When Orlovsky learned of Clara’s and Olga’s arrest, one of his first thoughts was about notifying Pavel, of whose relations toward Clara he had by this time been informed. It appeared that the only man he knew who had “underground” connections in the two capitals and was in a position to communicate with Boulatoff was the former leader of the Miroslav Circle, Elkin. This, however, did not stop Orlovsky. To Elkin he went and explained the situation to him.
“Elkin, darling, you know you are a soul of a fellow,” he implored him. “Pavel is either in St. Petersburg or in Moscow, and you are the only man who could get at him.”
Elkin stood, thinking glumly, at the window for a few minutes, and then said:
“Very well, I am going.”
He started on the same day, accompanied by a spy. That evening Orlovsky, the judge and several other members of the Miroslav Circle, were arrested at Orlovsky’s house, and a few days later news came from Moscow that Pavel and Elkin had been taken in a café, while Makar had fallen into a “trap” at the house of an old friend of Elkin’s, who had been seized several hours before.
CHAPTER XLIII.
A MESSAGE THROUGH THE WALL.
MONTHS had passed. Spring was three or four weeks old, but cell No. — on the first floor of the Trubetzkoy Bastion, Fortress of Peter and Paul, had not yet tasted its caressing breath. It was a rather spacious, high-ceiled vault, but being quite close to the stone fence outside, it was practically without the range of sunshine and breeze. Its window, which was high overhead, at the top of a sloping stretch of sill, sent down twilight at noonday and left it in the grip of night two or three hours after. The chill, damp air was laden with a stifling odour of must. The lower part of the walls was covered with a thick layer of mould which looked like a broad band of heavy tapestry of a dark-greenish hue.