登陆注册
4771600000130

第130章

“Yet that is the case, with some types especially, for men are so different. You say ‘evidence’. Well, there may be evidence. But evidence, you know, can generally be taken two ways. I am an examining lawyer and a weak man, I confess it. I should like to make a proof, so to say, mathematically clear. I should like to make a chain of evidence such as twice two are four, it ought to be a direct, irrefutable proof! And if I shut him up too soon—even though I might be convinced he was the man, I should very likely be depriving myself of the means of getting further evidence against him. And how? By giving him, so to speak, a definite position, I shall put him out of suspense and set his mind at rest, so that he will retreat into his shell. They say that at Sevastopol, soon after Alma, the clever people were in a terrible fright that the enemy would attack openly and take Sevastopol at once. But when they saw that the enemy preferred a regular siege, they were delighted, I am told and reassured, for the thing would drag on for two months at least. You’re laughing, you don’t believe me again? Of course, you’re right, too. You’re right, you’re right. These are special cases, I admit. But you must observe this, my dear Rodion Romanovitch, the general case, the case for which all legal forms and rules are intended, for which they are calculated and laid down in books, does not exist at all, for the reason that every case, every crime, for instance, so soon as it actually occurs, at once becomes a thoroughly special case and sometimes a case unlike any that’s gone before. Very comic cases of that sort sometimes occur. If I leave one man quite alone, if I don’t touch him and don’t worry him, but let him know or at least suspect every moment that I know all about it and am watching him day and night, and if he is in continual suspicion and terror, he’ll be bound to lose his head. He’ll come of himself, or maybe do something which will make it as plain as twice two are four—it’s delightful. It may be so with a simple peasant, but with one of our sort, an intelligent man cultivated on a certain side, it’s a dead certainty. For, my dear fellow, it’s a very important matter to know on what side a man is cultivated. And then there are nerves, there are nerves, you have overlooked them! Why, they are all sick, nervous and irritable! … And then how they all suffer from spleen! That I assure you is a regular gold-mine for us. And it’s no anxiety to me, his running about the town free! Let him, let him walk about for a bit! I know well enough that I’ve caught him and that he won’t escape me. Where could he escape to, he-he? Abroad, perhaps? A Pole will escape abroad, but not here, especially as I am watching and have taken measures. Will he escape into the depths of the country perhaps? But you know, peasants live there, real rude Russian peasants. A modern cultivated man would prefer prison to living with such strangers as our peasants. He-he! But that’s all nonsense, and on the surface. It’s not merely that he has nowhere to run to, he is psychologically unable to escape me, he-he! What an expression! Through a law of nature he can’t escape me if he had anywhere to go. Have you seen a butterfly round a candle? That’s how he will keep circling and circling round me. Freedom will lose its attractions. He’ll begin to brood, he’ll weave a tangle round himself, he’ll worry himself to death! What’s more he will provide me with a mathematical proof—if I only give him long enough interval. … And he’ll keep circling round me, getting nearer and nearer and then—flop! He’ll fly straight into my mouth and I’ll swallow him, and that will be very amusing, he-he-he! You don’t believe me?”

Raskolnikov made no reply; he sat pale and motionless, still gazing with the same intensity into Porfiry’s face.

“It’s a lesson,” he thought, turning cold. “This is beyond the cat playing with a mouse, like yesterday. He can’t be showing off his power with no motive … prompting me; he is far too clever for that … he must have another object. What is it? It’s all nonsense, my friend, you are pretending, to scare me! You’ve no proofs and the man I saw had no real existence. You simply want to make me lose my head, to work me up beforehand and so to crush me. But you are wrong, you won’t do it! But why give me such a hint? Is he reckoning on my shattered nerves? No, my friend, you are wrong, you won’t do it even though you have some trap for me … let us see what you have in store for me.”

