"Take this officer to the store-room; open the cupboards," said his master.
"You must come," put in the looter. Ian gave him a cold look.
"My servant will show you where to find the things."
The Prussians stalked out and Martin with them. Szmul was still in the passage.
Ian did not speak till the sound of their footsteps died away. Then he made sure there were no eaves-droppers, and shut the door, his soul filled with rage, worry and mortification. For a few minutes he gave way and called the looters by names it did the old priest good to hear, for the soutane put a limit on his own language.
"If not for the women I'd have strangled him at the safe," Ian cried. "But the day may come when I'll have to shoot them, to save them from dishonor."
"Mother of God!" Father Constantine gasped. "Are they going to make Poland another Belgium?"
The thought of what his Countess and the other women in the house would have to suffer filled him with horror. To shoot her! He could not bear it. Ian tried to comfort him.
"Cheer up, Father. It hasn't come to that yet." Then angry again: "That swine Szmul has betrayed us."
"What are you going to say about the cellars?"