A stranger venturing that way might just as well make his will at once, but those who knew the lie of the land, could get along more easily than if there had been a regular road; indeed, there were coachmen who had loafed about the district so long and learnt to know all its boggy and hilly turnings and windings so thoroughly, that they could make their way across it late at night in any sort of vehicle.
It must have been close upon midnight, for the cocks of the "Break-'em-tear-'em" _csarda_ had begun to crow one after the other, when a light began to twinkle in the twilight.

Twelve mounted men were approaching with burning torches, with a carriage and a waggon in their midst.
The waggon went in front, the carriage behind, so that if a ditch presented itself unexpectedly the waggon might tumble into it, and the carriage might take warning and avoid the spot.
The bearers of the torches were all heydukes wearing a peculiar uniform.
On their heads were tschako-shaped _kalpags_ with white horse-hair plumes, on their bodies were scarlet dolmans with yellow facings, over which fox-skin _kaczaganys_ were cast as a protection against the pouring rain.

At every saddle hung a _fokos_ and a couple of pistols.
Their _gunyas_ only reached to the girdle, and below that followed short, fringed, linen hose which did not go at all well with the scarlet cloth of the dolmans.
And now the waggon comes in sight.

Four good boorish horses were attached to it, whose manes almost swam in the water; the reins were handled by an old coachman with the figure of a _betyar_.

The worthy fellow was sleeping, for, after all, the horses knew the way well, and he only awoke at such times as his hands closed upon the reins, when he would give a great snort and look angrily around him.
The interior of the waggon presented a somewhat comical sight, for though the back seat did not appear to be occupied, in the front seat two ambiguous looking individuals were sitting with their backs to the coachman.