he more he came to realise the new world of
Lisa's spiritual ambitions, quite unknown to him heretofore.

VIII

ALL were silent in the common cell. Stepan was lying in his bed, but
was not yet asleep. Vassily approached him, and, pulling him by his leg,
asked him in a whisper to get up and to come to him. Stepan stepped out
of his bed, and came up to Vassily.

"Do me a kindness, brother," said Vassily. "Help me!"

"In what?"

"I am going to fly from the prison."

Vassily told Stepan that he had everything ready for his flight.

"To-morrow I shall stir them up--" He pointed to the prisoners asleep in
their beds. "They will give me away, and I shall be transferred to the
cell in the upper floor. I know my way from there. What I want you for
is to unscrew the prop in the door of the mortuary." "I can do that. But
where will you go?"

"I don't care where. Are not there plenty of wicked people in every
place?"

"Quite so, brother. But it is not our business to judge them."

"I am not a murderer, to be sure. I have not destroyed a living soul in
my life. As for stealing, I don't see any harm in that. As if they have
not robbed us!"

"Let them answer for it themselves, if they do."

"Bother them all! Suppose I rob a church, who will be hurt? This time
I will take care not to break into a small shop, but will get hold of a
lot of money, and then I will help people with it. I will give it to all
good people."

One of the prisoners rose in his bed and listened. Stepan and Vassily
broke off their conversation. The next day Vassily carried out his idea.
He began complaining of the bread in prison, saying it was moist, and
induced the prisoners to call the governor and to tell him of their
discontent. The governor came, abused them all, and when he heard it
was Vassily who had stirred up the men, he ordered him to be transferred
into solitary confinement in the cell on the upper floor. This was all
Vassily wanted.

IX

VASSILY knew well that cell on the upper floor. He knew its floor, and
began at once to take out bits of it. When he had managed to get under
the floor he took out pieces of the ceiling beneath, and jumped down
into the mortuary a floor below. That day only one corpse was lying on
the table. There in the corner of the room were stored bags to make hay
mattresses for the prisoners. Vassily knew about the bags, and that
was why the mortuary served his purposes. The prop in the door had been
unsc