Page:Czechoslovak fairy tales.djvu/228

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202
CZECHOSLOVAK FAIRY TALES

When he could see nothing, he told her to spin some more. Trembling, she obeyed. Hardly had she put her foot to the treadle when the voice again sang out:

Master, master, don’t believe her!
She’s a cruel and base deceiver!
She has killed her sister good
And hid her body in the wood!”

Beside herself with fright, Zloboha wanted to flee the spinning wheel, but Dobromil restrained her. Suddenly her face grew so hideous with fear that Dobromil saw she was not his own gentle Dobrunka. With a rough hand he forced her back to the stool and in a stern voice ordered her to spin.

Again she turned the fatal wheel and then for the third time the voice sang out:

Master, master, haste away!
To the wood without delay!
In a cave your wife, restored,
Yearns for you, her own true lord!”

At those words Dobromil released Zloboha and ran like mad out of the chamber and down into the court-