The days and nights dragged along in black and grey stripes, slowly
poisoning Yevsey's soul, biting into it and enfeebling it. They crept by
in dumb stillness, filled with ominous threats and forebodings. They
said nothing of when they would end their slow racking course. In
Yevsey's soul everything grew silent and numb. He did not dare, was
unable to, think; and when he paced his cage, he tried to make his steps
inaudible.
On the tenth day he was again set before the man in the blue glasses.
The man who had brought him there the first time was also present.
"Not very pleasant, eh, Klimkov?" the dark man asked, smacking his thick
red lower lip. His high voice made an odd splashing sound as if he were
laughing inside himself. The reflection of the electric light upon the
blue glass of his spectacles sent strong rays into Yevsey's empty
breast, and filled him with slavish readiness to do everything necessary
to end these slimy days which sank into darkness and threatened madness.
"Let me go," he said quietly.
"Yes, I will, and more besides. I will take you into the service. Now
you will yourself put people into the place from which you have just
been taken--into the same place and into other cosy little rooms." He
laughed, smacking his lip. Klimkov bowed. "The late Lukin interceded for
you; and in memory of his honest service I will give you a position. You
will receive twenty-five rubles a month to begin with."
His words entered Yevsey's breast and memory, and disposed themselves in
a row, as if a commanding hand had written them there. He bowed again.
"This man, Piotr Petrovich, will be your chief and teacher. You must do
everything he tells you. Do you understand?" He turned to the other man.
"So it's decided--he will live with you."
"Very well," came the response with unexpected loudness. "That will be
more convenient for me."
"All right."
The dark man turning again to Yevsey began to speak to him in a softened
voice, telling him something soothing and promising. Yevsey tried to
take in his words, and followed the heavy movement of the red lip under
the mustache without winking.
"Remember, you will now guard the sacred person of the Czar from
attempts upon his life and upon his sacred power. You understand?"
"I thank you humbly," said Yevsey quietly.
Piotr Petrovich pushed his hat up on his forehead.
"I will explain everything to him," he interjected hastily. "It is time
for me to go."
"Go, go. Well, Klimkov, off with you. Serve well, brother, and you will
be satisfied. You will be happy. All the same don't forget that you took
part in the murder of the secondhand book-dealer Raspopov. You confessed
to it yourself, and I took your testimony down in writing. Do you
understand? Well, so long."
Filip Filippovich nodded his head, and his stiff beard, which seemed to
be cut from wood, moved in unison with it. Then he held out to Yevsey a
white bloated hand with a number of gold rings on the short fingers.
Yevsey closed his eyes, and started.
"What a scarey fellow you are, brother!" Filip Filippovich ejaculated in
a thin voice, and laughed a glassy laugh. "Now you have nothing and
nobody to fear. You are now the servant of the Czar, and ought to be
self-assured and bold. You stand on firm ground. Do you comprehend?"
When Yevsey walked out into the street, he could not catch his breath.
He staggered, and almost fell. Piotr, raising the collar of his
overcoat, looked around and waved to a cab.
"We will ride home--to my house," he said in a low tone.
Yevsey looked at him from the corners of his eyes, and almost uttered a
cry. Piotr's smooth-shaven face had suddenly grown a small light
mustache.
"Well, why are you gaping at me in that fashion?" he asked gruffly, in
annoyance.
Yevsey dropped his head, trying in spite of his wish to do so, not to
look into the face of the new master of his destiny. Piotr did not speak
to him throughout the ride, but kept counting something on his fingers,
bending them one after the other and knitting his brows and biting his
lips. Occasionally he called out angrily to the driver:
"Hurry!"
It was cold, sleet was falling, and splashing sounds floated in the air.
It seemed to Yevsey that the cab was quickly rolling down a steep
mountain into a black dirty ravine.
They stopped at a large three-storied house. Most of the windows in
three rows were dark and blind. Only a few gleamed a sickly yellow from
the illumination within. Streams of water poured from the roof sobbing.
