Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/572

 134 leave its scabbard easily. But Zbyshko saw that and said,—

"No! To thee I give command to rush to the cradle straightway, and not leave it for the space of a hand's breadth during battle."

They went on quickly and in silence, always amidst dense hazel-brush; but they had not gone far, at the most two furlongs, when the brush ceased on a sudden and formed the border of a small plain, on which were evident the extinguished remnants of a tarpit, and two earthen huts, or "numis," in which, beyond doubt, had dwelt tarburners till war expelled them. The rays of the setting sun lighted with immense gleam the plain, the pit, and the two huts standing at some distance from each other. On a log before one of them two knights were sitting; before the other a broad-shouldered, red-haired man, and Sanderus. These two were occupied with cleaning armor with cloth, but at Sanderus' feet were lying in addition two swords which he had the intention of cleaning later.

"Look," said Matsko, pressing Zbyshko's arm with all his force, so as to restrain him. "He has taken their swords and armor from them purposely. Well done! He with the gray head must be—"

"Forward!" cried Zbyshko, suddenly.

And they shot out to that plain like a whirlwind. Men there sprang up also, but before they could run to Sanderus the terrible Matsko had seized Siegfried by the breast, bent him onto his back in one instant and was above him. Zbyshko and Arnold closed like two falcons, wound their arms around each other, and began to wrestle desperately. The broad-shouldered German, who before that had been sitting near Sanderus, rushed with his sword, it is true; but before he could wield it, Matsko's man, Vit, had struck him with the back of an axe on his red head and stretched him. They hurried then, at command of the old man, to bind Sanderus. He, though knowing that the thing was agreed on, roared from fright, as a year-old calf does when a man is cutting its throat.

But Zbyshko, though so strong that he had pressed sap from the limb of a young tree, felt that he had come, as it were, not into the arms of a man, but a bear. He felt this, too, that were it not for the armor, which he wore, not knowing but he might meet with sword points, the gigantic German would crush his ribs or break the backbone in him.