This with him was the expression of happiness and contentment, both question and answer. "Mekipiros! come hither and drink," cried Ivan, holding to his mouth a straw-covered pitcher full of spirit, which he to whom it was offered did not remove from his lips till it was quite empty. Then he returned it to Ivan with a joyful "Hamamama!" "Look now, blockhead! You can climb up a rope anywhere, can't you?" "Hamamamama!" "All right, I'm not deaf! You can scale the roof of a house by means of a rope then?" The hideous monster rubbed his hands with joy at the proposal. "And then you will drag me up after you by means of the same rope, do you understand?" The dwarfish abortion rushed with a howl of joy at Ivan, caught the fellow round the knee, raised him high in the air, and leapt up and down with him, by way of showing that he was as light as a bag of feathers, till Ivan, by dint of shouting and pummelling, contrived to free himself from the creature's grasp. "The fellow has the strength of an ox," said he to Thomas Bodza, seizing the thick-set creature by the hair, and lugging him hither and thither, which appeared to infinitely delight the speechless monster. Whenever he succeeded in getting hold of one of Ivan's hands he covered it with kisses, whereupon the other, with an air of disgust, kept rubbing them on the tails of his coat, as if he could not wipe them sufficiently. "He will do very well as food for their guns," whispered Ivan. "If the people in the castle hear a noise, and guess our subterfuge, they will shoot Mekipiros, for we will send him on in front. Why, even with a couple of bullets in his body the fellow will be able to scramble up the wall. He's like a toad." Meanwhile the Leather-bell returned and announced that the dogs had gobbled up all the meat thrown to them. "Oh, they made no bones about it," cried he. "Then we can go," said Ivan, thrusting a rusty military pistol into his breast-pocket. Dame Zudár hastened towards her matted waggon and leaped upon the box-seat. For a moment a long, sharp knife flashed betwixt her hands, and she peered at it closely to make sure that its edge was all right, immediately afterwards it vanished again nobody knew whither. Then she laid hold of her whip and lashed up the horses. The road they followed passed by the hut of the Death-Bird. The old witch was huddled up in her doorway, and began counting those who passed, marking them off one by one, with her crutch: "One, two, three--One, two, three." She never went beyond three, therefore every third was a marked man. When her daughter passed by with the rector and Ivan she laughed aloud.