He glanced half round to her, irritable, and then I saw that he was carrying a length of cord.
He began to creep slowly toward me until Volna, as she confessed afterwards, could endure it no longer. She sprang up and called me.
In another moment I was on my feet; and before the two could recover from their astonishment, I sprang past them, slammed the door, and set my back against it, my hand on my revolver.
“Now perhaps you’ll tell me what this means?”
The woman was for fighting and stood at bay like a beast, just robbed of its intended victim. But the man was of poorer stuff, and cowered ashen white and speechless.
“Mayn’t we move about our own house?” asked the woman. “Ivan, if you’re a man, you won’t stand this.”
But Ivan had no sort of fight in him. He clapped his hands to his face and sank into my chair by the fire. The hag looked his way and swore at him with a snarl of contempt.
“Come now, what does this mean?”
“It means that if you don’t like it, you can clear out, the pair of you;” and she turned fiercely on Volna. “Coming here with your lies about being lost, and wanting to rob poor and honest folk, and then trumping up a lying accusation. Who are you, I’d like to know.”
Her assurance was as brazen as her courage was unquestionable; I own I was at a loss what to do.