"Good; now tell me all about it."
"It is a long story, sir."
"Give me every word of it, boy–every word!"
He seemed indeed like a maniac now, and under some circumstances Barnwell would have been afraid of him.
But it seemed the news he had brought had given him a favorable footing in the old man's estimation.
So he began with the story, first with his meeting Zobriskie on the steamer, and so on until he was landed in Siberia.
Batavsky listened with the utmost attention, and at points showed much excitement, trembling violently and scarcely able to restrain himself.
"And the villain Mastowix had become a Nihilist?" said he.
"It would seem so, sir."
"Then he did it to betray the society, provided he could not rise higher with it."