Weakness
Thus, then, was the diabolical work to be completed. For Satan is not
wont to betray those who are true to him.
But had Feodor really been true to him?
Had he not, he asked himself, secretly sinned against his master and
his religion in suffering beside him a human creature who whispered a
prayer to Heaven before laying her head upon her pillow?
And was that head really on the pillow now? Was Mashinka really
asleep?
Might not she have heard all that had just been spoken--all those
frightful things which she could not hitherto have imagined? . . .
Might not she betray him?
With these thoughts rushing confusedly through his brain, Feodor took
the lamp in his hand and entered the next room. The woman lay before
him with closed eyes. He threw the lamp-light on her face. Her hands
were clasped across her breast, which gently rose and fell.
Something whispered to him that the woman must die. She might have
heard everything and might only be feigning sleep.
He set down the lamp. Placing one hand over her heart, he held in the
other a keen dagger, so that its point just touched her breast. Had
but a single quickened beat betrayed that she was aware of the danger
so near her, the weapon would have pierced her heart. But Mashinka lay
perfectly still.
Presently a smile flitted across her face, and her lips began to
mutter words as sleepers often do in dreams.
"Do not tickle me so with the blade of grass, Shasha," she murmured
coyly.
The Apostle of Dago had not the heart to drive the blade of steel into
her bosom.
But something within him admonished him.
"Thou art not wholly mine," said the voice; "a single good feeling yet
lingers within thee! By it thou art corrupted--thou art lost!"
Yet he could not kill her.
He consoled himself with the thought that she must certainly have been
asleep and could, therefore, have heard nothing. It would be
sufficient, he reflected, to take the precaution of securing the key
of the door which opened on the outside steps leading down to the
garden. Mashinka and the two lads would thus be all securely locked
in.
He left the room and went up to the observatory.
* * * * *
Mashinka was not asleep. She had heard every word.
With almost superhuman strength she had fought down the terror that
rose within her, and was able to appear asleep even while the dagger
was pointed at her heart by the hand of the man whom she now knew in
all his infamy.
She sprang from the bed as soon as the sound of Feodor's footsteps had
died away, rushed to the little room where the two sleeping boys lay
clasping each other's hands, and called them.
"Wake, children, wake!" she cried in despair; "prepare yourselves for
death--it is close at hand!"
She then hastily told them all she had heard.
"And you are to be made to fight each other to death before your
fathers' eyes!" she exclaimed as she concluded.
Alexander and Paul tremblingly embraced each other. It was not the
thought of death that made them tremble, but the thought that their
fathers should hate each other so.
"Oh! if you could but fly from here!" cried Mashinka.
"But how?" exclaimed Alexander. "Ah!--the door to the garden!
Impossible--it is locked!"
"Here!" cried Mashinka suddenly; "through this window you can reach
the garden--then over the outer wall and on to the rocks on the shore!
There you will find a boat. In it you may reach the ship."
"But you--you must come with us too," they cried together.
But Mashinka had already begun to cut up the bed-clothes and tie the
pieces together into a stout rope. The clothes were not long enough.
Swiftly she passed into the dining-room, and cut off the bell-cord
which hung from the ceiling. With this the rope was soon completed.
The night was dark and favoured the flight of the fugitives.
[Illustration]