The "business," as the frightful creatures called it, was soon done. Climbing on his ladder, Vorski repeated his orders, which were executed in docile fashion by Conrad and Otto.
They raised the victim to her feet and then, keeping her upright, hauled at the rope. Vorski seized the poor woman and, as her knees were bent, violently forced them straight. Thus flattened against the trunk of the tree, with her skirt tightened round her legs, her arms hanging to right and left at no great distance from her body, she was bound round the waist and under the arms.
She seemed not to have recovered from her blow and uttered no sound of complaint. Vorski tried to speak a few words, but spluttered them, incapable of utterance. Then he tried to raise her head, but abandoned the attempt, lacking the courage to touch her who was about to die: and the head dropped low on the breast.
He at once got down and stammered:
"The brandy, Otto. Have you the flask? Oh, damn it, what a beastly business!"
"There's time yet," Conrad suggested.
Vorski took a few sips and cried:
"Time . . . for what? To let her off? Listen to me, Conrad. Rather than let her off, I'd sooner . . . yes, I'd sooner die in her stead. Give up my task? Ah, you don't know what my task or what my object is! Besides . . ."
He drank some more: