as entirely indifferent to it. It was in her house that the bombs
and the dynamite had been discovered, and, strange though it may seem,
it was she who had met the police with pistol-shots and had wounded one
of the detectives in the head.

The trial ended at about eight o'clock, when it had become dark. Before
Musya's and Golovin's eyes the sky, which had been turning ever bluer,
was gradually losing its tint, but it did not turn rosy, did not smile
softly as in summer evenings, but became muddy, gray, and suddenly grew
cold, wintry. Golovin heaved a sigh, stretched himself, glanced again
twice at the window, but the cold darkness of the night alone was there;
then continuing to tug at his short beard, he began to examine with
childish curiosity the judges, the soldiers with their muskets, and
he smiled at Tanya Kovalchuk. When the sky had darkened Musya calmly,
without lowering her eyes to the ground, turned them to the corner where
a small cobweb was quivering from the imperceptible radiations of the
steam heat, and thus she remained until the sentence was pronounced.

After the verdict, having bidden good-by to their frock-coated lawyers,
and evading each other's helplessly confused, pitying and guilty
eyes, the convicted terrorists crowded in the doorway for a moment and
exchanged brief words.

"Never mind, Vasya. Everything will be over soon," said Werner.

"I am all right, brother," Kashirin replied loudly, calmly and even
somewhat cheerfully. And indeed, his face had turned slightly rosy, and
no longer looked like that of a decomposing corpse.

"The devil take them; they've hanged us," Golovin cursed quaintly.

"That was to be expected," replied Werner calmly.

"To-morrow the sentence will be pronounced in its final form and we
shall all be placed together," said Tanya Kovalchuk consolingly. "Until
the execution we shall all be together."

Musya was silent. Then she resolutely moved forward.

CHAPTER III WHY SHOULD I BE HANGED?

Two weeks before the terrorists had been tried the same military
district court, with a different set of judges, had tried and condemned
to death by hanging Ivan Yanson, a peasant.

Ivan Yanson was a workman for a well-to-do farmer, in no way different
from other workmen. He was an Esthonian by birth, from Vezenberg, and
in the course of several years, passing from one farm to another, he
had come close to the capital. He spoke Russian very poorly, and as his
master was