Antek’s river assault on Mateusz turns overheard sexual gossip into a sudden display of physical force, public humiliation, and bargaining power. At the mill, Mateusz denies that Antek and Jagna knew one another well, then boasts that he himself had been in Jagna’s storeroom and heard her complain about Antek. Antek answers the insult not with an argument but by carrying Mateusz to the river and hurling him in. The attack leaves Mateusz gravely injured and changes Antek’s standing among the gathered men: they fall silent before him, while the miller soon offers him a better-paid position directing the work.

The overheard provocation

Antek has been waiting at the mill for Franek. Tired, he stretches out on sacks and dozes while the machinery clatters around him: the wheels beat without pause, water crashes through the mill, and flour dust hangs in the light of the lamps. When Antek gets up to look outside for Franek, he passes the miller’s room and hears Mateusz speaking. The noisy workplace first makes the conversation part of its general din; then Antek stops at the latch and listens.

Mateusz is repeating village talk about the way the old man treats Jagna, including that he brings her tea to the quilt and does the chores so she need not dirty her hands. Laughter breaks out. Antek retreats to his place on the sacks, staring at the red light from the doorway and hearing little through the clatter. But he cannot stay away. He returns quietly to the door and listens again, moving from reluctant proximity to deliberate attention as the mockery continues.

The conversation shifts to Antek himself. Mateusz dismisses the report that he and Jagna knew each other well, claiming that he knows better: he says he heard Antek whining outside the storeroom until Jagna drove him away with a broom. When another man asks whether Mateusz actually saw this, Mateusz insists that he had been in her storeroom more than once and that Jagna was always complaining about Antek to him. The claim does more than repeat gossip: it presents Mateusz as an intimate witness to Jagna’s private space while casting Antek as a rejected suitor. Antek crosses the threshold and shouts, “You lying dog!”

The attack at the river

Mateusz springs at Antek, but Antek gets hold of him first. He seizes Mateusz by the collar and chokes him until Mateusz loses his breath and voice, then grips him around the middle and tears him away from where they are standing. The movement is swift and forceful: Antek kicks open the door, carries Mateusz behind the mill, and throws him toward the fenced-off river. Four pickets break, and Mateusz drops heavily into the water.

The setting makes the assault immediately dangerous. The river at that point is fast and deep, and the people nearby shout and rush to pull Mateusz out. He is unconscious; those rescuing him can barely bring him round. The miller hurries in, and someone fetches Ambrozy after a couple of prayers. Villagers carry Mateusz to the miller’s house because he keeps fainting and is vomiting blood. The priest is also sent for, as Mateusz appears so badly hurt that those around him fear he will not live until morning.

The scene’s reversal is abrupt. A moment earlier, Mateusz controls the room through laughter and a story that diminishes Antek; now the listeners are gathered around Mateusz’s injured body, while Antek sits by the fire warming his hands. He chats with Franek, who has arrived, as the commotion gradually quiets. The contrast is not simply between speech and silence: Mateusz’s boast has exposed Antek to public ridicule, but Antek’s physical response makes the whole room witness a different measure of power.

A warning and its cost

When people drift back, Antek speaks loudly enough for everyone to hear: “Anyone else who attacks or offends me will get the same or worse!” No one answers. The men regard him with awe and even respect, struck by the ease with which he lifted Mateusz and threw him. Their response distinguishes the act from an ordinary fight: a wrestling match or even a killing would be familiar, but being carried and flung into the river is understood as an exceptional humiliation. Mateusz’s injuries may heal, the narration observes, but the shame of being thrown in that way may be harder to bear.

Antek later makes the personal target of his anger explicit, whispering that Mateusz will no longer boast of having been in Jagna’s storeroom. At home, however, Antek says nothing. Hanka is still awake and spinning, but she knows nothing of what has happened. The quiet return leaves the violence and its meaning undisclosed within the household, in sharp contrast to the public warning Antek has delivered at the mill.

Work and consequence

The next morning Antek does not go to work. He expects the miller to dismiss him because of the assault. Instead, just after breakfast, the miller arrives and tells him to come back: Mateusz’s business with Antek is his own affair, but the mill cannot remain idle until Mateusz recovers. The miller offers Antek four zlotys and dinner to direct the work.

Antek refuses that offer and asks for the same pay Mateusz received, saying he will run the work just as well. The miller gets angry and haggles, but finally consents and takes him straight back to the mill. The outcome does not erase Mateusz’s injury or the threat Antek has made; it shows that the workplace’s immediate need also gives Antek leverage. The assault has shifted his position from a worker expecting dismissal to the person entrusted with directing the mill, at a wage he has negotiated for himself.