WHAT PAUL PALOVNA SAW.
Paul was not disheartened by his discovery, or by the landlady's
comment. He believed that she was telling the truth, and that the door
that Litizki supposed to communicate with the little front room really
opened into a huge closet, a convenience with which the old-fashioned
house abounded. He had paid a week's rent, and he determined to get
some good out of it. Accordingly, he returned to his regular quarters,
and packed a bag with personal effects, as if he were going upon a
journey. This he took down to the room in Bulfinch Place. He saw the
landlady again as he entered.
"By the way," he said, "is there any communication between my room and
the one in front?"
"No," she replied; "there's a door there that was put in years ago when
a family occupied the whole of that floor, but it is nailed up. It
won't open from either side, so you needn't be afraid. There's a very
quiet gentleman in the front room, so you won't be disturbed."
"All right, thanks," responded Paul, thinking that in due time he might
make good use of the landlady's proclivity for gossip. He went to his
room and studied the disused door attentively. There was a keyhole, but
it was securely plugged. He lay upon the floor and peered under, but
the door came close down upon the threshold, and nothing was to be seen.
"It's a disagreeable expedient," he muttered, "but the end justifies
the means in this case. I won't say anything to Miss Hilman about it,
though."
He opened his bag and took out a gimlet that he had bought on the way
to his permanent room. Then he drew a chair to the door, stood upon
it, and began to bore, starting at a level with his eyes, and slanting
slightly downward. His notion was that Poubalov would not be so likely
to observe the tiny hole if it were a foot or two above his head as if
it were lower. For the same reason he bored very close to the edge of
a panel, and he took great care not to let the gimlet more than pierce
the further side of the wood. It would never do to let any fresh dust
show on the carpet in Poubalov's room.
After frequent experiments, to observe how far he had penetrated, he
found that he could faintly discern the light from Poubalov's windows
when he placed his eye close to the door and shaded it with his hands.
Then he took a rusty nail that he pulled from the wall of his closet,
and, working it patiently with his fingers, pushed it through the
partially-bored hole until half its length must have protruded into the
other room. A little more effort and he could put the nail in place and
withdraw it without the slightest noise. Among the trifles that had
accumulated in his possessions was an untrained lithograph representing
cupids throwing flowers as big as themselves at one another. He could
hardly remember how he came to have it; some young lady sent it to him,
probably, as long ago as last Valentine's Day; but there it was, with
a neat little card attached; and he hung it on the nail to excuse his
operation should the landlady happen to notice it. There were plenty
of hooks in the room, but he would tell her that it was his fancy to
embellish the door.
"There," he thought, as he contemplated his finished work, "if our spy
is not more observing and suspicious than I think he is, I shall be
able to take a look at him occasionally."
Having carefully cleaned up the slight litter he had made, he locked
the door of his room and went to make his report to Clara.
He told her frankly that he believed Litizki had been mistaken about
the little front room. "But," he added, "I have taken the back room
for a week, and I shall be surprised if I do not make some discovery
before my time is up."
Intent upon being on the ground, where he could watch every movement of
Poubalov, he hurried back to Bulfinch Place, and sat himself down to
pass time with books until the spy should come in.
All day long Clara heeded her uncle's injunction to rest, but that
was because there was nothing she could do. Moreover, she expected
Poubalov, and she was more than anxious to be at home to receive him.
He came about five o'clock. The young ladies were refreshing themselves
with tea, and Louise, who never ceased to be amazed at her cousin's
proceedings, almost gasped when she saw Clara greet him cordially and
hasten to get a cup for him.
One would not have expected Poubalov to show fatigue, if he ever felt
it, but if he were not weary on this occasion, something had occurred
to disturb him. His eyes were heavy, his accent harder to understand
than usual, and it was not until several minutes had passed, and he had
drank freely of tea, that he spoke with anything like his customary
masterful confidence. Clara led the conversation at the start. After
the first greetings she referred to the episode in the car, saying:
"I should have thought you would suffer as I did from the shock of
that terrible assault. It was dreadful to look at, and how much more
dreadful to be the intended victim."
