He kept fancying that Pyotr Stepanovitch seemed anxious to get rid of him and was impatient for the last bell.
"You look at every one so openly," he observed with some timidity, as though he would have warned him.
"Why not?
It would not do for me to conceal myself at present.
It's too soon.
Don't be uneasy.
All I am afraid of is that the devil might send Liputin this way; he might scent me out and race off here."
"Pyotr Stepanovitch, they are not to be trusted," Erkel brought out resolutely.
"Liputin?"
"None of them, Pyotr Stepanovitch."
"Nonsense! they are all bound by what happened yesterday.
There isn't one who would turn traitor.
People won't go to certain destruction unless they've lost their reason."
"Pyotr Stepanovitch, but they will lose their reason."
Evidently that idea had already occurred to Pyotr Stepanovitch too, and so Erkel's observation irritated him the more.
"You are not in a funk too, are you, Erkel?
I rely on you more than on any of them.
I've seen now what each of them is worth.
Tell them to-day all I've told you. I leave them in your charge.
Go round to each of them this morning.
Read them my written instructions to-morrow, or the day after, when you are all together and they are capable of listening again... and believe me, they will be by to-morrow, for they'll be in an awful funk, and that will make them as soft as wax.... The great thing is that you shouldn't be downhearted."
"Ach, Pyotr Stepanovitch, it would be better if you weren't going away."
"But I am only going for a few days; I shall be back in no time."
"Pyotr Stepanovitch," Erkel brought out warily but resolutely, "what if you were going to Petersburg?
Of course, I understand that you are only doing what's necessary for the cause."
"I expected as much from you, Erkel.
If you have guessed that I am going to Petersburg you can realise that I couldn't tell them yesterday, at that moment, that I was going so far for fear of frightening them.
You saw for yourself what a state they were in.
But you understand that I am going for the cause, for work of the first importance, for the common cause, and not to save my skin, as Liputin imagines."
"Pyotr Stepanovitch, what if you were going abroad? I should understand... I should understand that you must be careful of yourself because you are everything and we are nothing.
I shall understand, Pyotr Stepanovitch."
The poor boy's voice actually quivered.
"Thank you, Erkel.... Aie, you've touched my bad finger." (Erkel had pressed his hand awkwardly; the bad finger was discreetly bound up in black silk.) "But I tell you positively again that I am going to Petersburg only to sniff round, and perhaps shall only be there for twenty-four hours and then back here again at once.
When I come back I shall stay at Gaganov's country place for the sake of appearances.
If there is any notion of danger, I should be the first to take the lead and share it.
If I stay longer in Petersburg I'll let you know at once ... in the way we've arranged, and you'll tell them."
The second bell rang.
"Ah, then there's only five minutes before the train starts.
I don't want the group here to break up, you know.
I am not afraid; don't be anxious about me. I have plenty of such centres, and it's not much consequence; but there's no harm in having as many centres as possible.
But I am quite at ease about you, though I am leaving you almost alone with those idiots. Don't be uneasy; they won't turn traitor, they won't have the pluck.... Ha ha, you going to-day too?" he cried suddenly in a quite different, cheerful voice to a very young man, who came up gaily to greet him.
"I didn't know you were going by the express too.
Where are you off to... your mother's?"
The mother of the young man was a very wealthy landowner in a neighbouring province, and the young man was a distant relation of Yulia Mihailovna's and had been staying about a fortnight in our town.
"No, I am going farther, to R——. I've eight hours to live through in the train.
Off to Petersburg?" laughed the young man.
"What makes you suppose I must be going to Petersburg?" said Pyotr Stepanovitch, laughing even more openly.
The young man shook his gloved finger at him.
"Well, you've guessed right," Pyotr Stepanovitch whispered to him mysteriously. "I am going with letters from Yulia Mihailovna and have to call on three or four personages, as you can imagine—bother them all, to speak candidly.
It's a beastly job!"