Yevsey awoke with a certain secret resolution, which held his bosom as
with a broad invisible belt. It stifled him. The ends of this band, he
felt, were held by some insistent being, who obstinately led him on to
an inescapable something. He harkened to this desire and tested it
carefully with an awkward, timorous thought. At the same time he did not
want it to define itself.
Melnikov dressed and washed, but uncombed, was sitting at the table next
to the samovar, munching his bread lazily like an ox.
"You sleep well," he said. "I drowsed a little, then awoke, while it was
still night, and suddenly saw a body beside me. I remembered that Tania
wasn't here, but I had forgotten about you. Then it seemed to me that
that person was lying there. He came and lay down--wanted to warm
himself." Melnikov laughed a stupid laugh, which, apparently,
embarrassed him the next instant. "However, it's not a joke. I lighted a
match and looked at you. It's my idea you're not well. Your face is blue
like--" He broke off with a cough, but Yevsey guessed the unspoken word,
and thought gloomily:
"Rayisa, too, said I would choke myself."
The thought frightened him, clearly alluding to something he did not
want to remember. Then he tried insistently to evoke some desire which
might help him to befool himself, to conceal the unavoidable, that which
had already been determined.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Eleven."
"Early still."
"Early," confirmed the host, and both were silent. Then Melnikov
proposed:
"Let's live together, eh?"
"I don't know."
"What?"
"What will happen," said Yevsey, after reflecting a moment.
"Nothing will happen. You're a quiet fellow. You speak little, neither
do I like to speak always. If it's tiresome I speak, or else I keep
quiet all the time. When you ask about something, one says one thing,
another says another thing, and a third still another. Well, the devil
take you, think I. You have a whole lot of words, but none that are
true."
"Yes," said Yevsey for the sake of answering.
"Something must be done," he thought in self-defense. Suddenly he
resolved, "At first I will--Sasha--" But he did not wish to represent to
himself what would be afterward. "Where are we going to go?" he inquired
of Melnikov.
"To the office," Melnikov replied with unconcern.
"I don't want to," declared Yevsey drily and firmly.
Melnikov combed his beard for a time in silence. Then he shoved the
dishes from him, and placing his elbows on the table, said meditatively
in a subdued voice:
"Our service has become hard. All have begun to rebel, but who are the
real rebels here? Make it out, if you can."
"I know who's the first scoundrel and skunk," muttered Klimkov.
"Sasha you mean?" inquired Melnikov.
Yevsey gave no reply. He was quietly beginning to devise a plan of
action. Melnikov started to dress, sniffing loudly.
"So we're going to live together?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to bring your things to-day?"
"I don't know."
"Will you sleep here tonight?"
After some reflection Yevsey said:
"Yes."
When the spy had gone, Klimkov jumped to his feet, and looked around
frightened, quivering under the stinging blows of suspicion.
"He locked me in, and went to tell Sasha. They'll come soon to seize me.
I must escape through the window."
He rushed to the door. It was not locked. He calmed himself, and said
with heat, as if convincing somebody:
"Well, is it possible to live this way? You don't believe anybody--there
is nobody--"
He sat long behind the table without moving, straining his mind,
employing all his cunning to lay a snare for the enemy without
endangering himself. Finally he hit upon a plan. He must in some way
lure Sasha from the office to the street, and walk with him. When they
would meet a large crowd of people, he would shout:
"This is a spy, beat him!" And probably the same thing would happen as
had happened to Zarubin and the fair-haired young man. If the people
would not turn upon Sasha as seriously as they had yesterday upon the
disguised revolutionist, Yevsey would set them an example. He would fire
first, as Zarubin had. But _he_ would _hit_ Sasha. He would aim at his
stomach.
Klimkov felt himself strong and brave, and made haste to leave. He
wanted to do the thing at once. But the recollection of Zarubin hindered
him, knotting up the poverty-stricken simplicity of his contrivance. He
involuntarily repeated his notion. "It was I who marked him for death."
He did not reproach, he did not blame, himself. Yet he felt that a
certain thread bound him to the little black spy, and he must do
something to break the thread.
"I didn't say good-by to him--and where will I find him now?"
On putting on his overcoat, he was gladdened to feel the revolver in his
pocket. Responding to a fresh influx of power and resolution, he walked
out into the street with a firm tread.
But the nearer he got to the Department of Safety the more did his bold
mood melt and fade away. The feeling of power became dissipated, and
when he saw the narrow dull alley at the end of which was the dusky,
three-storied building, he suddenly felt an invincible desire to find
Zarubin, and take leave of him.
"I insulted him," he explained his desire to himself, embarrassed and
quickly turning aside from his aim. "I must find him."
At the same time he vaguely felt he could not escape from that which
seized his heart and pressed him, drew him on after itself, and silently
indicated the one issue from the terrible entanglement.
The problem of the day, the resolve to destroy Sasha, did not hinder the
growth of the dark and evil power which filled his heart, while the
sudden wish to find the body of the little spy instantly became an
insurmountable obstacle to the carrying out of his plan.
He fed this desire artificially, in the fear that it, too, would
disappear. He rode about in cabs to police stations for a number of
hours, taking the utmost pains in his inquiries regarding Zarubin. When
at last he found out where the body was, it was too late to visit it,
and he returned home secretly pleased that the day had come to an end.
Melnikov did not put in appearance at his lodging. Yevsey lay alone the
whole night, trying not to stir. At each movement of his the canopy over
the bed rocked. An odor of dampness was wafted in his face, the bed
creaked a tune; he felt stifled, nauseated, and timorous. Taking
advantage of the stillness the vile mice ran about, and the rustling
sounds they made tore the thin net of Yevsey's thoughts of Zarubin and
Sasha. The interruptions displayed to him the dead, calm, expectant
emptiness of his environment, with which the emptiness of his soul
insistently desired to blend.