Rouletabille thought that his saliva, which at that moment he had the greatest difficulty in swallowing, would not permit him to utter a word. But disdain of such a weakness, when he recalled the coolness of so many ill.u.s.trious condemned people in their last moments, brought him the last strength needed to maintain his reputation.
"Why," said he, "this sentence is not wrongly drawn up. I blame it only for being too short. Why has there been no mention of the crime I committed in contriving the tragic death of poor Michael Korsakoff?"
"Michael Korsakoff was a wretch," p.r.o.nounced the vindictive voice of the young man who had presided at the trial and who, at this supreme moment, happened to be face to face with Rouletabille. "Koupriane"s police, by killing that man, ridded us of a traitor."
Rouletabille uttered a cry, a cry of joy, and while he had some reason for believing that at the point he had reached now of his too-short career only misfortune could befall him, yet here Providence, in his infinite grace, sent him before he died this ineffable consolation: the certainty that he had not been mistaken.
"Pardon, pardon," he murmured, in an excess of joy which stifled him almost as much as the wretched rope would shortly do that they were getting ready behind him. "Pardon. One second yet, one little second. Then, messieurs, then, we are agreed in that, are we? This Michael, Michael Nikolaievitch was the the last of traitors."
"The first," said the heavy voice.
"It is the same thing, my dear monsieur. A traitor, a wretched traitor," continued Rouletabille.
"A poisoner," replied the voice.
"A vulgar poisoner! Is that not so? But, tell me how-a vulgar poisoner who, under cover of Nihilism, worked for his own petty ends, worked for himself and betrayed you all!"
Now Rouletabille"s voice rose like a fanfare. Someone said:
"He did not deceive us long; our enemies themselves undertook his punishment."
"It was I," cried Rouletabille, radiant again. "It was I who wound up that career. I tell you that was managed right. It was I who rid you of him. Ah, I knew well enough, messieurs, in the bottom of my heart I knew that I could not be mistaken. Two and two make four always, don"t they? And Rouletabille is always Rouletabille. Messieurs, it is all right, after all."
But it was probable that it was also all wrong, for the gentleman of the Neva came up to him hat in hand and said:
"Monsieur, you know now why the witnesses at your trial did not raise a fact against you that, on the contrary, was entirely in your favor. Now it only remains for us to execute the sentence which is entirely justified on other grounds."
"Ah, but-wait a little. What the devil! Now that I am sure I have not been mistaken and that I have been myself, Rouletabille, all the time I cling to life a little-oh, very much!"
A hostile murmur showed the condemned man that the patience of his judges was getting near its limit.
"Monsieur," interposed the president, "we know that you do not belong to the orthodox religion; nevertheless, we will bring a priest if you wish it."
"Yes, yes, that is it, go for the priest," cried Rouletabille.
And he said to himself, "It is so much time gained."
One of the revolutionaries started over to a little cabin that had been transformed into a chapel, while the rest of them looked at the reporter with a good deal less sympathy than they had been showing. If his bravado had impressed them agreeably in the trial room, they were beginning to be rather disgusted by his cries, his protestations and all the maneuvers by which he so apparently was trying to hold off the hour of his death.
But all at once Rouletabille jumped up onto the fatal stool. They believed he had decided finally to make an end of the comedy and die with dignity; but he had mounted there only to give them a discourse.
"Messieurs, understand me now. If it is true that you are not suppressing me in order to avenge Michael Nikolaievitch, then why do you hang me? Why do you inflict this odious punishment on me? Because you accuse me of causing Natacha Feodorovna"s arrest? Truly I have been awkward. Of that, and that alone, I accuse myself."
"It was you, with your revolver, who gave the signal to Koupriane"s agents! You have done the dirty work for the police."
Rouletabille tried vainly to protest, to explain, to say that his revolver shot, on the contrary, had saved the revolutionaries. But no one cared to listen and no one believed him.
"Here is the priest, monsieur," said the gentleman of the Neva.
"One second! These are my last words, and I swear to you that after this I will pa.s.s the rope about my neck myself! But listen to me! Listen to me closely! Natacha Feodorovna was the most precious recruit you had, was she not?"
"A veritable treasure," declared the president, his voice more and more impatient.
"It was a terrible blow, then," continued the reporter, "a terrible blow for you, this arrest?"
"Terrible," some of them e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.
"Do not interrupt me! Very well, then, I am going to say this to you: "If I ward off this blow-if, after having been the unintentional cause of Natacha"s arrest, I have the daughter of General Treba.s.sof set at liberty, and that within twenty-four hours,-what do you say? Would you still hang me?""
The president, he who had the Christ-like countenance, said:
"Messieurs, Natacha Feodorovna has fallen the victim of terrible machinations whose mystery we so far have not been able to penetrate. She is accused of trying to poison her father and her step-mother, and under such conditions that it seems impossible for human reason to demonstrate the contrary. Natacha Feodorovna herself, crushed by the tragic occurrence, was not able to answer her accusers at all, and her silence has been taken for a confession of guilt. Messieurs, Natacha Feodorovna will be started for Siberia to-morrow. We can do nothing for her. Natacha Feodorovna is lost to us."
Then, with a gesture to those who surrounded Rouletabille:
"Do your duty, messieurs."
"Pardon, pardon. But if I do prove the innocence of Natacha? Just wait, messieurs. There is only I who can prove that innocence! You lose Natacha by killing me!"
"If you had been able to prove that innocence, monsieur, the thing would already be done. You would not have waited."
"Pardon, pardon. It is only at this moment that I have become able to do it."
"How is that?"
"It is because I was sick, you see-very seriously sick. That affair of Michael Nikolaievitch and the poison that still continued after he was dead simply robbed me of all my powers. Now that I am sure I have not been the means of killing an innocent man-I am Rouletabille again! It is not possible that I shall not find the way, that I shall not see through this mystery."
The terrible voice of the Christ-like figure said monotonously:
"Do your duty, messieurs."
"Pardon, pardon. This is of great importance to you-and the proof is that you have not yet hanged me. You were not so procrastinating with my predecessor, were you? You have listened to me because you have hoped! Very well, let me think, let me consider. Oh, the devil! I was there myself at the fatal luncheon, and I know better than anyone else all that happened there. Five minutes! I demand five minutes of you; it is not much. Five little minutes!"
These last words of the condemned man seemed to singularly influence the revolutionaries. They looked at one another in silence.
Then the president took out his watch and said:
"Five minutes. We grant them to you."
"Put your watch here. Here on this nail. It is five minutes to seven, eh? You will give me until the hour?"
"Yes, until the hour. The watch itself will strike when the hour has come."
"Ah, it strikes! Like the general"s watch, then. Very well, here we are."
Then there was the curious spectacle of Rouletabille standing on the hangman"s stool, the fatal rope hanging above his head, his legs crossed, his elbow on his knees in that eternal att.i.tude which Art has always given to human thought, his fists under his jaws, his eyes fixed-all around him, all those young men intent on his silence, not moving a muscle, turned into statues themselves that they might not disturb the statue which thought and thought.