a pretty part you
are choosing to play at the moment of danger!"

"I protest, I protest!" Virginsky persisted.

"Don't bawl, anyway; we shan't hear the signal. Shatov, gentlemen... .
(Damnation, how stupid this is now!) I've told you already that Shatov
is a Slavophil, that is, one of the stupidest set of people.... But,
damn it all, never mind, that's no matter! You put me out!... Shatov is
an embittered man, gentlemen, and since he has belonged to the party,
anyway, whether he wanted to or no, I had hoped till the last minute
that he might have been of service to the cause and might have been
made use of as an embittered man. I spared him and was keeping him
in reserve, in spite of most exact instructions.... I've spared him a
hundred times more than he deserved! But he's ended by betraying
us.... But, hang it all, I don't care! You'd better try running away
now, any of you! No one of you has the right to give up the job! You can
kiss him if you like, but you haven't the right to stake the cause on
his word of honour! That's acting like swine and spies in government
pay!"

"Who's a spy in government pay here?" Liputin filtered out.

"You, perhaps. You'd better hold your tongue, Liputin; you talk for the
sake of talking, as you always do. All men are spies, gentlemen, who
funk their duty at the moment of danger. There will always be some fools
who'll run in a panic at the last moment and cry out, 'Aie, forgive
me, and I'll give them all away!' But let me tell you, gentlemen,
no betrayal would win you a pardon now. Even if your sentence were
mitigated it would mean Siberia; and, what's more, there's no escaping
the weapons of the other side--and their weapons are sharper than the
government's."

Pyotr Stepanovitch was furious and said more than he meant to. With a
resolute air Shigalov took three steps towards him. "Since yesterday
evening I've thought over the question," he began, speaking with his
usual pedantry and assurance. (I believe that if the earth had given way
under his feet he would not have raised his voice nor have varied one
tone in his methodical exposition.) "Thinking the matter over, I've come
to the conclusion that the projected murder is not merely a waste of
precious time which might be employed in a more suitable and befitting
manner, but presents, moreover, that deplorable deviation from the
normal method which has always been most prejudicial to the cause
and has delayed its triumph for sco