Hanka’s effort to secure Antek’s release on bail

Hanka’s effort to secure Antek Boryna’s release on bail transforms private savings and household property into a practical route out of imprisonment. The required five-hundred-rouble pledge makes Antek’s freedom a question of cash, but the effort also exposes how much Hanka has kept hidden, places Rocho between her and a potentially self-interested intermediary, and gives her a concrete task when the prospect of release suddenly becomes real.

The Bond and the Risk of Waiting

The possibility of release comes with a precise condition: officials at headquarters have told Rocho that Antek may be freed before his hearing if someone guarantees that he will not flee, or if the court receives a pledge of five hundred roubles. The alternatives give the family a choice between finding a guarantor and raising a substantial sum. The bond is therefore not simply a legal detail; it is the immediate obstacle separating Antek from home.

Hanka has already heard advice from the blacksmith, but Rocho warns her against acting too quickly on it. In his view, the blacksmith may expect to profit, and selling land in haste could leave the family badly exposed. He counsels looking for another way, asking people whether they can lend money, and gathering resources rather than surrendering the land. His caution shapes the plan: Hanka is not to meet the deadline by making the first desperate sale proposed to her, but to assemble the pledge from whatever the household can spare.

The Hidden Money

Hanka then reveals that she has money of her own, though she has not yet counted it. She brings out a bundle only after going away briefly, returning, closing and bolting the door. The careful handling makes the disclosure feel consequential: this is not money openly available to the household, but a reserve she has kept concealed until she sees a way to use it for Antek.

The bundle contains paper money, silver, a few zlotys, and six strands of beads. Rocho counts the money as 402 roubles and five zlotys, still short of the five-hundred-rouble requirement. The beads sharpen the history of the stash: Hanka explains that they belonged to Maciej Boryna’s mother, that he gave them to Jagna, and that he appears to have taken them back. The cash, she stammers, was given to her by Maciej after Easter, with the instruction that she tell no one. She has kept that confidence, and Rocho is the first person she tells.

The revelation changes Hanka’s role in the scene. She is not merely receiving news or waiting for a male relative to devise a solution; she holds the largest identified part of the necessary sum and decides to disclose it. Her embarrassment as she explains its origin sits beside the directness of her purpose. She is willing to put the secret money toward Antek’s rescue, while Rocho’s promise to keep silent protects her from the blacksmith’s knowledge and possible intervention.

Raising the Remainder

Because the counted money does not meet the pledge, the plan depends on adding smaller resources. Rocho suggests selling livestock. Hanka identifies the sow and the barren cow as possible sales, noting that the cow is no longer needed and that a buyer has already been asking about it. She also offers a few bushels of wheat. The bond thus reaches into the everyday substance of the farm: animals and grain, not an abstract reserve, must be converted into cash.

Rocho answers with a strategy of accumulation, presenting the shortfall as something that can be closed grain by grain and measure by measure. He says they will buy Antek’s freedom without anyone else’s help. That promise is both practical and protective: Hanka need not turn to the blacksmith or expose the secret money more widely. She responds by throwing herself at Rocho’s feet in thanks, and he kisses her on the head. His gesture marks the trust established between them, while his assurance gives her a course of action rather than a guarantee that the money has already been raised.

The Letter and Hanka’s Reversal

A later court letter makes the opportunity immediate. When the blacksmith tries to read over Rocho’s shoulder, Rocho quickly folds the letter and first tells Hanka only that the court will let her see Antek once a week. After the blacksmith has left, he discloses the decisive additional information: the letter says that if she brings the five-hundred-rouble pledge, Antek can be released straight away. Rocho’s choice to withhold that part while the blacksmith is present keeps the financial plan private and prevents him from learning the full terms before Hanka does.

Hanka initially cannot speak. Her face flushes, then pales; her eyes fill, and she spreads her hands before falling full length in front of the holy pictures. The response registers the force of the news physically before she can answer it. Afterward, Rocho reads the letter again and leaves her time; when he looks in later, her posture has changed. She says she is ready for whatever comes, because even the worst outcome could not be worse than what she has already endured. Rocho urges her to set the sale in motion and find the remaining money, proposing that they leave for Antek on Tuesday or even the next day. Hanka repeats, without seeming to intend to, that Antek is coming back. Rocho cautions her not to announce the news broadly: once Antek is home, people will learn of his release, and saying it was granted on a pledge should quiet the blacksmith.

The Expected Return

At dawn, Hanka carries the news to Maciej Boryna, who is sleeping beneath a quilt in a cart-basket under the trees. She tells him that Antek will be back in three days, that he has been taken to the gubernia, and that Rocho followed with the money to pay the redemption so the two can return together. Maciej sits up as if listening, then lies back and pulls the quilt over his head; Hanka gets no conversation from him before the haymakers arrive at the farmstead.

The return is still presented through Hanka’s report and expectation, rather than as an accomplished homecoming within this episode. Yet the sequence has carried her from a concealed bundle to a court-authorized possibility and a journey arranged with Rocho. The means remain costly: the hidden sum falls short, and livestock and wheat must supply the difference. What changes is that Antek’s release no longer depends on speculation alone. The bond has become a specific, shared undertaking, and Hanka is the person who brings its resources, its urgency, and its news into the household.