"They keep us waiting. See the rope swinging. It is waiting too; it has good work to do these days. A good piece of hemp, comrade. It must love the blasted _bourgeoisie_, it embraces them so closely. Maybe, though, it's bullets to-day. A little piece of lead makes a nice hole, eh! a nice hole!" The speaker grinned evilly, and his companion chuckled likewise. They were two of the many who waited, two Red-cockaded workmen who were there to see men hanged to satisfy the sated appetite of Korvin-Klein. "They are a long time. Perhaps they are holding a trial." The one who answered was a contrast to his companion, for the first speaker was as tall as Comrade George Garami was short, and as scarred as the other was unpleasant. They might have been a source of humour, these two, to the hundreds who surrounded them, but people did not laugh much these days. "Pah!" The tall man spat. "Korvin-Klein knows how to treat the pigs. Trials! What do they want trials for? That is what I ask you, comrade. What do they want with trials? Hang them, I say, and quickly." "Me too," agreed Garami, "but Bela Kun says the Allies may interfere." The other man scowled. "Not they. The more we kill the better they will be pleased. It saves them the trouble." Garami grinned. "You speak well, comrade. Only if it were the Allies it might be you who would hang instead of the _bourgeois_ dogs. There were those fifty Italian prisoners you said you bayoneted----" "Stop your mouth," muttered the scarred one. "You talk too much, you, George Garami. Your tongue wags freely, friend, and maybe it will lead you into trouble." Garami grunted. "What have I to fear, eh! friend Wenzel? I am a good Communist, me." "So well you may be; but even good Communists have talked too much lately. It is said that they gossip too freely and that the White Knight has long ears." "The White Knight! What and who may he be, comrade?" Wenzel turned his hideously scarred face toward the smaller man. "What, dolt, do you mean to say you have never heard of the White Knight?" "Should I question you otherwise?" asked Garami testily. Wenzel burst into a harsh roar of raucous laughter, and the unusual sound attracted the attention of others around him, and they turned his way. Wenzel, observing this, waved his arms wide, claiming their attention. "Sisters, comrades," he announced, "my little friend here has never heard of the White Knight!" There was no echoing smile of derision from his listeners; instead Wenzel saw nothing but blank faces. He raised his eyebrows. "What!" he exclaimed, "have none of you yet heard of the White Knight?" Several shook their heads, and a woman called out: "Tell us, comrade, of him. Does he belong to the counter-revolution?" Wenzel grinned, and the effect was so repulsive that the woman shrank back in disgust. "Tell you! Gladly, comrades. 'Tis not often my lot to be the town-crier. I feel as important as a local commissary.