almost came in his mouth, and then the darkness of the the forest… and finally the skirts of a running girl. She ran silently and as swiftly as if acting in the play of “The Cat and Mouse,” and in order to overtake her the clean-shaved man continued to run. Niemoviecki now experienced nothing but a blank; he fell heavily on the ground, losing his presence of mind.

The big red-bearded fellow having thrown Niemoviecki into the ditch waited with his companion for a while listening to what was going on down below.

As their faces were turned towards this spot they lost sight of Tenaida. All at once rose a loud, deafening shout of a woman, then as suddenly it was hushed and the big fellow cried out furiously—

“You wretch! You touch her only and you are a dead man!”