Page:The Career of a Nihilist.djvu/157

"I don't positively propose such a plan. It's only a suggestion which is worth thinking about at all events. Could you tell me how large the escort would be?"

"They were escorted by four gendarmes last time."

"Only four! It isn't so bad as one might have expected."

He began now to defend his plan more seriously, urging that the danger of attacking a police force by daylight in a public thoroughfare was not so great as seemed at first sight. If the attempt were actually made, the thing would be decided one way or another in half a minute. A crowd would have no time to assemble. In all probability at the first shots strangers will run away to get out of the scuffle. Moreover, it would be easy to choose for the attack a place little frequented by the public. The prison stood upon the outskirts of the town, and the streets near it were almost empty at the busiest time of the day.

"But you forget one essential," Zina interposed. "There is the escort. Four men must be tackled by at least four men on our side, admitting as you say the advantage to us of a surprise. With the three prisoners, there will be seven. Two additional carriages, with two additional coachmen, are necessary to carry them all off. Only think what a confusion it will be...."

"With a little energy on our part we could find money and men for it all the same," Andrey said.

"Possibly. But it will be a regular battle, and not a surprise. It isn't what we are aiming at. What is the use of rescuing the prisoners, if we lose some of their rescuers in exchange?"

Andrey uttered a meditative "Yes," and moved restlessly in his place. His plan was too complicated; there was no denying that.

He did not insist upon it any longer, looking fixedly at the gravel beneath his feet.

He tried in his mind to cut it down here and there; one carriage and one assailant might be struck off perhaps; . . . still it was too big a business. . . .

"But what would you say," Zina asked, with a sudden inspiration, "if the prisoners could be armed?"

"That would be capital! But is it possible?"

"I think it is. The warder passes them anything. Once before he let them have a bundle of saws and a bunch of keys.