"You are mistaken, Miss Hilman," responded the spy; "the very shock of
the blow convinced me that I was unharmed. There was therefore no more
occasion for alarm on my part than as if a book had fallen from the
rack upon my head."
"But, really, I supposed the worst had happened," insisted Clara, "for
you not only fell but you gasped----"
"Naturally. To put it roughly, the fellow knocked the breath out of me."
"And have you heard nothing of Litizki?"
Poubalov looked at her gravely as he answered:
"I have seen him."
"Seen him!" echoed both his listeners, and "where?" asked Clara.
"He was not under arrest," answered Poubalov; "he was free, as free as
he ever will be with the memory of the recent past to haunt him, as
it certainly will. You will never see him again"--he raised his hand
deprecatingly; "pardon me, I did not mean to suggest the slightest
discomfort. He has not committed suicide, and I do not know that he
contemplates it."
He turned his attention to his tea, and both young ladies were silent
for a moment. Then Louise found an excuse for withdrawing, and Clara
was left alone with the inscrutable foe to her happiness. There was a
marked pause after Louise had gone, Clara waiting for Poubalov, and the
spy--who can tell what was coursing through his mind? At length he set
down his cup, and with an attempt at the aggressive self-possession
that usually characterized his demeanor, he said:
"I owe you an explanation, Miss Hilman."
"Only one?" she asked coldly, but there was a strange smile on her face.
"Many," responded the spy, and there was an expression on his
features, in his bearing, in the tones of his voice, that, but for the
circumstances, might have been credited to sincerity. He was either not
his usual self, or he was playing a much deeper game than any he had
yet revealed. "Many," he repeated, "and they will all be made in due
time. Do you see that I honor you in the highest way that is possible
for me? I mean by not treating you to the customary forms of courtesy
which are the more or less transparent garments of falsehood. I do not
come here with a plausible story to account for my conduct, asking you
to accept it as an apology whether you believe it, or not. I tell you
the truth, so far as I speak at all; and when the nature of the case
would compel me to lie if I opened my lips, I am silent."
"Or you evade the question," interposed Clara, and again she smiled
provokingly, but there was no invitation to feel at ease in her
expression. Poubalov did not misinterpret it, and it almost seemed as
if he, the master mind, were discomposed.
"Perhaps I do," he admitted after a moment; "my habits of speech are
not such as conduce to absolute candor even with you, whom I respect
too highly to consciously deceive. Tell me, Miss Hilman, will you not,
can you not believe that I tell you the truth?"
"I have thought about it a great deal," replied Clara steadily, "and
sometimes I almost think you do; but, you know, you have really had
very little conversation with me."
"True enough, and I must confess that I never found it so hard to take
my part in a conversation as I do at this minute. I usually lead it, I
may say dominate it," and he smiled a little; "usually, you see, I make
people, men and women, believe me. I would beg you to, Miss Hilman, if
only I knew how."
"Why try to compel me to stand on the same plane as you do?" asked
Clara; "you confess your habits of deceit. How can I promise to believe
you without confessing that, for this moment at least, I accept your
own style of intercourse?"
"You are an invincible logician, Miss Hilman," exclaimed Poubalov,
compressing his lips. "I give up, and will let my words stand or fall
on their merits, according as you judge them. I came here on Wednesday
evening to tell you some things I had discovered. The man Billings
called before I had begun to speak. I departed unceremoniously, because
I did not wish to meet him."
"I know that," said Clara, simply. "I knew it at the time."
"Of course you did," responded Poubalov, crestfallen; "you could not
infer otherwise, and my confession has all the appearance, therefore,
of a pitiably weak attempt to bolster up my claim to veracity."
"I do not interpret it that way. I can make my own test of your
veracity. I shall listen to whatever you have to say, without reference
to what you call a confession."
