The Robbers by Edna Worthley Underwood
During a scorching summer ride, the narrator stops for the night in a village, dreading the filthy inn until Ugricic invites him to lodge instead at his brother's prosperous peasant house, where a nephew has just returned from army service. The narrator is struck by the beauty and vitality of Ugricic's niece, Stana, who serves the evening meal in silence. Retiring to a room off the main house's hearth-room, he makes halting conversation with Stana about her household duties before she leaves him to sleep. Unable to sleep in the heat, the narrator lies awake as thoughts drift into half-dreams. Near midnight he wakes to voices: Stana's brother Zivko, newly home from the army, is confronting her about a suitor, Trino, whom he despises as a "German" outsider. Zivko recounts Trino's mysterious past — old papers sold to Jews, a warrant from the German Emperor once quashed by a bribe to a local officer, mockery from villagers, his awkward foreign ways — and vows to forbid the match, boasting of how he once cursed Trino's mother without reprisal. Their talk is interrupted when three armed, blackened-faced men force their way in. Stana cries "Robbers!" Through his window the narrator is urgently summoned by a stranger who identifies himself as Trino Trifunov and begs for Zivko's pistol from the wall to fight the intruders. The narrator hands it over, then nerves himself with his own revolver, more afraid of his weapon than of the robbers, and fires uselessly into the ceiling while shouting "Surrender!" In the darkness and confusion — a kettle chain cut, the fire doused, shots fired — one robber is shoved into the narrator's room and bolted in, while outside Trino grapples with the others and Zivko is nearly strangled. The household and neighbors, including old Ugricic, the village headman, the clerk, and the schoolmaster, rush in with makeshift weapons. Trino stands in the center, having subdued the intruders; Zivko, bloodied, credits Trino with saving his life. When the locked door is forced with an axe, a hidden shot grazes Trino's head but he leads the capture of two robbers — revealed as the notorious chief Nicodemus and a companion — plus a third accomplice found tied to a tree, having been guarded unwittingly by the narrator's soldier. Zivko, ashamed and grateful, embraces Trino as a sworn brother, reversing his earlier hostility. The village clerk announces a two-hundred-ducat reward for capturing Nicodemus, prompting Trino to glance at Stana, who blushes; Zivko now welcomes Trino as part of the family. At dawn the robbers are bound, brandy is shared, and the men celebrate. The narrator later learns from the village headman that Trino, though not native-born, is honest and hardworking, and had fled to Serbia after running a bayonet through a Hungarian officer who had insulted his patron saint. On the feast of the Assumption, the narrator sees Trino and Zivko together with Stana — now wearing the headdress of a married woman — and her mother in the market square. That evening, amid a boisterous village dance with food, gunfire, and bagpipes, a proud Zivko boasts to the crowd that no one can match his new brother Trino, calling him "a genuine Serb."
By Edna Worthley Underwood · First published 1919 · Genre: Realist Fiction, Adventure, Romance · 4,939 words
First lines
LAZAR K. LAZAREVIĆ
What this Textopian page supports
The Robbers is listed on Textopian as a short story by Edna Worthley Underwood, dated 1919 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Edna Worthley Underwood
- Date: 1919 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Realist Fiction, Adventure, Romance, Peasant Literature, Short Story
- Length: 4,939 words
- Structure: 1 section, 118 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Robbers by Edna Worthley Underwood
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Similar titles
- Gina Of The Chinatown by Thomas Burke
- The Lane That Had No Turning Volume 3 by Gilbert Parker
- The Lane That Had No Turning Volume 1 by Gilbert Parker
- Northern Lights Volume 1 by Gilbert Parker
- The Cabmans Story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Mother Of Pansies by Sabine Baring Gould
Genres
- Realist Fiction — The narrative employs detailed character observation, psychological depth, and realistic portrayal of Serbian peasant life with attention to authentic social customs and interpersonal dynamics
- Adventure — The dramatic robbery sequence with armed defense, combat action, and heroic intervention provides significant narrative excitement and plot momentum
- Romance — The evolving relationship between Stana and Trino forms a central emotional arc, initially opposed by Zivko and resolved through Trino's heroic actions, culminating in marriage
- Peasant Literature — The work focuses entirely on rural Serbian peasant characters, their customs, labor, family hierarchies, and village social structures
Tags
balkan-literature · croatian-fiction · realist-short-story · crime-narrative · murder-mystery · social-commentary · 19th-century-balkans · turgenev-influence · aristocratic-decline · regional-folklore · frame-narrative · romantic-realism