We are on the eve of betrayal, and perhaps to-morrow or to-night you'll be seized.
So there.
I have authentic information."
At this all were agape with astonishment.
"You will be arrested not only as the instigators of the fire, but as a quintet.
The traitor knows the whole secret of the network.
So you see what a mess you've made of it!"
"Stavrogin, no doubt," cried Liputin.
"What... why Stavrogin?" Pyotr Stepanovitch seemed suddenly taken aback.
"Hang it all," he cried, pulling himself together at once, "it's Shatov!
I believe you all know now that Shatov in his time was one of the society.
I must tell you that, watching him through persons he does not suspect, I found out to my amazement that he knows all about the organisation of the network and... everything, in fact.
To save himself from being charged with having formerly belonged, he will give information against all.
He has been hesitating up till now and I have spared him.
Your fire has decided him: he is shaken and will hesitate no longer.
To-morrow we shall be arrested as incendiaries and political offenders."
"Is it true?
How does Shatov know?"
The excitement was indescribable.
"It's all perfectly true.
I have no right to reveal the source from which I learnt it or how I discovered it, but I tell you what I can do for you meanwhile: through one person I can act on Shatov so that without his suspecting it he will put off giving information, but not more than for twenty-four hours."
All were silent.
"We really must send him to the devil!" Tolkatchenko was the first to exclaim.
"It ought to have been done long ago," Lyamshin put in malignantly, striking the table with his fist.
"But how is it to be done?" muttered Liputin.
Pyotr Stepanovitch at once took up the question and unfolded his plan.
The plan was the following day at nightfall to draw Shatov away to a secluded spot to hand over the secret printing press which had been in his keeping and was buried there, and there "to settle things."
He went into various essential details which we will omit here, and explained minutely Shatov's present ambiguous attitude to the central society, of which the reader knows already.
"That's all very well," Liputin observed irresolutely, "but since it will be another adventure... of the same sort... it will make too great a sensation."
"No doubt," assented Pyotr Stepanovitch, "but I've provided against that.
We have the means of averting suspicion completely."
And with the same minuteness he told them about Kirillov, of his intention to shoot himself, and of his promise to wait for a signal from them and to leave a letter behind him taking on himself anything they dictated to him (all of which the reader knows already).
"His determination to take his own life—a philosophic, or as I should call it, insane decision—has become known there" Pyotr Stepanovitch went on to explain.
"There not a thread, not a grain of dust is overlooked; everything is turned to the service of the cause.
Foreseeing how useful it might be and satisfying themselves that his intention was quite serious, they had offered him the means to come to Russia (he was set for some reason on dying in Russia), gave him a commission which he promised to carry out (and he had done so), and had, moreover, bound him by a promise, as you already know, to commit suicide only when he was told to.
He promised everything.
You must note that he belongs to the organisation on a particular footing and is anxious to be of service; more than that I can't tell you.
To-morrow, after Shatov's affair, I'll dictate a note to him saying that he is responsible for his death.
That will seem very plausible: they were friends and travelled together to America, there they quarrelled; and it will all be explained in the letter... and... and perhaps, if it seems feasible, we might dictate something more to Kirillov—something about the manifestoes, for instance, and even perhaps about the fire.
But I'll think about that.
You needn't worry yourselves, he has no prejudices; he'll sign anything."
There were expressions of doubt.
It sounded a fantastic story.
But they had all heard more or less about Kirillov; Liputin more than all.
"He may change his mind and not want to," said Shigalov; "he is a madman anyway, so he is not much to build upon."
"Don't be uneasy, gentlemen, he will want to," Pyotr Stepanovitch snapped out.
"I am obliged by our agreement to give him warning the day before, so it must be to-day.
I invite Liputin to go with me at once to see him and make certain, and he will tell you, gentlemen, when he comes back—to-day if need be—whether what I say is true.
However," he broke off suddenly with intense exasperation, as though he suddenly felt he was doing people like them too much honour by wasting time in persuading them, "however, do as you please.
If you don't decide to do it, the union is broken up—but solely through your insubordination and treachery.