Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/261

 The magistrate had more respect for them than he had for the beaters. He would say: “Sit down, Jansky, the beater may stand.”

‘We didn’t know how to help ourselves. We called in the police, and they surrounded the cottage. No Jansky to be found. We waited until the morning. At break of day some one crept down the ladder. I took aim. Jansky never made a sound, and escaped into the woods. We had a drive, as if we were shooting game. We found him near the pond. He lay like a wounded animal. He recovered; they gave him two months, then he came back, and the whole farce began all over again.

‘We were all agreed that we must help ourselves. So he disappeared. The beaters used to tell everybody that Jansky could not be found, neither on the earth nor in the water nor in the air, and they would chuckle.

‘But his wife had a little pointer, and she went out to track her husband day and night, but could not find him.

‘When at last she came to the fringe of the forest, she found a charred place on the ground. The little pointer stood still and would not stir. It was true, Jansky was to be found neither on the earth nor in the water nor in