And he braced himself to face a terrible and unknown ordeal. At times he longed to fall on Porfiry and strangle him. This anger was what he dreaded from the beginning. He felt that his parched lips were flecked with foam, his heart was throbbing. But he was still determined not to speak till the right moment. He realised that this was the best policy in his position, because instead of saying too much he would be irritating his enemy by his silence and provoking him into speaking too freely. Anyhow, this was what he hoped for.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 明伦汇编交谊典赠答部

    明伦汇编交谊典赠答部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 黄昏编年史

    黄昏编年史

    谎言编织的双翼破碎,我从万丈高空坠入深渊。灵魂指引我自迷雾归来,刺破伪善、虚妄。尔后——诸神战栗,黄昏降临,世界的进程由我重新书写。----------------------简单说就是一个肩负着未知使命的学者不断修正自己对这个世界认知的故事。一些TAG:单女主/慢热新建的水群:671779145号外!新书《永夜之潮》已发!!!
  • 大实话:历史与现在

    大实话:历史与现在

    本书是一本历史文化随笔集,对历史、现实中的人与事进行了生动辛辣的评论。
  • 仅一人得道

    仅一人得道

    这个世界,由我主宰,不会有人何的不悦与烦恼
  • 飞越云之南

    飞越云之南

    中短篇小说集《飞越云之南》,集薛舒多年创作的中短篇小说精华,反映有关改革开放三十周年来城市与人的关系变迁、沉浮,现实、历史和文化的变化,以及揭示人性、揭示传统流失,审视当代生活层面,以及当代生活对传统价值观的动摇,警醒人伦道德的七部中短篇小说,共15万字。
  • 乱世煞神

    乱世煞神

    一名“能”隐藏了十三年的少年,一次十死无生的历练,四大神兽,另一个自己,天灾,地害,人祸,制裁审判,戮仙弑神,乱世为尊,我为煞神。
  • 神豪无极限

    神豪无极限

    如何利用怂逼系统走上人生巅峰?在线等,挺急的!还有,我的系统好像要上我……新书《我的重返人生》已上传,欢迎光临。
  • 瞻对:一个两百年的康巴传奇

    瞻对:一个两百年的康巴传奇

    从雍正八年(1730年)开始,到光绪二十二年(1896年),清朝政府七次发兵征讨一个只有县级建制的弹丸之地;民国年间,此地的归属权在川藏双方相互争夺、谈谈打打、打打谈谈中摇摆不定;直至1950年,解放军未经战斗将此地解放……两百多年来,清廷官兵、西部军阀、国民党军队、西藏地方军队乃至英国军队等,都以不同的方式介入这个地方,搅得风生水起这就是瞻对!瞻对地处康巴,康巴人以强悍闻名,而瞻对在康巴人中更以强悍著称。当地人也以此自豪:瞻对就是一块铁疙瘩!本书以瞻对200余年的历史为载体,将一个民风强悍、号称铁疙瘩的部落“融化史”钩沉出来,讲述了一段独特而神秘的藏地传奇。
  • 金鱼之粪

    金鱼之粪

    “插播一则最新新闻。2015年8月11日晚九点,位于江城某小区的居民宋美仪女士于家中挥刀砍死其配偶季先生,并对其养子实施残忍的家暴。其邻居张先生在察觉到事态不对之后,及时拨打了报警电话。警方赶到现场时,宋美仪已畏罪潜逃,季某虽被警察及时解救,身上却有多处疤痕淤青,有些疤痕甚至能追溯到四年前。据悉此次案件的受害人季某已被送往孤儿院暂时安顿,而畏罪潜逃的宋美仪仍下落不明,警方目前仍在对其进行地毯式的搜索中。以上是警方提供的犯罪嫌疑人宋美仪的照片,为了维护社会的公正以及治安,如有市民见到宋美仪,请立即拨打报警电话。”
  • 异界功法推广大师

    异界功法推广大师

    本来本书已经设置成完结状态,是无法继续更新的。可能是改版后的原因,导致出现了可以继续发布章节的这个错误。现在错误已经修复,后台无法发布新章节……这样导致我解释不了,所以只能改在简介上面了。我很想写完……但或许是天意,千言万语只能说声抱歉。新书九月初活着中旬的样子发布……很有意思的一本书,想想就很激动!