Why did he, Jadlowker, hate the sky today? Did he believe that God sat up there, behind the stars? Perhaps he believed it but he would not admit it. Over and over again, over and over again, a voice within him said: God is there. God can see you. God knows what you intend to do. But another voice within him answered: God is not there, the sky is empty, and the stars are cold and remote and terrible, and you can do what you will.

And so Jadlowker waited for the familiar ringing of the sleigh that belonged to the hated Eibenschütz. Round his wrist, his right wrist, he had tied the corners of the handkerchief in which the stone had been wrapped. He waited. Eibenschütz would come.

40

Indeed, Eibenschütz did arrive half an hour later, unfortunately accompanied by the gendarme Piotrak. Jadlowker, who had thought that the Inspector would come alone, realized at once that he could achieve nothing. At first he hid in the shadow of the barn which bordered the yard opposite the gate, and waited. When he saw that the Inspector let the gendarme go ahead and was unharnessing the grey himself, his heart trembled with rapturous, murderous hope. And soon after, the Inspector approached the stable in order to tie the grey to the big iron ring that was fastened to the stable door.

While Eibenschütz was tying up the grey, Jadlowker rushed out of the stable. Eibenschütz was about to utter a cry, but he fell down at once and the cry died in his throat. Jadlowker struck the forehead of his enemy, the Inspector, with the handkerchief in which the angular stone was wrapped. Eibenschütz fell to the ground with a mighty and terrifying crash. He was a heavy man; Jadlowker had not expected him to be heavy. The grey had not yet been properly tied up, the knot came loose, and the nag began to wander through the yard with reins trailing. First, Jadlowker bent over Inspector Eibenschütz. He was cold and dead, gave no gasp. Then Jadlowker got hold of the horse and tied it fast to the iron ring of the stable door. Then he crept into the barn.

Two hours passed before Sergeant Piotrak came outside to look for Eibenschütz. He found the Inspector in front of the barn, seemingly lifeless, so the gendarme called the groom Onufrij and the two of them dragged the heavy corpse to the sleigh. Onufrij fetched ropes, they secured the motionless man firmly. He lay right across the tiny sleigh. The grey was harnessed, the gendarme took the reins and drove to Zlotogrod, straight to the hospital.