Stranica 127 [127]
SWAN DA gn EP ER
on with his music; he was determined to drink his fill
and to shuffle the eards at his ease; but, for the first time
in his life, he found no one to play with him.
Swanda was not the man to quit the inn so long as he
had a kreutzer in his pocket, and on that day he had many
of them. By dint of talking, laughing, and drinking he
took one of those fixed ideas which are not uncommon
among those who look too often in the bottom of their
glass, and determined to play at any price; but all his
neighbors refused his challenge. Furious at finding no
partner, he rose with an unsteady step, paid for what he
had drank, and left the inn.
“T will go to Drazic,” said he; “the schoolmaster and
the bailiff there are honest people who are not afraid of
play, and I shall find partners. Hurrah!”
The night was clear and the moon shone like a fish’s
eye. On reaching a cross-road Swanda raised his eyes
by chance, and stopped, mute and motionless. A flock of
ravens were croaking over his head, and in front of him
rose four posts, standing like pillars, and connected at the
top by cross-beams, from each of which swung a half¬
devoured corpse. It was a robbers’ gallows, a spectacle
by no means amusing to a less stoical spirit than that of
Swanda.
He had not recovered from the first shudder when sud¬
denly there appeared before him a man dressed in black,
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