fferent one from what you may suppose.

As if to make Nolenki reflect, Verbitzsky spoke more slowly:--

"If Dmitry Nolenki jumps down into this pit _before_ I say five, do
_not_ throw the bomb at him. You understand, Michael, do not throw if
he jumps down instantly. FOUR!"

Nolenki's legs were so weak that he could not walk to the edge. In
trying to do so he stumbled, fell, crawled, and came in head first, a
mere heap.

"Wise Nolenki!" said my comrade, with a laugh. Then in his tone of
desperate resolution, "Nolenki, get down on your hands and knees, and
put your head against that wall. Don't move now--if you wish to live."

"Now, men," he cried to the others in military fashion, "right about,
face!"

They hesitated, perhaps fearful that he would throw at them when they
turned.

"About! instantly!" he cried. They all turned.

"Now, men, you see your chief. At the word 'March,' go and kneel in a
row beside him, your heads against that wall. Hump your backs as high
as you can. If any man moves to get out, all will suffer together. You
understand?"

"Yes! yes! yes!" came in an agony of abasement from their lips.

"March!"

When they were all kneeling in a row, Verbitzsky said to me clearly:--

"Michael, you can easily get to the top of that wall from any one of
their backs. No man will dare to move. Go! Wait on the edge! Take your
bomb with you!"

I obeyed. I stood on a man's back. I laid my bomb with utmost care on
the wall, over which I could then see. Then I easily lifted myself out
by my hands and elbows.

"Good!" said Verbitzsky. "Now, Michael, stand there till I come. If
they try to seize me, throw your bomb. We can all die together."

In half a minute he had stepped on Nolenki's back. Nolenki groaned
with abasement. Next moment Verbitzsky was beside me.

"Give me your bomb. Now, Michael," he said loudly, "I will stand guard
over these wretches till I see you beyond the freight-sheds. Walk at
an ordinary pace, lest you be seen and suspected."

"But you? They'll rise and fire at you as you run," I said.

"Of course they will. But you will escape. Here! Good-bye!"

He embraced me, and whispered in my ear:

"Go the opposite way from the freight-sheds. Go out toward the
Petrovsky Gardens. There are few police there. Run hard after you've
walked out under the bridge and around the abutments. You will then be
out of hearing."

"Go, dear friend," he said aloud, in a mournful voice. "I may never
s