"Go up the steps," commanded Piotr, who was now sans mustache.
They ascended the steps and walked through a long corridor past a number
of white doors. Yevsey thought the place was a prison, but the thick
odor of fried onion and blacking did not accord with his conception of a
prison. Piotr quickly opened one of the white doors, turned on two
electric lights, and carefully scrutinized all the corners of the room.
"If anybody asks you who you are," he said drily and quickly while
removing his hat and overcoat, "say you are my cousin. You came from the
Tzarskoe Selo to look for a position. Remember--don't make a break."
Piotr's face wore a preoccupied expression, his eyes were cheerless, his
speech abrupt, his thin lips twitched. He rang, and thrust his head out
of the door.
"Ivan, bring in the samovar," he called.
Yevsey standing in a corner of the room looked around dismally, in vague
expectation.
"Take off your coat, and sit down. You will have the next room to
yourself," said the spy, quickly unfolding a card table. He took from
his pocket a note-book and a pack of cards, which he laid out for four
hands.
"You understand, of course," he went on without looking at Klimkov, "you
understand that ours is a secret business. We must keep under cover, or
else they'll kill us as they killed Lukin."
"Was he killed?" asked Yevsey quietly.
"Yes," said Piotr unconcernedly. He wiped his forehead and examined the
cards. "Deal one thousand two hundred and fourteen--I have the ace,
seven of hearts, queen of clubs." He made a note in his book, and
without raising his head continued to speak to himself.
When he calculated the cards, he mumbled indistinctly with a preoccupied
air; but when he instructed Yevsey, he spoke drily, clearly, and
rapidly. "Revolutionists are enemies of the Czar and God--ten of
diamonds--three--Jack of spades--they are bought by the Germans in order
to bring ruin upon Russia. We Russians have begun to do everything
ourselves, and for the Germans--king, five and nine--the devil! The
sixteenth coincidence!"
Piotr Petrovich suddenly grew jolly, his eyes gleamed, and his face
assumed a sleek, satisfied expression.
"What was I saying?" he asked Yevsey looking up at him.
"The Germans."
"Oh, yes! The Germans are greedy, they are enemies of the Russian
people, they want to conquer us. They want us to buy all our goods from
them, and give them our bread. The Germans have no bread--queen of
diamonds--all right--two of hearts, ten of clubs, ten--" Screwing up his
eyes he looked up at the ceiling, sighed, and shuffled the cards. "In
general, all foreigners envious of the wealth and power of Russia--one
thousand two hundred and fifteenth deal--want to create a revolt in our
country, dethrone the Czar, and--three aces--hmm!--and place their own
officials everywhere, their own rulers over us in order to rob us and
ruin us. You don't want this to happen, do you?"
"I don't," said Yevsey, who understood nothing, and followed the quick
movements of the card-player's fingers with a dull look.
"Of course, nobody wants it," remarked Piotr pensively. He laid out the
cards again, and stroked his cheeks meditatively. "You are a Russian,
and you cannot want that--that--this should happen--therefore you ought
to fight the revolutionaries, agents of the foreigners, and defend the
liberty of Russia, the power and life of the Czar. That's all. Did you
understand?"
"I did."
"Afterward you will see the way it must be done. The only thing I'll
tell you beforehand is, don't dwaddle. Carry out all orders precisely.
We fellows ought to have eyes in back as well as in front. If you
haven't, you'll get it good and hard on all sides--ace of spades, seven
of diamonds, ten of clubs."
There was a knock at the door.
"Open the door."
A red, curly-haired man entered carrying a samovar on a tray.
"Ivan, this is my cousin. He will live here with me. Get the next room
ready for him."
"Yes, sir. Mr. Chizhov was here."
"Drunk?"
"A little. He wanted to come in."
"Make tea, Yevsey," said the spy after the servant had left the room.
"Get yourself a glass and drink some tea. What salary did you get in the
police department?"
"Nine rubles a month."
"You have no money now?"
"No."
"You've got to have some, and you must order a suit for yourself. One
suit won't do. You must notice everybody, but nobody must notice you."
