Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/225

 the gas, in sharp outline. Three other flames shot up on the walls and lighted up the large room.

The engine had not moved. The two other workmen were standing at their levers, waiting for further orders. There was absolute silence, and all the eyes which had been turned on the gas-jets, returned to their work. The hands of the transport workers could be heard banging the copies to press them down. Familiar noises were starting again.

The overseer who had crept out of the machine at the moment when the light went out, looked at the cylinders which were in working order, then he stood up, and his eyes met Kuba’s look of horror.

They held him with a look so severe and fixed, that Kuba was unable to turn his eyes away. His feet were trembling, his heart beat as though it would tear itself from the flesh. For a good while the overseer looked him in the eyes, then suddenly his own severe eyes were lighted up by a smile so genial and almost friendly, that Kuba could not help smiling back at him. The overseer gave him a nod which expressed trust and at the same time a warning. Then he turned to the two other workmen.