A moment of silence followed.
“That is bad,” said Kmita, “very bad! Better to lay him down than to let him go alive.”
“We wanted to do that, but—”
“But what?”
Soroka told briefly all that had happened. Kmita listened with wonderful calmness; but his eyes began to glitter, and at last he said,—
“Then he is victor; but we’ll meet again. Why did you leave the highroad?”
“I was afraid of pursuit.”
“That was right, for surely there was pursuit. There are too few of us now to fight against Boguslav’s power,—too few. Besides, he has gone to Prussia; we cannot reach him there, we must wait—”
Soroka was relieved. Pan Kmita evidently did not fear Boguslav greatly, since he talked of overtaking him. This confidence was communicated at once to the old soldier accustomed to think with the head of his colonel and to feel with his heart.
Meanwhile Pan Andrei, who had fallen into deep thought, came to himself on a sudden, and began to seek something about his person with both his hands.