He again mumbled calculations of the cards. Yevsey, while noiselessly
serving the tea, tried to straighten out the strange impressions of the
day. But he was not successful. He felt sick. He was chilled through and
through, and his hands shook. He wanted to stretch himself out in a
corner, close his eyes, and lie motionless for a long time. Words and
phrases repeated themselves disconnectedly in his head.
"What are you guilty of, then?" Filip Filippovich asked in a thin voice.
"They killed Dorimedont Lukin," the spy announced drily; then exclaimed
joyfully, "The sixteenth coincidence!"
"You will choke yourself," said Rayisa in an even voice.
There was a powerful rap on the door. Piotr raised his head.
"Is it you, Sasha?"
"Well, open the door," an angry voice answered.
When Yevsey opened the door, a tall man loomed before him, swaying on
long legs. The ends of his black mustache reached to the bottom of his
chin. The hairs of it must have been stiff and hard as a horse's, for
each one stuck out by itself. When he removed his hat, he displayed a
bald skull. He flung the hat on the bed, and rubbed his face vigorously
with both hands.
"Why are you throwing your wet hat on my bed?" observed Piotr.
"The devil take your bed!" said the guest through his nose.
"Yevsey, hang up the overcoat."
The visitor seated himself, stretching out his long legs and lighting a
cigarette.
"What's that--Yevsey?"
"My cousin. Will you have some tea?"
"We're all akin in our natural skin. Have you whiskey?"
Piotr told Klimkov to order a bottle of whiskey and some refreshments.
Yevsey obeyed, then seated himself at the table, putting the samovar
between his face and the visitor's, so as not to be seen by him.
"How's business, card sharper?" he asked, nodding his head at the cards.
Piotr suddenly half raised himself from the chair, and said animatedly:
"I have found out the secret! I have found out the secret!"
"You have found it out?" queried the visitor. "Fool!" he exclaimed,
drawling the word and shaking his head.
Piotr seized the note-book and rapping his fingers on it continued in a
hot whisper:
"Wait, Sasha. I have had the sixteenth coincidence already. You get the
significance of that? And I made only one one thousand two hundred and
fourteen deals. Now the cards keep repeating themselves oftener and
oftener. I must make two thousand seven hundred and four deals. You
understand? Fifty-two times fifty-two. Then make all the deals over
again thirteen times, according to the number of cards in each color.
Thirty-five thousand, one hundred and fifty-two times. And repeat these
deals four times according to the number of colors. One hundred and
forty thousand six hundred and eight times."
"Fool!" the visitor again drawled through his nose, shaking his head and
curling his lips in a sneer.
"Why, Sasha, why? Explain!" Piotr cried softly. "Why, then I'll know all
the deals possible in a game. Think of it! I'll look at my cards--" he
held the book nearer to his face and began to read quickly--"ace of
spades, seven of diamonds, ten of clubs. So of the other players one has
king of hearts, five and ten of diamonds, and the other, ace, seven of
hearts, queen of clubs, and the third has queen of diamonds, two of
hearts, and ten of clubs."
His hands trembled, sweat glistened on his temples, his face became
young, good, and kind.
Klimkov peering from behind the samovar saw on Sasha's face large dim
eyes with red veins on the whites, a coarse big nose, which seemed to be
swollen, and a net of pimples spread on the yellow skin of his forehead
from temple to temple like the band worn by the dead. He radiated an
acrid, unpleasant odor. The man recalled something painful to Yevsey.
Piotr pressed the book to his breast, and waved his hand in the air.
"I shall then be able to play without a single miss," he whispered
ecstatically. "Hundreds of thousands, millions, will be lost to me, and
there won't be any sharp practice, any jugglery in it, a matter of my
knowledge--that's all. Everything strictly within the law."
He struck his chest so severe a blow with his fist that he began to
cough. Then he dropped on his chair, and laughed quietly.
"Why don't they bring the whiskey?" growled Sasha, throwing the stump of
his cigarette on the floor.
