Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 4, 2025
He would have given anything to have been able to creep inside the crevices of the rocks near which he was cowering, so that the robbers might not perceive him. All at once the moon, which had now risen, shone full on the spot where Simplex stood, and Hafran perceived him.
They stamped with their feet, roared, howled, fired off their guns, and so deftly hurled their axes at the barrel on which Simplex was standing that they all stuck fast in it without hurting a hair of his head. He, poor wretch! dared not spring off for the life of him. It was a perfect pandemonium. At last Hafran commanded Simplex to sound an alarm. Simplex blew him an alarm accordingly.
Then, for security's sake, you had to wait till a regular caravan had assembled, for the whole region was blackmailed in those days by three powerful bands of robbers, whose leaders were called Janko, Bajus, and Hafran. Janko was famed for his physical strength and agility, Bajus for his craft and cunning, but Hafran, or Raven, as the Slovacks called him, for his ferocity.
"There you have five ells of cloth for your coat and vest. Hafran, you measure him as much from your share for his hose, and you, Bajus, give him of yours for a mantle."
In the deep stillness which prevailed, nothing was to be heard but the droning of the heavy wheel. It was all over with Bajus. The next in order was the haughty Hafran. With him the bloody drama took quite another turn. The vihodar's assistants had sufficed for the first robber. He himself had only given his directions in a low voice.
"The devil it was!" cried Hafran furiously. "I'll cut you in two this very instant. Don't you know that you drove us into the very jaws of the devil with your d d trumpet, and that forty of our comrades went straight to hell in consequence! Stay where you are on that barrel, that I may cut you in two at a blow!" With that he drew his broad palash from its sheath, and grasped it with both hands.
The haughty Hafran and the cruel Bajus were taken alive. Their comrades, to obtain a pardon, delivered them up bound hand and foot. But most wonderful of all is Janko's story. It was I who contributed to his overthrow.
They were dressed precisely like their comrades, yet each had his distinguishing marks, so that Simplex, who had often heard them described by the country people, was able to identify them at a glance. The first of the robber chieftains was Hafran, whose love of pomp was notorious.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking