Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com committed in the room and not through the window; that
is absolutely certain from the examination that has been
made, from the position of the body and everything. There
can be no doubt of that circumstance.’
Mitya was absolutely dumbfounded.
‘But that’s utterly impossible!’ he cried, completely at a
loss. ‘I... I didn’t go in.... I tell you positively, definitely, the
door was shut the whole time I was in the garden, and when
I ran out of the garden. I only stood at the window and saw
him through the window. That’s all, that’s all.... I remember
to the last minute. And if I didn’t remember, it would be
just the same. I know it, for no one knew the signals except
Smerdyakov, and me, and the dead man. And he wouldn’t
have opened the door to anyone in the world without the
signals.’
‘Signals? What signals?’ asked the prosecutor, with greedy,
almost hysterical, curiosity. He instantly lost all trace of his
reserve and dignity. He asked the question with a sort of
cringing timidity. He scented an important fact of which he
had known nothing, and was already filled with dread that
Mitya might be unwilling to disclose it.
‘So you didn’t know!’ Mitya winked at him with a mali-
cious and mocking smile. ‘What if I won’t tell you? From
whom could you find out? No one knew about the signals
except my father, Smerdyakov, and me: that was all. Heaven
knew, too, but it won’t tell you. But it’s an interesting fact.
There’s no knowing what you might build on it. Ha ha! Take
comfort, gentlemen, I’ll reveal it. You’ve some foolish idea
in your hearts. You don’t know the man you have to deal