Complete Maupassant Original Short Stories, page 99 by Guy de Maupassant
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ust one thing betrayed an uneasy mind; he was continually swallowing his saliva, with a visible effort, as though his throat were terribly contracted.
The man's family, his son Jean, his daughter-in-law and his two grandchildren were standing a few feet behind him, bewildered and affrighted.
The colonel went on:
"Do you also know who killed all the scouts who have been found dead, for a month, throughout the country, every morning?"
The old man answered with the same stupid look:
"I did."
"You killed them all?"
"Uh huh! I did."
"You alone? All alone?"
"Uh huh!"
"Tell me how you did it."
This time the man seemed moved; the necessity for talking any length of time annoyed him visibly. He stammered:
"I dunno! I simply did it."
The colonel continued:
"I warn you that you will have to tell me everything. You might as well make up your mind right away. How did you begin?"
The man cast a troubled look toward his family, standing close behind him. He hesitated a minute longer, and then suddenly made up his mind to obey the order.
"I was coming home one night at about ten o'clock, the night after you got here. You and your soldiers had taken more than fifty ecus worth of forage from me, as well as a cow and two sheep. I said to myself: 'As much as they take from you; just so much will you make them pay back.' And then I had other things on my mind which I will tell you. Just then I noticed one of your soldiers who was smoking his pipe by the ditch behind the barn. I went and got my scythe and crept up slowly behind him, so that he couldn't hear me. And I cut his head off with one single blow, just as I would a blade of grass, before he could say 'Booh!' If you should look at the bottom of the pond, you will find him tied up in a potato-sack, with a stone fastened to it.
"I got an idea. I took all his clothes, from his boots to his cap, and hid them away in the little wood behind the yard."
The old