“Next morning I hired a boat, arrived safely in Petersburg, and found my friends, who hid me for some time, while the police scoured the roads and country around Schlusselburg, and searched all the houses that appeared to them suspicious. When the excitement died down, I travelled as an ordinary passenger to the frontier, and have now arrived here.”
That evening I took Kassatkin to live with me at my chambers, and found him a pleasant, easy-going fellow, whose shrewdness proved most valuable to me in the various matters upon which I was from time to time engaged. We went about a good deal, and made many friends. I had always been considered a fair amateur actor, and was prevailed upon to join a well-known dramatic club which gave frequent performances at Kensington Town Hall.
Many of my friends belonged to the club, and I found the rehearsals a pleasant and amusing recreation, inasmuch as the people with whom I was brought into contact were useful to me in a variety of ways. They knew I was a foreigner, but believed me to be French, little suspecting that I was a Nihilist.
One evening there had been a dress-rehearsal of a new comedy which we were about to produce for copyright purposes. I was cast for the part of an affected English curate, one of the chief characters in the piece.
The rehearsal passed off satisfactorily, and it was nearly midnight when I left the hall and started on my walk homeward. I had a good hour’s tramp through the West End before me; but, as the night was clear and warm, I enjoyed the prospect rather than otherwise. As I walked along Kensington Gore there was scarce a sound in the street, save the occasional tread of a policeman, or the hurried footfall of the belated pleasure-seeker, breaking the stillness of the night suddenly, and then dying away in a succession of faint echoes.
Had any friend met me I should scarcely have been recognised, from the fact that I was still in clerical attire, having dressed myself at home to avoid trouble. I wore a long black coat of orthodox cut, black unmentionables, a clerical collar, a soft, wide-brimmed hat, and was effectually disguised, though I thought nothing of the circumstances at the time, having frequently worn my stage clothes out of doors.
I had walked for perhaps half an hour in silent contemplation, when I suddenly became aware that I had taken a wrong turning and that my footsteps had involuntarily carried me into that patrician of Kensington thoroughfares, Cromwell Road.
At that moment I was passing a large, handsome-looking house, the outward appearance of which had an unmistakable air of wealth. The other houses were in darkness, but several of the windows of this one were brilliantly lit.
Suddenly I heard something that caused me to pause. It sounded like a long, shrill scream.