"

"The fact that he is such a pious man. Still, let us not go into that
now. The gist of the matter is, that I would like to relieve our
district of this suspicious guest, before I begin my long visit."

"How?"

"We must burn up that old hay-rick, of which I have said so many times
that it has inhabitants summer and winter."

"Do you think that will drive them from our neighborhood?"

"I am quite sure of it. This class is cowardly. They will soon turn out
of any place where war is declared against them: they only dare to brawl
as long as they find people are afraid of them: wolf-like they tear to
pieces only those they find defenceless: but one wisp of burning straw
will annihilate them. We must set the rick on fire."

"We could have done so already; but it is difficult to reach it, on
account of the old peat-quarries."

"Which our dangerous neighbors have covered with wolf traps, so that one
cannot approach the rick within rifle-shot."

"I often wished to go there, but you would not allow me."

"It would have been an unreasonable audacity. Those who dwell there
could shoot down, from secure hiding-places, any who approached it,
before the latter could do them any harm. I have a simpler plan: we two
shall take our seats in the punt, row down the dyke, and when we come
against the rick, we shall set it on fire with explosive bullets. The
rick is mine, no longer rented: all whom it may concern must seek
lodging elsewhere."

Lorand said it was a good plan: whatever Topandy desired he would agree
to. He might declare war against the bandits, for all he cared.

That evening, guided by moonlight, they poled their way to the centre of
the marsh: Lorand himself directed the shots, and was lucky enough to
lodge his first shell in the side of the rick. Soon the dry mass of hay
was flaming like a burning pyramid in the midst of the morass. The two
besiegers had reached home long before the blazing rick had time to
light up the district far. As they watched, all at once the flame
scattered, exploding millions of sparks up to heaven, and the fragments
of the burning rick were strewed on the water's surface by the wind.
Surely hidden gunpowder had caused that explosion.

At that moment no one was at home in this barbarous dwelling. Not a
single voice was heard during the burning, save the howling of the
terrified wolves round about.

CHAPTER XXV

WHILE THE MUSIC SOUNDS

At Lankadomb the order of things had