“I promised you money on condition that you took me to Sonia Korolénko,” I answered. “I am ready to pay when you have fulfilled your part of the contract.”
Both men laughed heartily.
“We have no knowledge of her,” declared the man who had been my guide. “All we know is that you have money; if you don’t hand it to us quietly your grave will be in yonder heap of dead leaves.”
“He’ll be company for the others,” observed the man with a fox-like countenance, who had joined us, and was leaning upon an old Berdan rifle.
“Then I understand you have brought me here, to this spot, on a false pretence. You mean to rob me?” I said. “You assured me that you were Sonia’s messenger, and so implicitly did I trust you, that I left my revolver behind at the inn.”
“That is no affair of ours,” answered the old scoundrel, shrugging his shoulders unconcernedly. “Hand us over your money, and we are ready to guarantee you safe conduct, either on into Germany or back to Skerstymone.”
“I’ll pay you nothing, not even a rouble, na vódkou, until you take me to your leader,” I answered defiantly, for somehow I had from the first been convinced of the truth of the man’s assertion that Sonia was in that neighbourhood.
“As we are unable to conduct you to the lady, whoever she is, we shall therefore be compelled to use violence,” observed my guide, glancing at his companion, who nodded approvingly. Then, still holding the muzzle of his weapon to my face, he added with brutal frankness: “You’d better make the sign of the cross now, if you want to. It will be the last chance you’ll get. When a man’s dead and buried he can tell the police nothing.”
Well I knew the desperate character of these brigandish nomads, and fully recognised that they were not to be trifled with.
“The people who come to us for aid never get across the frontier unless they part with their money first,” he continued. “If they don’t—well, we put them to rest quietly and unceremoniously, and give them decent burial. A good many of all sorts, rich and poor, lie buried in these woods. You asked me whether it was a paying profession,” he laughed. “Judge for yourself.”