"There I am staggered, I own," said the lawyer.
"Of course you are, because you insist on judging the man by the rules of your ethics," cried the governor, as though the deeper bearings of the soul were utterly beneath the legal mind; "but I, who am no psychologist, but a wretched district governor in this province of Galicia---worse luck!--I who have had plenty of opportunity of getting acquainted with any number of hajdamaks, I tell you he is no better than the rest of them! It is all very well to start the business with a fine pretence, a pretty cloak to cover one's rags; he has discarded it now, you see, and shows himself as he is--a mere wretched assassin. Let us change the subject; I have something more pleasant yet to tell you. What should you say to those poor wretches at Zulawce, in mortal terror of their lives on account of their perjury?--of course, they must bear the consequences!--they are going to be duly sentenced, and then----" the kind-hearted man could not go on for smiles.
"They are going to have a free pardon," added Starkowski; "are you sure?"
"I have got it in my desk, which is more, and I am highly delighted for once that the law should be circumvented. Of course, the line will be drawn between the instigators of these precious plans and those who were merely led on. There is Mr. Wenceslas Hajek, for instance, whom we shall have the honour of lodging in safe quarters within this city for a couple of years--I'd give him five, Willingly--and no expense to himself. Come in!"
There had been a knock at the door repeatedly, but the gentlemen had not heard it in the warmth of their discussion till it struck the governor at the tail end of his information. "Come in!"
The door opened showing a tall visitor, who stood still.
"A peasant by the look of him," said the governor, peering into the dusk. "This is beyond office hours, my friend; come again to-morrow."
There was a pause of silence, and then the man by the door came a step forward, saying, with trembling voice, "Excuse me, sirs, for disturbing you, but I would rather not go away again----"
"Taras!" exclaimed the lawyer, and the governor, bursting from his seat, stood still a moment, paralysed with the discovery; but then he flew to the window, flinging open the sash, and sent one terrified cry after another into the street below.
Taras never moved. "Do not be frightened," he said, sadly. "Look here, I am quite unarmed, and have come with peaceful intentions."