“If it is one of your terroristic plans, you could have saved us all the trouble of this meeting,” returned Razoff. “You know we do not approve of such action.”
“And that’s one reason you have not succeeded better! The only way you can move these despots is by fear. Fear of immediate and awful annihilation! Blow enough of them up, and you can’t get a man bold enough to hold office. Then the Government is yours!”
“You have been directing terroristic plots for two years; you are the most implacable terrorist——”
“And the most successful,” put in Freeman.
“And the most successful that Russia has known. And what have you gained?”
“Ah, but what am I, and the few that gather around me, and the few executions that we carry out, among a myriad of despots? Let there be a thousand terroristic groups, and then you shall see!”
Razoff shook his head. “But since we are here, we might as well hear what you have to propose.”
“They have Borodin, and most likely we cannot free him. Well—make them afraid to arrest another leader. An eye for an eye—a leader for a leader. They have removed one of our men; as a lesson, let us remove one of theirs.”
“Which one?”
“The highest possible. The Czar himself, if the coward had not imprisoned himself in his palace and surrounded himself with an army. Since not the Czar, then his highest representative in St. Petersburg. Let’s kill the military governor.”