Lorand twice threw him, but the robber clung to him and scrambled up
again, dragging him always further away.

Suddenly Lorand perceived what his opponent's intention was.

A few weeks previously he had told his uncle that a steward's house was
required: and Topandy had dug a lime-pit in the garden, where it would
not be in the way. Only yesterday they had filled it to the brim with
lime.

The robber wished to drag Lorand with him into it.

The young fellow planted his feet firmly and held back with all his
might.

Kandur's eyes flashed with the stress of passion, when he saw in his
opponent's terrified face that he knew what his intention was.

"Well, how do you like the dance, young gentleman? This will be the
wedding-dance now! The bridegroom with the bride--together into the
lime-pit. Come, come with me! There in the slacked lime the skin will
leave our bodies: I shall put on yours, you mine: how pretty we two
shall be!"

The robber laughed.

Lorand gathered all his strength to resist the mad attempt.

Kandur suddenly caught Lorand's right arm with both of his, clung to him
like a leech, and with a devilish smile said, "Come now, come
along!"--and drew Lorand nearer, nearer to the edge of the pit. A couple
of blows which Lorand dealt with his disengaged fist upon his skull were
unnoticed: it was as hard as iron.

They had reached the edge of the pit.

Then Lorand suddenly put his left arm round the robber's waist, raised
him in the air, then screwing him round his right arm, flung him over
his head.

This acrobatic feat required such an effort that he himself fell on his
back--but it succeeded.

The robber, feeling himself in the air, lost his head, and left hold of
Lorand's arm for a moment, with the intention of gripping his hair; in
that moment he was thrown off and fell alone into the lime-pit.

Lorand leaped up at once from the ground and, tired out, leaned against
the trunk of a tree, searching for his opponent everywhere, and not
finding him.

A minute later from amidst the white lime-mud there rose an awful figure
which clambered out on the opposite side of the pit, and with a yell of
pain rushed away into the courtyard and out into the street.

Lorand, exhausted and half dazed, listened to that beast-like howl
gradually diminishing in the distance.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE SPIDER IN THE CORNER

That day about noon the old gypsy woman who told Czipra her fortune had
shuffled i