The men were about to enter the little room where Koerner slept: it was dark in there and one of them took the lamp.
"Look oudt!" Koerner said suddenly. "Look oudt! You go in dere if you vant to, but, py Gott, don't blame me if--"
The men suddenly halted and stepped back.
"Go on in!" commanded Kouka. "What do you want to stand there for? Are you afraid?"
Then they went, ransacked that room, threw everything into disorder and came out.
"No one there," they reported in relief.
They searched the whole house over again, and old man Koerner stood by on one leg and his crutch, with a strange, amused smile on his yellow face. At last, Kouka, lifting his black visage, looked at the ceiling, sought some way as if to an upper story, found none, and then began to swear again, cursing the old man and his wife. Finally he said to the officers:
"He's been kidding us."
Then he called his men, dashed out of the house, and with a dark lantern began seeking signs in the back yard. Near the rear fence he discovered footprints in the soft earth; they climbed over and found other footprints in the mud of the alley.
"Here they went!" cried Kouka.