"There's the difficulty."
"If you have worked it out, then tell me quickly, for fire is burning me," said Skshetuski.
"Beyond Yampol," said Zagloba, and rolled his one sound eye triumphantly.
"How do you know?" inquired Volodyovski.
"How do I know? Here is how: I was sitting in the stable,--for that brigand had me shut up in the stable, may the wild boars rip him!--and the Cossacks were talking among themselves all around. I put my ear to the wall then, and what did I hear? 'Now maybe the ataman will go beyond Yampol,' said one; and then the other answered, 'Be silent, if your young head is dear to you!' I'll give my neck that she is beyond Yampol."
"Oh, as sure as God is in heaven!" cried Volodyovski.
"He did not take her to the Wilderness; therefore, according to my head, he must have hidden her somewhere between Yampol and Yagorlik. I was once in that region when the judges of the king and the Khan met; for in Yagorlik, as you know, cattle questions of the boundary are tried, of which cases there is never a lack. Along the whole Dniester there are ravines, hidden places, and reeds in which living by themselves are people who know no authority, dwell in the wilderness, and see no neighbors. He has hidden her surely among such wild solitaries, for he would be surest of her there."
"But how can we go there now, when Krívonos bars the way?" asked Pan Longin. "Yampol too, I hear, is a nest of robbers."
To this Skshetuski replied: "Though I had to risk my life ten times, I should try to save her. I will go disguised and look for her. God will help me, I shall find her."
"I will go with you, Yan," said Volodyovski.