The Dark

As a rule success had accompanied him in all his undertakings, but during the last three days complications had arisen which were unfavourable, not to say critical. His life, though a short one, had long been a game of terrible hazards; he was accustomed to these sudden turns of chance and could deal with them; the stake had before been life itself, his own and others ,and this by itself had taught him alertness, swiftness of thought, and a cold hard outlook. Chance this time had turned dangerously against him. A mere fluke, one of those unforeseeable accidents, had provided the police with a clue; for two whole days the detectives had been on his track, a known terrorist and nihilist, drawing the net ever closer round him. One after another the conspirators hiding places had been cut off from him; there still remained to him a few streets and boulevards and restaurants where he might go undiscovered. But his terrible exhaustion, after two sleepless nights and days of ceaseless vigilance, had brought in its train a new danger: he might drop off to sleep anywhere, on a seat in the boulevards, even in a cab, and be ludicrously arrested as a common drunk. It was now Tuesday. On Thursday only one day to spare he had to carry out a terrorist act of great importance. The preparations for the assassination had kept the little organization busy for some considerable time. The honour of throwing the last and decisive bomb had fallen to him. He must retain selfcommand at all costs.

Literatura Estrangeira