“All of them-yes, it was I.”
“You alone?”
“I alone.”
“Tell me the way you managed to do it?”
This time the peasant appeared to be affected; the necessity of speaking at some length incommoded him.
“I know myself. I did it the way I found easiest.”
The Colonel proceeded:
“I warn you, you must tell me everything. You will do well, therefore, to make up your mind about it at once. How did you begin it?”
The peasant cast an uneasy glance toward his family, who remained in a listening attitude behind him. He hesitated for another second or so, then all of a sudden he came to a resolution on the matter.
“I came home one night about ten o'clock, and the next day you were here. You and your soldiers gave me fifty crowns for forage with a cow and two sheep. Said I to myself: 'As long as I get twenty crowns out of them, I'll sell them the value of it.' But then I had other things in my heart, which I'll tell you about now. I came across one of your cavalrymen smoking his pipe near my dike, just behind my barn. I went and took my scythe off the hook, and I came back with short steps from behind, while he lay there without hearing anything. And I cut off his head with one stroke, like a feather, while he only said 'Oof!' You have only to look at the bottom of the pond; you'll find him there in a coal bag with a big stone tied to it.