a at once
with the betrayal of his misplaced confidence.

Beilski's threat set his thoughts working vigorously in the direction
of self-preservation. He was devoted to the Prince, but he was still
more devoted to himself. If he could have saved Zouroff, he would, but
that seemed impossible, the Police knew too much. But he could save
himself by telling what he knew. It was necessary therefore to earn
that free pardon. It was only a matter of hours before he would go to
the General and make a full confession.

It hurt him very much that he should crown so many years of fidelity
with such a black act, but it seemed a question of _sauve qui peut_.
Loyal as he had been to his master, he knew enough of his character to
be sure that the Prince, in a similar emergency, would have thrown
him, and a dozen like him, to the wolves in order to purchase a
moment's respite. Why should he pursue a different policy?

Beilski had promised a free pardon, and also not to implicate him in
the transaction. Still Zouroff was a man of extraordinary shrewdness,
and when he began to work it out in his mind, might quickly focus his
suspicions in the right direction.

How to avert Zouroff's suspicions from himself! That was the question.
His narrow, but cunning brain bent itself upon this for some time. At
the end of his cogitations, he sought Katerina, and bluntly taxed her
with the betrayal of his confidence.

At first, Katerina, with the natural adroitness of her class and sex,
protested indignant denial; she vowed that she had forgotten the
incident altogether.

"You are lying," said her lover sternly. "If you do not confess this
instant, I will take you to the Prince himself, and he will wring the
truth out of you."

Katerina's face went white. She had been very frightened at Beilski,
but her terror of Zouroff was greater even than her fear of the Head
of the Police. If she saw him in one of the corridors, she would
scuttle away like an alarmed rabbit. If he came into her young
mistress's room, she was agitated till he was gone.

In a few moments, what with her fear of Zouroff and her genuine love
for Peter, the artful valet had her reduced to a state of tears. It
was not long before he forced out of her everything he wanted to know.
How she had conveyed the information to the Princess, how she had
taken her mistress's note to Beilski, how, later on, she had been
summoned to the presence of that formidable person and confessed much