"Well, then," resumed the spy, speaking rapidly, "this is what I came
to say. I had made investigations in my own way along the lines of the
theory laid down with respect to the possible operations of Nihilists
against Mr. Strobel. I caught Litizki shadowing me, and recognized him
as one with whom I had come in official contact in Russia. It seemed
to me child's play to deal with him, for I had no respect for his
intellect. I supposed at first that he was tracking me as the agent of
a Nihilistic society. Then I learned that he was devoted to Strobel.
I knew he would come to see me, but not openly. So I sat up for him,
and he crept into the house like a thief. We had a conversation that I
will not pause to detail. I did my best to impress him with my power,
and then let him go away, for I wanted him to be at large, and I did
not want him just then to report to you what I had told him. You see, I
purposely allowed him to nurse his suspicions of me. Next day I called
at his shop, my sole purpose being to learn who his associates were,
and to endeavor to fasten upon them the taking off of Strobel. Among
the men in his shop was one Boris Vargovitch, at one time somewhat of
a leader among the Nihilists. The rest that I was going to say on that
evening I do not need to say now, for I have since become convinced
that Litizki was acting irresponsibly in pursuing me, and that if
Nihilists were active, he was not in their confidence. Furthermore, I
am now convinced that neither Vargovitch nor any other former Nihilist
in Boston was concerned in the Strobel matter. I was mistaken in
supposing that the Nihilists continued their close organization in this
country. They may send revolutionary literature to Russia, but they do
not keep up active operations here. I withdraw my innuendoes against
them, therefore, and have to confess that you are now just as far along
in your painful search as you were five days ago."
Clara was deeply impressed by this narration. She could see no flaw in
it, no evidence of untruthfulness. But there was a touch of evasion in
the conclusion, and she remarked with merciless coolness:
"You do not say that we are as far along as five days ago. You confine
the lack of progress to me."
There was a hasty glance from the spy that looked like apprehension.
"Of course, I catch the significance of your words," he said; "you
think I know more than I tell, that I instigated the abduction of
Strobel."
"Tell me," she said, looking straight into his eyes, "why did you not
wish to meet Billings?"
He hesitated, and the color rose slowly to his cheeks.
"No," he answered, "not now. I have said all I can for the present. I
am still pursuing this matter, Miss Hilman, but I must put off further
information. I would ask you to trust me to report faithfully to you
but that it is such a farce for two persons like you and me to bandy
words."
"It is a cruel farce," she exclaimed, rising indignantly; "you pretend
to help me and you laboriously tell me things I already know."
She walked across the room, and her brain struggled for a plan in the
confusion of impulses, hopes and fears. What might Paul accomplish?
Would she not surely lose a possible point by dismissing the spy once
and for all, and might she not some day gain much by keeping in some
sort of communication with him? This was the policy she had determined
upon, and she would adhere to it. So she turned and faced him. He had
risen, waiting her word of dismissal or encouragement.
"I will give you one more opportunity to tell me the whole truth and
make amends," she said sternly; "I believe what you have told me
to-night. Next time I must have all, and nothing short of it. Will you
come to-morrow?"
"Yes, Miss Hilman, in the evening."
He bowed gravely and left the house.
Paul did not venture to go to dinner when evening came. He read on and
on, waiting to hear Poubalov enter the adjoining room. It was late in
the evening when at last he heard the door open and close, and he knew
that the spy was at home.
Then Paul laid down his book and stepped cautiously upon the chair by
the door. He carefully drew out the nail and applied his eye to the
hole. He commanded a view of the very center of Poubalov's room.
The spy had thrown himself into a chair, and was sitting as if deeply
wrapped in thought. There were wrinkles in his brow and his lips were
set close together.
After a few moments thus, he took his traveling bag from the bureau and
unlocked it. Having fumbled over the contents, he drew forth a cabinet
photograph that he took directly under the chandelier where the light
was strongest. His back was partially turned to Paul, and he held the
card so that the observer at the nail hole could see it distinctly.
With a shock of surprise Paul recognized it as a picture of Clara
Hilman.
Poubalov gazed long and earnestly at it and then touched it reverently
to his lips.