A
shrill shriek followed, and Pista fell backward into the barn.
"Now he has got it," said Abonyi, in a low tone, but he had grown very
pale. The coachman and the beadle stood beside the door as though
turned to stone, and the gardener came forward slowly and gloomily.
"See what's wrong with him," the nobleman ordered after a pause, during
which a death-like silence reigned in the group.
Janos timidly approached the motionless form lying in the shade of the
barn, bent over it, listened, and touched it. After a short time he
stood up again, and, with a terribly frightened face, said in a voice
barely audible:
"The hole is in the forehead, your honour, he doesn't move, he doesn't
breathe, I fear"--then after a slight hesitation, very gently--"he is
dead."
Abonyi stared at him, and finally said:
"So much the worse, carry him away from there--home--" and went slowly
into the castle.
The servants looked after him a few moments in bewilderment, then laid
the corpse upon two wheels, which they placed on poles, and bore him
off on this improvised bier.
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