DORA: Happiness?
ANNENKOV: To feel a man’s hand on you just before you die. [DORA flings herself into a chair.] When it’s over, you must go away, and take a short rest.
DORA: Go away? With whom?
ANNENKOV: With me, Dora.
DORA [gazing at him intently]: To go away? Ah! [Turns to the window.] The day is breaking. Yanek is dead by now—I’m certain of it.
ANNENKOV: I am your brother.
DORA: Yes, you’re my brother; all of you are my brothers, my brothers whom I love. [There is a patter of rain outside. The light is growing. In a low voice, hardly more than a whisper] But what a foul taste brotherhood has, sometimes!
[A knock at the door. VOINOV and STEPAN enter. Both stand quite still. DORA sways, then with an effort steadies herself.]
STEPAN [In a low voice]: Yanek was faithful to the end.
ANNENKOV: Could Orlov see?
STEPAN: Yes.
DORA [coming forward with firm steps]: Sit down. Now tell us.…
STEPAN: What’s the use?
DORA: Tell everything. I have the right to know, and I insist on hearing all. Down to the last detail.
STEPAN: I couldn’t do it. And, anyhow, we must leave at once.
DORA: No. You must tell me first. When was he notified?
STEPAN: At ten last night.
DORA: When was he hanged?
STEPAN: At two in the morning.
DORA: So he remained waiting in his cell for four hours?
STEPAN: Yes, without a word. After that, everything went with a rush.… It’s all over now.
DORA: Four hours without speaking, you say? Wait a moment. How was he dressed? Had he his fur-lined coat?
STEPAN: No. He was in a black suit, without an overcoat. And he was wearing a black felt hat.
DORA: What was the weather like?
STEPAN: A pitch-black night. The snow was dirty. Then a shower came and turned it into slush.
DORA: Was he shivering?
STEPAN: No.
DORA: Could Orlov catch his eye?
STEPAN: No.
DORA: Whom was he looking at?
STEPAN: At everyone, and no one in particular—so Orlov told me.
DORA: And then? What happened next?
STEPAN: That’s enough, Dora.
DORA: No, I have to know. If nothing else, his death belongs to me.
STEPAN: The judgment of the court was read out to him.
DORA: What did he do while it was being read?
STEPAN: Nothing. Except that at one moment he moved his leg, so as to shake off a fleck of mud that had settled on his shoe.
DORA [burying her face in her hands]: A fleck of mud!…
ANNENKOV [sharply]: How do you know all this? [STEPAN keeps silent.] So you asked Orlov to tell you every detail. Why was that?
STEPAN [looking away]: There was something between Yanek and myself.
ANNENKOV: What do you mean?
STEPAN: I was jealous of him.
DORA: Go on, Stepan. What happened next?
STEPAN: Father Florenski held the crucifix to him. He refused to kiss it. This is what he said: “I have already told you that I am through with life, and have squared up accounts with death.”
DORA: In what sort of voice did he say it?
STEPAN: In his usual voice. Except that the note of fretfulness we used to hear in it was gone.
DORA: Did he look happy?
ANNENKOV: Are you crazy, Dora?
DORA: No, but I’m sure he looked happy. Really it would be too unfair if, after rejecting happiness in his life so as to prepare himself the better for the sacrifice, he did not win through to happiness in the hour of his death. He was happy, and he walked quite calmly to the scaffold, didn’t he?
STEPAN: He walked straight ahead. Someone was singing to an accordion on the river down below. And just then some dogs barked.
DORA: Then he climbed the steps.…
STEPAN: He climbed, and was swallowed up by the darkness. One had vague glimpses of the shroud with which the hangman covered him from head to foot.
DORA: And then?…
STEPAN: Queer muffled sounds.
DORA: Muffled sounds! Oh, Yanek! And then?… [STEPAN keeps silent.] Tell me what happened next. [STEPAN is still silent.] I insist. What came next?
ANNENKOV: A hideous crash!
DORA: Ah! [Flings herself against the wall. STEPAN looks away uneasily. ANNENKOV is silently weeping. DORA swings round and gazes at them, her back to the wall. Her voice is changed, tense with emotion as she continues speaking.] No, do not cry. There is no need for tears. Don’t you realize this is the day of our justification? Something has come to pass which testifies for us; a sign for all the revolutionaries of the world. Yanek is a murderer no longer. A hideous crash! That was enough to plunge him back into the carefree joy of childhood. Do you remember his laugh? Often he’d laugh for no reason at all. How young he was! Well, I am sure he’s laughing now, his face pressed to the earth. [Goes toward ANNENKOV.] Boria, you are my brother, aren’t you, and you promised to help me?
ANNENKOV: Yes.
DORA: Then do something for me. Give me the bomb. [ANNENKOV stares at her.] Yes, give me the bomb … next time. I want to throw it. I want to be the first to throw.
ANNENKOV: You know quite well it’s against our rules for women to be in the firing line.
DORA [shrilly]: Am I a woman … now?
[They gaze at her. A short silence.]
VOINOV [softly]: Let her have her way, Boria.
STEPAN: Yes, agree.
ANNENKOV: It was your turn, Stepan.
STEPAN [looking at DORA]: Give your consent, Boria. She is as I am, now.
DORA: You will give it to me, won’t you? Then I shall throw it. And, after that, one cold night …
ANNENKOV: Yes, Dora.
DORA [weeping]: Yanek! A cold night … and the same rope. Everything will be easier now.
CURTAIN
The End
