d
conscience may absolve me from my behavior on the day of our
interview. 'Why,' you will ask, 'did you not come on that occasion and
have my place searched?' I did so, hah! hah! I went when you were ill
in bed--but, let me tell you, not officially, not in my magisterial
capacity; but go I did. We had your rooms turned topsy-turvy at our
very first suspicions, but _umsonst_! Then I said to myself: 'That man
will make me a call, he will come of his own accord, and that before
very long! If he is guilty, he will be bound to come. Other kinds of
men would not do so, but this one will.'

"And you remember, of course, Mr. Razoumikhin's chattering? We had
purposely informed him of some of our suspicions, hoping that he might
make you uneasy, for we knew perfectly well that Razoumikhin would not
be able to contain his indignation. Zametoff, in particular, had been
struck by your boldness, and it certainly was a bold thing for a
person to exclaim all of a sudden in an open _traktir_: 'I am an
assassin!' That was really too much of a good thing. Well, I waited
for you with trusting patience, and, lo and behold, Providence sends
you! How my heart did beat when I saw you coming! Now, I ask you,
where was the need of your coming at that time at all? If you
remember, you came in laughing immoderately. That laughter gave me
food for thought, but, had I not been very prejudiced at the time, I
should have taken no notice of it. And as for Mr. Razoumikhin on that
occasion--ah! the stone, the stone, you will remember, under which the
stolen things are hidden? I fancy I can see it from here; it is
somewhere in a kitchen garden--it was a kitchen garden you mentioned
to Zametoff, was it not? And then, when your article was broached, we
fancied we discovered a latent thought beneath every word you uttered.
That was the way, Rodion Romanovitch, that my conviction grew little
by little. 'And yet,' said I to myself, 'all that may be explained in
quite a different way, and perhaps more rationally. After all, a real
proof, however slight, would be far more valuable.' But, when I heard
all about the bell-ringing, my doubts vanished; I fancied I had the
indispensable proof, and did not seem to care for further
investigation.

"We are face to face with a weird and gloomy case--a case of a
contemporary character, if I may say so--a case possessing, in the
fullest sense of the word, the hallmark of time, and circumstances
pointing to a person and l