"Where is the bell-ringer?"
"Here I am, sir."
"Go up at once into the tower, and ring the big bell."
"But there is no fire!"
"That does not matter. If I order it to be done, you must do it. Do you know me?"
Of course he knew Mr. Sztolarik, who had often been to Glogova since he had been made President of the Courts. So off ran Pál Kvapka, and in a few minutes the big fire-bell was tolling. There was no wind, and the sound was carried for miles around over the meadows, into the woods, over the mountains, and soon the people came running up from every side. It was astonishing how soon the villagers were assembled round the Presbytery. Those who saw it will never see its like again, until the Archangel Gabriel sounds his trumpet at the last day.
Sztolarik gazed placidly at the crowd assembled around him.
"Now," he said, "I have only to stand up in their midst and ask them if any of them have seen Veronica. But it will be quite unnecessary, for Veronica herself will soon be here. Look out of the window," he called up to the bell-ringer, "and tell me if you can see the young lady."
"Yes, I can see her, she is running through the Srankós' maize-field."
"She lives!" exclaimed Gyuri ecstatically, but his joy was soon at an end, for he thought: "If there is nothing the matter with her she must have run away from me."