FOR LOVE OF A WOMAN 

 I had discovered at a glance that the spy was not a Russian; and that being the case he was presumably engaged in his present occupation for pay only, and I believed that I could turn what seemed to be a catastrophe into a decided advantage. Experience had taught me long ago that the Russian nihilist is a fanatic who possesses distorted ideas of patriotism upon which he builds a theory of government, and that nothing short of death can turn him from his purpose. But with the foreigners who ally themselves with the fortunes of the nihilists—Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, etc.—it is different. They are always open to argument—for pay—although they are hardly to be relied upon even then, for they will sell out to another with the same celerity with which they formerly disposed of themselves to you. 

 "You are a Frenchman, are you not?" I asked this man, as soon as we were alone together. 

 "Yes," he replied, reluctantly. 

 "Do you know what is in store for you now?" 

 "Siberia, or death; one is as bad as the other. I'm only sorry that I did not have a chance to use my knife before you struck me; that's all." 

 "I have not a doubt of it. And yet you may escape both, Siberia and death, if you are reasonable." 

 "How? I'll be reasonable fast enough if you can prove that to me." 

 "Do you speak English?" 

 "Yes; as well as I do French, and Russian, and German, and half a dozen other languages." 

 "Then you heard and understood everything that passed between the prince and me?" 

 "Certainly. I might have pretended that I did not, if I had thought to do so. Still it would have made no difference, any way." 

 "Not much, that's a fact. Why did you hide in this room?" 

 "To hear what you said. To get what information I could. I certainly did not do it for the fun of the thing." 

 "Well, my man, I will make a bargain with you. If you will tell me all that I want to know and answer truthfully every question I ask, I will engage that you shall neither go to Siberia nor to your death. You will go to prison, and I will keep you there 

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