(approaching. She stops and hesitates)
Is that you, Savva?
SAVVA
Yes, and is that you? What do you want? I don't like people to follow me everywhere I go, sister.
LIPA
The gate to this place is open. Everybody has a right to come in. Mr. Speransky, Tony has been asking for you. He wants the seminarist, he says.
SAVVA
There, go together—a jolly pair. Good-bye, sir, good-bye.
SPERANSKY
Good-bye. I hope I'll see you soon again, Mr. Savva, and have another talk.
SAVVA
No, don't try, please. Abandon the hope. Good-bye.
LIPA
How rude you are, Savva. Come, Mr. Speransky. They have business of their own to attend to.
SPERANSKY
Still I haven't given up hope. Good-bye. (Goes out)
SAVVA
Just grabbed me and stuck—the devil take him!
KONDRATY (laughing)
Yes, he is a sticker from the word go. If he likes you, you can't shake him off. He'll follow you everywhere. We call him the "shadow"—partly, I suppose, because he is so thin. He has taken a fancy to you, so you'll have a time of it. He'll stick to you like a leech.
SAVVA
I am not in the habit of wasting a lot of words. I'll give him the slip without much ceremony.
KONDRATY
They have, even tried beating him, but it doesn't do any good. He is known here for miles around. He is a character.
[A pause. Lightning. Every now and then is heard the roll of distant thunder.
SAVVA
Why did you tell me to meet you here in this public place where everyone may come? They fell on me like a swarm of fleas—monks and all sorts of imbeciles. I'd rather have spoken to you in the woods, where we could be let alone.
KONDRATY
I did it to escape suspicion. If I went with you to the woods they'd say: "What has a God-fearing man like Kondraty got to do with such a fellow?" I hope you pardon! "Why is he so thick with him?" I purposely timed my coming so that they'd see us together with others.
SAVVA (looking fixedly at him)
Well?
KONDRATY (turning away his eyes and shrugging his shoulders) I can't.
SAVVA
You are afraid?
KONDRATY
To tell the truth, I am.
SAVVA
You're no good, old chap.
KONDRATY
Perhaps not. You have a right to draw your own conclusions. (Pause)
SAVVA
But what are you afraid of, you booby? The machine is not dangerous. It won't hurt you. All you have to do is to put it in the right place, set it off, and then you can go to the village to your mistresses.
KONDRATY
That's not the point.
SAVVA
What then? Are you afraid of being caught? But I told you, if anything should happen, I'll take the guilt on myself. Don't you believe me?
KONDRATY
Why, of course I believe you.
SAVVA
What then? Do you fear God?
KONDRATY
Yes, I do.
SAVVA
But you don't believe in God—you believe in the devil.
KONDRATY
Who knows? Maybe some day I'll suddenly discover that He does exist. In that case, Mr. Savva, I thank you, but I'd rather not. Why should I? I live a nice, quiet existence. Of course, it's all a humbug, an imposition. But what business is it of mine? The people want to believe—let them. It wasn't I who invented God.
SAVVA
Look here. You know I could have done it myself. All I need have done was to take a bomb and throw it into the procession. That's all. But that would mean the killing of many people, which at the present juncture would serve no useful purpose. I therefore ask you to do it. If you refuse, then the blood will rest on you. You understand?
KONDRATY
Why on me? I am not going to throw the bomb. And then, what have I got to do with them—I mean the people that get killed? What concern are they of mine? There are plenty of people in the world. You can't kill them all, no matter how many bombs you throw.
SAVVA
Aren't you sorry for them?
KONDRATY
If I were to be sorry for everybody, I should have no sympathy left for myself.
SAVVA
That's right. You are a bright man. You have a good mind. I have already told you so. And yet you hesitate. You are clever, and yet you are afraid to smash a piece of wood.
KONDRATY
If it is nothing but a piece of wood, then why go to so much trouble about it? The point is, it is not a piece of wood, it is an image.
SAVVA
For me it is a piece of wood. For the people it is a sacred object. That is why I want to destroy it. Imagine how they'll open their mouths and stare. Ah, brother, if you were not a coward, I would tell you some things.
KONDRATY
Go ahead and talk. It's no sin to listen. I am not a coward either. I am simply careful.
SAVVA
This would only be the beginning, brother.
KONDRATY
A good beginning, I won't deny it. And what will be the end?
SAVVA
The earth stripped naked, a tabula rasa, do you understand? And on this naked earth, naked man, naked as his mother bore him. No breeches on him, no orders, no pockets, nothing. Imagine men without pockets. Queer, isn't it? Yes indeed, brother, the ikon is only the beginning.
KONDRATY
Oh, they'll make new ones.
SAVVA
But they won't be the same as before. And they'll never forget this much—that dynamite is mightier than their God, and that man is mightier than dynamite. Look at them; see them yonder praying and kneeling, not daring to raise their heads and look you straight in the face, mean slaves that they are! Then comes a real man, and smash goes the whole humbug. Done for!
KONDRATY
Really!
SAVVA
And when a dozen of their idols have gone the same way, the slaves will begin to understand that the kingdom of their God is at an end, and that the kingdom of man has come. Lots of them will drop from sheer terror. Some will lose their wits, and others will throw themselves into the fire. They'll say that Antichrist has come. Think of it, Kondraty!
KONDRATY
And aren't you sorry for them?
SAVVA
Sorry for them? Why, they built a prison for me, and I am to be sorry for them. They put