"Yevsey, go tell--" Piotr began quickly, but at that instant there was a
knock at the door. "Are you drinking again?" Piotr asked smiling.
Sasha stretched out his hand for the bottle.
"Not yet, but I will be in a second."
"It's bad for you with your sickness."
"Whiskey is bad for healthy people, too. Whiskey and the imagination.
You, for instance, will soon be an idiot."
"I won't. Don't be uneasy."
"You will. I know mathematics. I see you are a blockhead."
"Everyone has his own mathematics," replied Piotr, disgruntled.
"Shut up!" said Sasha, slowly sipping the glass of whiskey and smelling
a piece of bread. Having drained the first glass, he immediately filled
another for himself.
"To-day," he began, bending his head and resting his hands on his knees,
"I spoke to the general again. I made a proposition to him. I said, 'Now
give me means, and I'll unearth people. I will open a literary club, and
trap the very best scamps for you, all of them.' He puffed his cheeks,
and stuck out his belly and said--the jackass!--'I know better what has
to be done, and how it has to be done.' He knows everything. But he
doesn't know that his mistress danced naked before Von Rutzen, or that
his daughter had an abortion performed." He drained the second glass of
whiskey, and filled the third. "Everybody's a blackguard and a skunk.
It's impossible to live! Once Moses ordered 23,000 syphilitics to be
killed. At that time there weren't many people, mark you. If I had the
power I would destroy a million."
"Yourself first?" suggested Piotr smiling.
Sasha sniffed without answering, as if in a delirium.
"All those liberals, generals, revolutionists, dissolute women--I'd make
a large pyre of them and burn them. I would drench the earth with blood,
manure it with the ashes of the corpses. There would be a rich crop.
Satiated muzhiks would elect satiated officials. Man is an animal, and
he needs rich pastures, fertile fields. The cities ought to be
destroyed, and everything superficial, everything that hinders me and
you from living simply as the sheep and roosters--to the devil with it
all!"
His viscid rank-smelling words fairly glued themselves to Yevsey's
heart. It was difficult and dangerous to listen to them.
"Suddenly they will summon me and ask me what he said. Maybe he's
speaking on purpose to trap me. Then they'll seize me." He trembled and
moved uneasily in his chair. "May I go?" he requested of Piotr quietly.
"Where?"
"To my room."
"Oh, yes, go on."
"Got frightened, the donkey!" remarked Sasha without lifting his head.
"Go on, go on," repeated Piotr.
Klimkov undressed noiselessly without making a light. He groped for the
bed in the dark, and rolled himself up closely in the cold, damp sheet.
He wanted to see nothing, to hear nothing, he wanted to squeeze himself
into a little unnoticeable lump. The snuffled words of Sasha clung in
his memory. Yevsey thought he smelt his odor and saw the red band on the
yellow forehead. As a matter of fact the irritated exclamations came in
to him through the door.
"I am a muzhik myself, I know what's necessary."
Without wishing to do so Yevsey listened intently. He racked his brain
to recall the person of whom this sick man so full of rancor reminded
him, though he actually dreaded lest he should remember.
It was dark and cold. Behind the black panes rocked the dull reflections
of the light, disappearing and reappearing. A thin scraping sound was
audible. The wind-swept rain knocked upon the panes in heavy drops.
"Shall I enter a monastery?" Klimkov mused mournfully, and suddenly he
remembered God, whose name he had seldom heard in his life in the city.
He had not thought of Him the whole time. In his heart always full of
fear and insult there had been no place for hope in the mercy of Heaven.
But now it unexpectedly appeared, and suffused his breast with warmth,
extinguishing his heavy, dull despair. He jumped from bed, kneeled on
the floor, and firmly pressed his hands to his bosom. He turned his face
to the dark corner of the room, closed his eyes, and waited without
uttering words, listening to the beating of his heart. But he was
exceedingly tired. The cold pricked his skin with thousands of sharp
needles. He shivered, and lay down again in bed, and fell asleep.