"Why? Because, damn it, as I said just now, it's a trap: a trap to get us away from her ladyship while his friends went for Otto! Oh, what an ass I've been!"
He started to go back in the dark and, as soon as he was able to see the dolmen, he called out:
"Halt! Who goes there?" answered Otto, in a scared voice.
"Nothing . . . . A mistake . . . . We'll tell you about it . . . ."
He was now close to the oak and, at once, taking up the lantern, turned its rays upon his victim. She had not moved and lay stretched at the foot of the tree, with her head wrapped in the veil.
"Ah!" he said. "I breathe again! Hang it, how frightened I was!"
"Of their taking her from us, of course!"
"Oh, you! You've got no more pluck than a louse . . . and, if they had gone for you . . ."
"I should have fired, at any rate. You'd have heard the signal."
"She did at first. She moaned and groaned under her hood, until I lost all patience."
"Oh, then! It didn't last long: I stunned her with a good blow of my fist."
"You brute!" exclaimed Vorski. "If you've killed her, you're a dead man."
He plumped down and glued his ear to his unfortunate victim's breast.
"No," he said, presently, "her heart is still beating. But that may not last long. To work, lads. It must all be over in ten minutes."
The preparations were soon made; and Vorski himself took an active part in them. Resting the ladder against the trunk of the tree, he passed one end of the rope round his victim and the other over one of the upper branches. Then, standing on the bottom rung, he instructed his accomplices:
"Here, all you've got to do now is to pull. Get her on her feet first and one of you keep her from falling."
He waited a moment. But Otto and Conrad were whispering to each other; and he exclaimed:
"Look here, hurry up, will you? . . . Remember I'm making a pretty easy target, if they took it into their heads to send a bullet or an arrow at me. Are you ready?"
"Well, this is a bit thick! What's the matter with you? Otto! Conrad!"
"You're a pair of nice ones, you are! At this rate, we should still be at it to-morrow morning . . . and the whole thing will miscarry . . . . Answer me, Otto, can't you?" He turned the light full on Otto's face. "Look here, what's all this about? Are you wriggling out of it? If so, you'd better say so! And you, Conrad? Are you both going on strike?"