The Brothers Karamazovwith! You have to do with a prisoner who gives evidence
against himself, to his own damage! Yes, for I’m a man of
honour and you — are not.’
The prosecutor swallowed this without a murmur. He
was trembling with impatience to hear the new fact. Mi-
nutely and diffusely Mitya told them everything about the
signals invented by Fyodor Pavlovitch for Smerdyakov. He
told them exactly what every tap on the window meant,
tapped the signals on the table, and when Nikolay Parfe-
novitch said that he supposed he, Mitya, had tapped the
signal ‘Grushenka has come,’ when he tapped to his father,
he answered precisely that he had tapped that signal, that
‘Grushenka had come.’
‘So now you can build up your tower,’ Mitya broke off,
and again turned away from them contemptuously.
‘So no one knew of the signals but your dead father, you,
and the valet Smerdyakov? And no one else?’ Nikolay Parfe-
novitch inquired once more.
‘Yes. The valet Smerdyakov, and Heaven. Write down
about Heaven. That may be of use. Besides, you will need
God yourselves.’
And they had already of course, begun writing it down.
But while they wrote, the prosecutor said suddenly, as
though pitching on a new idea:
‘But if Smerdyakov also knew of these signals and you
absolutely deny all responsibility for the death of your fa-
ther, was it not he, perhaps, who knocked the signal agreed
upon, induced your father to open to him, and then... com-
mitted the crime?’