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«But what work did they give you?» asked Mesentzeff impatiently.
Misha was almost in tears. «They put me to chemistry. It requires a head for figures. Have you heard of a certain Lavoisier? He is a science man from France and has proved that nothing is lost in nature, not a single grain of dust. If you burn a match, it becomes ash and smoke, but if you collect the ash and smoke and know how to put them together again scientifically, you can remake the match all complete as it was before. That’s ingenious, isn’t it? I have tried the experiment here and it came out quite correct. «Well,» they said, «you know the formula. You know how to remake the match. Prove it cannot be done. Disprove Lavoisier. He says nothing is lost. Prove the opposite. Because if matter can be done away with, matter does not truly exist, and that proves the existence of God». The damned devils! Can one prove the existence of God by chemistry? It is in the heart that one finds God. «You think that way,» said they, «but some men think otherwise. We are working to prevent those men from forgetting God». How can one get on with such people?»
«What is the second task?» inquired Mesentzeff.
«It is still more complicated. «The world spins round the sun,» they said. «You know how to prove it; so prove the contrary. Copernicus and Galileo are not authorities on the subject, for they did not believe in God.» Who am I, to contradict great men? Great lords and professors and government ministers have toiled to invent things, and I, an ignorant peasant, am to lay traps for them! If I were to succeed, how should I dare look in their honest, reproachful faces? I would die of shame if they said to me, «Thank you Misha, for the good turn you have done us.» But I must work or the Brotherhood will murder me. This is the sixth year I have been working».
«Have you found a solution?»
Misha looked away for a moment in silence.
«Well not exactly,» he said at last unwillingly. One can find out, but I don’t try very hard. When things begin to grow clear, I upset a glass or let the papers fall into the fire. It looks like an accident and meanwhile the work makes no progress. I’m not altogether without a conscience. I’ve one consolation. My enemies are in no hurry. «Work away, Misha,» they say, «ten years, thirty years, no matter so long as you succeed! And a gipsy told me I should die before my hair turned grey!»
There came a knock at the door. Misha grew shy again at the sound and timidly unbarred it. Vania appeared.
«That’s how it is, is it?» he exclaimed with a sudden assumption of superiority. «You’re together and Mitia told me not to let you talk to each other! However I’m not his spy. He can look after you himself if he wants to instead of playing about with the girls like a billy goat. All the same you had better come away, Nicolas Petrovitch, or he’ll suspect you and he can be very nasty.»
Mesentzeff realized the excellence of the advice and left the cabin. The flames of sunset were by now burnt out: only one red bar hanging smouldering over the blue sea of mist. Mesentzeff thought of Petrograd.