Part 7 (1/2)
”Because I don't believe you. You will get all that you want out of me, and then I will travel East any way.”
”That is a chance that you will have to take.” I arose and walked across the room to give him an opportunity to think it over. ”You look to me like one who has seen better days,” I said, when I returned. ”You evidently came from a very good family; you are an educated man, and you are young. In all probability you joined the nihilists without really meaning to do so, and having later been selected for this work here, on account of your ability, you were afraid to refuse it. Suppose that I should keep you imprisoned a year, or even two, what is that to the fate that awaits you if you refuse to do as I ask, or to that which you would have met, if you had refused to obey the men who commanded you to come here? Answer me.”
”A joke.”
”Precisely. Now, here is another question. If I should let you go free after you betray those men to me, what would your life be worth the moment you got upon the street, even if I provided you with pa.s.sports out of the country?”
”Nothing.”
”They would find you, wouldn't they?”
”To a certainty.”
”And kill you?”
”As surely as you stand there.”
”On the other hand, if I send you to a prison here in St. Petersburg, as I have proposed, you will be thought by them to be dead, or in Siberia, which is about the same thing. In the mean time you can write to any one whom you wish to have know that you are still alive; you can receive replies under an a.s.sumed name, and----”
”Enough, sir. I accept. You guessed rightly when you said that I am not a nihilist at heart. I am one because I love a woman who is one. That will suffice for the present. Later, I may tell you more about it. I am disposed to make another condition concerning her but I see that it would be useless; and perhaps you will grant me a favor if I ask it, when you discover that I have not deceived you in what I shall tell you.”
”You may be quite sure of it, if it is a reasonable one. Now tell me your name.”
”You do not care about my true name, I suppose?”
”I want the one by which you are known among the nihilists.”
”Jean Moret.”
”And here, in the palace?”
”The same.”
”I shall send you to your prison now. I cannot promise what it will be for to-night. To-morrow I will see you and will keep my word in every respect. In the mean time I want you to think over all that you have to say to me so that we may lose as little time as possible when we meet again.”
I left him then and went to the door. Outside, waiting in the corridor was the prince, and in a few words I explained to him what had taken place during his absence at the same time apologizing for having sent him from the room. Then I asked that the captain of the palace guard be sent for, and in a few moments Jean Moret was placed in his care. After that the prince and I smoked another cigarette together and then parted for the night.
”Mr. Derrington,” he said, as he was about to take his leave, ”I am more than ever convinced that you are the right man in the right place.
Tell me how you discovered the presence of that spy. I had no idea that he was there, and thought that we were entirely alone.”
”I knew he was there the moment we entered the room,” I replied. ”It is my habit to glance at everything in sight whenever I enter an apartment, and I do it now without realizing that I do so, if you can understand the seeming paradox. When we pa.s.sed the threshold I saw instantly that one of the curtains did not hang properly, so I seated myself in a position from which I could keep it in view. Twice I saw that it moved; a very little to be sure, but enough to satisfy me that somebody was concealed behind it That is the reason why I rather forced the conversation in English. The rest you know. I am convinced that the man we captured is the victim of circ.u.mstances, and I think I can make him very valuable.”
”Well,” acknowledged the prince, ”there might have been a man behind every one of the curtains and I would not have thought to suspect it.
This service alone, Mr. Derrington, is worth all the pay you will draw from Russia.”
”Yes,” I replied, ”for I believe that the spy will confess to me that he was sent there with orders to murder the czar.”
”My G.o.d! And even now there may be others of the same sort in the palace.”