the bed. One of you sat on his feet,
the other on his head. At that moment the lady, you know who, in a
black dress, who had arranged with you beforehand the part she would
take in the crime, came in from the passage. She picked up the
pillow, and proceeded to smother him with it. During the struggle,
the light went out. The woman took a box of Swedish matches out of
her pocket and lighted the candle. Isn't that right? I see from
your face that what I say is true. Well, to proceed. . . . Having
smothered him, and being convinced that he had ceased to breathe,
Nikolay and you dragged him out of window and put him down near the
burdocks. Afraid that he might regain consciousness, you struck him
with something sharp. Then you carried him, and laid him for some
time under a lilac bush. After resting and considering a little,
you carried him . . . lifted him over the hurdle. . . . Then went
along the road. . . Then comes the dam; near the dam you were
frightened by a peasant. But what is the matter with you?"

Psyekov, white as a sheet, got up, staggering.

"I am suffocating!" he said. "Very well. . . . So be it. . . . Only
I must go. . . . Please."

Psyekov was led out.

"At last he has admitted it!" said Tchubikov, stretching at his
ease. "He has given himself away! How neatly I caught him there."

"And he didn't deny the woman in black!" said Dyukovsky, laughing.
"I am awfully worried over that Swedish match, though! I can't
endure it any longer. Good-bye! I am going!"

Dyukovsky put on his cap and went off. Tchubikov began interrogating
Akulka.

Akulka declared that she knew nothing about it. . . .

"I have lived with you and with nobody else!" she said.

At six o'clock in the evening Dyukovsky returned. He was more excited
than ever. His hands trembled so much that he could not unbutton
his overcoat. His cheeks were burning. It was evident that he had
not come back without news.

"_Veni, vidi, vici!_" he cried, dashing into Tchubikov's room and
sinking into an arm-chair. "I vow on my honour, I begin to believe
in my own genius. Listen, damnation take us! Listen and wonder, old
friend! It's comic and it's sad. You have three in your grasp already
. . . haven't you? I have found a fourth murderer, or rather
murderess, for it is a woman! And what a woman! I would have given
ten years of my life merely to touch her shoulders. But . . . listen.
I drove to Klyauzovka and proceeded to describe a spiral round it.