to
go on with his music; he was determined to drink his fill and to
shuffle the cards at his ease; but, for the first time in his life, he
found no one to play with him.

Swanda was not the man to quit the inn so long as he had a kreutzer in
his pocket, and on that day he had many of them. By dint of talking,
laughing, and drinking he took one of those fixed ideas which are not
uncommon among those who look too often in the bottom of their glass,
and determined to play at any price; but all his neighbors refused his
challenge. Furious at finding no partner, he rose with an unsteady
step, paid for what he had drank, and left the inn.

"I will go to Drazic," said he; "the schoolmaster and the bailiff
there are honest people who are not afraid of play, and I shall find
partners. Hurrah!"

The night was clear and the moon shone like a fish's eye. On reaching
a cross-road Swanda raised his eyes by chance, and stopped, mute and
motionless. A flock of ravens were croaking over his head, and in
front of him rose four posts, standing like pillars, and connected at
the top by cross-beams, from each of which swung a half-devoured
corpse. It was a robbers' gallows, a spectacle by no means amusing to
a less stoical spirit than that of Swanda.

He had not recovered from the first shudder when suddenly there
appeared before him a man dressed in black, with pale and hollow
cheeks, and eyes that glittered like carbuncles.

"Where are you going so late, friend Piper?" asked he, in a soft
voice.

"To Drazic, Mr. Black Coat," answered the intrepid Swanda.

"Would you like to earn something by your music?"

"I am tired of blowing," returned Swanda. "I have some silver in my
pocket, and wish to amuse myself."

"Who talks to you of silver? It is with gold that we pay."

Saying this, the stranger flashed before his eyes a handful of shining
ducats. The piper was the son of a thrifty mother; he knew not how to
resist such an invitation, and followed the black man and his gold.

How the time passed he never could remember. It is true that his head
was a little heavy. The only thing that he recollected was that the
black man warned him to accept whatever was offered him, whether gold
or wine, but never to return thanks except by saying "Good luck,
brother!"

Without knowing how he had entered, he found himself in a dark room
where three men, dressed in black like his guide, were playing at
strajak by no other light than their gli