sting himself forward to whisper fussily to him, but the
latter scarcely answered him, or muttered something irritably to get rid
of him.

Shigalov and Virginsky had arrived rather before Pyotr Stepanovitch, and
as soon as he came they drew a little apart in profound and obviously
intentional silence. Pyotr Stepanovitch raised his lantern and examined
them with unceremonious and insulting minuteness. "They mean to speak,"
flashed through his mind.

"Isn't Lyamshin here?" he asked Virginsky. "Who said he was ill?"

"I am here," responded Lyamshin, suddenly coming from behind a tree.
He was in a warm greatcoat and thickly muffled in a rug, so that it was
difficult to make out his face even with a lantern.

"So Liputin is the only one not here?"

Liputin too came out of the grotto without speaking. Pyotr Stepanovitch
raised the lantern again.

"Why were you hiding in there? Why didn't you come out?"

"I imagine we still keep the right of freedom... of our actions,"
Liputin muttered, though probably he hardly knew what he wanted to
express.

"Gentlemen," said Pyotr Stepanovitch, raising his voice for the first
time above a whisper, which produced an effect, "I think you fully
understand that it's useless to go over things again. Everything
was said and fully thrashed out yesterday, openly and directly.
But perhaps--as I see from your faces--some one wants to make some
statement; in that case I beg you to make haste. Damn it all! there's
not much time, and Erkel may bring him in a minute...."

"He is sure to bring him," Tolkatchenko put in for some reason.

"If I am not mistaken, the printing press will be handed over, to begin
with?" inquired Liputin, though again he seemed hardly to understand why
he asked the question.

"Of course. Why should we lose it?" said Pyotr Stepanovitch, lifting the
lantern to his face. "But, you see, we all agreed yesterday that it was
not really necessary to take it. He need only show you the exact spot
where it's buried; we can dig it up afterwards for ourselves. I know
that it's somewhere ten paces from a corner of this grotto. But, damn
it all! how could you have forgotten, Liputin? It was agreed that you
should meet him alone and that we should come out afterwards.... It's
strange that you should ask--or didn't you mean what you said?"

Liputin kept gloomily silent. All were silent. The wind shook the tops
of the pine-trees.

"I trust, however, gentlemen, that every one will