So in spirit he said to them: "Wait a while, O ye road-blockers! Ye have brought your lives hither!"
His cheeks took on color, and his teeth gritted fiercely. They, meanwhile, stripped their coats off and rolled up the sleeves of their jupans. This they did without need all together, but they did it since each thought that he was to open the duel.
At last they all stood in a row with drawn sabres, and Yatsek, stepping towards them, halted, and they looked at one another in silence.
Pan Stanislav interrupted them,--
"I will serve you first."
"No! I first, I first!" repeated all the Bukoyemskis in a chorus.
And when Stanislav pushed forward they seized him by the elbows.
Again a quarrel began, in which Stanislav reviled them as outlaws. They jeered at him as a dandy, among themselves the term "dogbrother" was frequent. Yatsek was shocked at this, and added,--
"I have never seen cavaliers of this kind." And he put his sabre into the scabbard.
"Choose, or I will go!" said he, with a loud voice, and firmly.