BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 23
While he was speaking, the man who had crept out of the moonlight entered the old house by a side door in the courtyard, which was opened to him by an inmate ; and at the same time there emerged from an archway in the street at the entrance to the Ghetto a file of soldiers, and a wagon came rumbling along the thoroughfare, awaken- ing the otherwise quiet echoes of the night. '
"What is the noise outside ? " asked Ferrari, feeling the knife, which he always carried handy in a belt on his hip.
" Some late carrier from the country," said Klosstock.
" You seem much disturbed," remarked the rabbi.
" I had a bad dream last night; I thought I was sitting here among you, and that suddenly there started up behind the slove a man, who said, * Andrea Ferrari, thou art my prisoner.' The noise outside struck me curiously as if it were the prologue to my captivity."
" Hast thou been drinking, Andrea ? " the old man asked.
" Nay, I am in my soberest senses ; a little over-anxious for thy welfare perhaps ; for know this Governor General Petronovitch is a sensualist, and a tyrant ; he is believed to have instigated the rising against our chosen people at Elizabethgrad, and your friend Poltava's withdrawal from the province is not promotion, it is disgrace ; he is even suspected of sympathy with the Nihilistic propaganda."
" God forbid ! " exclaimed Klosstock.
" Moreover thy new servant, Amos Negrusz, is a Government spy "
" And he arrests thee, Andrea Ferrari, as a traitor ! " said a vgice, which seemed to come from the earth, as the three men started to their feet and the servant emerged from a dark corner of the room, covering Ferrari with the shining barrel of a revolver, while at the same time another person appeared from the doorway whence Anna had retired, and a loud knocking was heard at the front door of the house.
