Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/375

 among the populace, and that if his father refused he should be dragged home forcibly.

“And how do you mean to accomplish it,” enquired Bartos, who had appeared during this scene on the threshold of his dwelling.

“I shall have the doors forced,” responded Joseph.

“How so?” enquired Bartos, calmly.

“Oh, you know all about it,” said Joseph to Bartos, “It is you who are the cause of all this, and I will suffer it no longer. It is you who purposely retain my father in your house to make capital out of him. It is you who are purposely coupling my brother with that young vagabond”

Further Joseph did not proceed in his harangue.

“What is it you called Staza?” Bartos asked Joseph, and at the same time uttered a yell so menacing that the servants who were with Joseph, recoiled several paces. But scarcely had Bartos pronounced the words before he had already gripped Joseph under the armpits, swung him into the air, and balancing him like a racquet ball, continued, “I’ll, pound every one to a jelly who dares once to say such a thing.”

And from the way in which Joseph turned deadly pale in Bartos’s hands and impotently shook and shivered, it was evident that he believed the gravedigger to be in earnest, and about to fulfil his threats to a tittle.