He staggered up and had to support himself.
'What is that? You are trying to make out that you have lost your wits. You know quite well that the horses have been stolen. Whoever stole them must have opened the door and led them over you.'
'God help me! no one opened the door, no one led them over me,' cried
Maciek, bursting into sobs.
'Dad! Burek is lying dead behind the fence,' cried Jendrek, who came running up with his mother.
'They have poisoned him,' said the woman, 'the foam has frozen on his mouth.'
Maciek sank down in the open door, unable to stand any longer.
'The devil has got him too, he isn't like himself, something has fallen on him,' said Slimak.
'And may he keep it till he dies,'cried the woman, 'here he is sleeping in the stable and lets the horses be stolen. May the ground spit him out!'
Jendrek was looking for a stone, but his parents, taking notice of the man's deathly pallor and his sunken eyes for the first time, restrained him.
'Maybe they have poisoned him too,' whispered Slimakowa.