She must pierce farther in, must quietly put the leaves aside, to see on which branch the bird was singing.
She could not see.
Again she listened: the warbling lured her further.
It must be near to her: it was warbling there, perhaps she could grasp it with her hand.
But as she bent the bough, a fierce figure sprang up before her and grasped the hand she had stretched out.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE NIGHT-STRUGGLE
The dark figure, which seized Czipra"s hand so suddenly, stared with a blood-thirsty grin into his victim"s face, whose every limb shuddered with terror at her a.s.sailant.
"What do you want?" panted the girl in a choking, scarcely audible voice.
"What do I want?" he hissed in answer. "I want to cut your gander"s throat, you goose! Do you want a nightingale?"
Then he whistled a shrill whistle.
His mates leaped out suddenly from their ambush at the sound of the whistle.
At that moment Czipra recovered her self control in sheer despair: she suddenly tore her hand from the robber"s grasp, and in three bounds, like a terrified deer, reached the threshold of the door she had left open.
But the wolf had followed in her tracks and reached her at the door. The girl had no time to close it in his face.
"Don"t whine!" hissed Kandur, seizing the girl"s arm with one hand, with the other attempting to close her mouth.
But terror had made Czipra frantic: tearing down the robber"s hand from her mouth, she pushed him back from the door, and with shrill cries awoke the echoes of the night.
"Lorand, help! Robbers!"
"Silence, you dog, or I"ll stab you!" thundered the robber, pointing a knife at the girl"s breast.
The knife did not frighten Czipra: as she struggled unceasingly and desperately with the robber, she cried "Lorand! Lorand! Murder! Help!"
"d.a.m.n you!" exclaimed the robber thrusting his knife into the maiden"s bosom.
Czipra suddenly seized the knife with her two hands.
At that moment Lorand appeared beside her.
At the first cry he had rushed from his room and, unarmed, hastened to Czipra"s aid.
The girl was still struggling with the robber, holding him back, by sheer force, from entering the door.
Lorand sprang towards her, and dealt the intruder such a blow with his fist in the face, that two of his teeth were broken.
Two shots rang out, followed by a heavy fall and a cry of cursing.
Topandy had fired from the window and one of the four robbers fell on his face mortally wounded, while another, badly hit, floundered and collapsed near the corridor.
The two shots, the noise behind his back, and the unexpected blow confused Kandur; he retreated from the door, leaving his knife in Czipra"s hand.
Lorand quickly utilized this opportunity to close the door, fasten the chain, and draw the bolt.
The next moment the robbers" vehement attack could be heard, as they fell upon the door with crowbars.
"Come, let us get away," said Lorand, taking Czipra"s hand.
The girl faintly answered.
"Oh! I cannot walk. I am fainting."
"Are you wounded?" asked Lorand, alarmed. It was dark, he could not see.
The girl fell against the wall.
Lorand at once took her in his arms and carried her into his room.
The lamp was still burning: he had just finished his letters.
He laid the wounded girl upon his bed.
He was terrified to see her covered with blood.
"Are you badly wounded?"
"Oh, no," said the girl: "see, the knife only went in so deep."
And she displayed the robber"s knife, showing on the blade how far it had penetrated.
Lorand clasped his hands in despair.
"Here is a kerchief, press it on the wound to prevent the blood flowing."
"Go, go!" panted the girl. "Look after your own safety. They want to kill you. They want to murder you."
"Aha! let the wretches come! I shall face them without running!" said Lorand, whose only care was for Czipra: he quickly tried to stem the flow of blood from the wound in the girl"s breast with a handkerchief.
"Lie quiet. Put your head here. Here, here, not so high. Is it very painful?"
On the girl"s neck was a chain made of hair: this was in the way, so he wished to tear it off.
"No, no, don"t touch it," panted the girl, "that must remain there as long as I live. Go, get a weapon, and defend yourself."