Meanwhile, on the plain the sounds of pursuit were heard yet for the space of some Our Fathers, and not very far from the sleigh was a wolf with its back broken, evidently by a sling-shot. The beast was on its haunches and howling so dreadfully that every one shivered.
The man on the leading horse slipped down to kill the beast, for the horses were plunging with such violence that the sleigh-pole was cracking.
After a time the horsemen seemed black again on the snow field. They came in a crowd, without order, in a mist, for though the night was cold and the air very clear, the horses had been driven unsparingly, and were smoking like chimneys.
The horsemen approached with loud laughter and singing, and when they had drawn near, one of them shot up to the sleigh, and asked in glad, resonant accents,--
"Pangovski from Belchantska. Whom am I to thank for this rescue?"
"Thanks to your mightinesses. God sent you in season. Thanks!"
"Glory to God that it was in season!" continued Pan Stanislav, removing his fur cap.
"No one informed us, but as the wolves are now running in packs, we rode out to save people; since a person of such note has been found, our delight is the greater, and the greater our service to God," said Pan Stanislav, politely.
"A beautiful deed and a real knightly work," said Pan Gideon. "God grant us to give thanks for it as promptly as possible. I think, too, that desire for human flesh has left those wolves now, and that we shall reach home without danger."
"That is by no means so certain. Wolves might be enticed again easily and make a new onrush."
"There is no help against that; but we will not surrender!"
"There is help, namely this: to attend you to the mansion. It may happen that we shall save some one else as we travel."
"I dared not ask for that, but since such is your kindness, let it be as you say, for the ladies here will feel safer."
"I have no fear as we are, but from all my soul I am grateful!" said Panna Anulka.
Pan Gideon gave the order and they moved forward, but they had gone only a few tens of paces when the cracked sleigh-pole was broken and the equipage halted.
The attendants had ropes and fell to mending the broken parts straightway, but it was unknown whether such a patched work would not come apart after some furlongs.