and disappeared.

"Clever rascal!" muttered Chubikoff, glancing after him. "Awfully
clever! But too much of a hothead. I must buy him a cigar case at the
fair as a present."

The next day, early in the morning, a young man with a big head and a
pursed-up mouth, who came from Klausoff's place, was introduced to the
magistrate's office. He said he was the shepherd Daniel, and brought a
very interesting piece of information.

"I was a bit drunk," he said. "I was with my pal till midnight. On my
way home, as I was drunk, I went into the river for a bath. I was taking
a bath, when I looked up. Two men were walking along the dam, carrying
something black. 'Shoo!' I cried at them. They got scared, and went off
like the wind toward Makareff's cabbage garden. Strike me dead, if they
weren't carrying away the master!"

That same day, toward evening, Psyekoff and Nicholas were arrested and
brought under guard to the district town. In the town they were
committed to the cells of the prison.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote E: Reprinted by permission of the Review of Reviews Co.]

II

A fortnight passed.

It was morning. The magistrate Nicholas Yermolaiyevitch was sitting in
his office before a green table, turning over the papers of the
"Klausoff case"; Dukovski was striding restlessly up and down like a
wolf in a cage.

"You are convinced of the guilt of Nicholas and Psyekoff," he said,
nervously plucking at his young beard. "Why will you not believe in the
guilt of Maria Ivanovna? Are there not proofs enough for you?"

"I don't say I am not convinced. I am convinced, but somehow I don't
believe it! There are no real proofs, but just a kind of
philosophizing--fanaticism, this and that--"

"You can't do without an axe and bloodstained sheets. Those jurists!
Very well, I'll prove it to you! You will stop sneering at the
psychological side of the affair! To Siberia with your Maria Ivanovna!
I will prove it! If philosophy is not enough for you, I have something
substantial for you. It will show you how correct my philosophy is. Just
give me permission--"

"What are you going on about?"

"About the safety match! Have you forgotten it? I haven't! I am going to
find out who struck it in the murdered man's room. It was not Nicholas
that struck it; it was not Psyekoff, for neither of them had any matches
when they were examined; it was the third person, Maria Ivanovna. I will
prove it to you. Just give me permission to go through