Remarkable Tale of Treachery.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 5083, 19 September 1891, Page 4

Remarkable Tale of Treachery.

WHAT A NIHILIST CAN DC).

The recent arrest of the Nihilist, Degaief, in 'South Russia, for the murder of Sondieikin, was the termination ofas remarkable a career as a .Russian Nihilist ever ran. Eleven years ago Degaief was a captain of the Guards. He was keen, enthusiastic, well educated, and discontented. He was an idealist and a firm believer in the badness of the state of affairs in modern Russia. He was not then a Nihilist, but he had in him all the materials from which Nihilists are made. He drifted slowly and naturally into the society of radicals, and became steadily more extreme in his political views, till a day cnmc when he found himself the head of a conspiracy against the life of the Czar. The conspiracy was discovered, all the conspirators were arrested, and Degaief was condemned to die. He accepted his fate without a whimper. Three days before the day set for executing him the door of his cell was opened to admit Soutlieikin, whom Degaief recognised immediately as an old and long-forgotten comrade in arms. "How are you, old fellow ? said the chief. For a moment Degaief felt hope, then relapsed into a state of resignation, and answered " My last opportunity to speak for invself.isu't it ? "No, comrade," was the reply. "I bring to you the pardon of the Czar." "What! "VVh.it: Then he requires from me some service in return." "Nothing at all. You are free, unconditionally free. Come home with me and we will talk about it." Degaief went. In his study Sondieiken said—"You know oar old friendship. Welt, that saved you. I went to the Czar and interceded for you, giving my word of honor that, if freed, yon would quit yonr old ways. I have the good fortune to enjoy the Czar's confidence, and he granted me the life of my friend." Degaief sank in tears at the chief's feet, and protested his determination never again to make common cause with the Nihilists. The chief continued : —*' What do you expect to do now ? Yonr return to the army is impossible. I can otter you my secretiryship. with salary enough to pay for your daily bread. You will be. in case you accept this, a member of the secret police and my lighthand man. (Jo home, think about it, and decide without undue attention to my advice." Full of gratitude. Degaief hastened to enlist in the service of the chief. He put his head, heart, and hand in his work. He pursued his old colleagues day and night. Nineteen Nihilists were brought by him to death, and scores were sent through his influence to Siberia. Degaief obtained the full confidence of his chief. Soudieikinhadestimatedhiin correctly in everything save his susceptibility

to remorse. Degaief could not forget his old Radical tendencies. The scorn of his former colleagues scorched him till he could endure the pain no longer. He went one evening to the house of .1 Nihilist leader, and swore by his revolutionary past to do anything required by the revolutionary party as the condition of his reinstatement. " Kill Soudieikin," said the Nihilist leader. Degaief requested a day to think over this suggestion. Twenty-four hours later he promised to murder the man who saved his life. Soiulieikin occupied lodgings in several quarters of St. Petersburg. Every evening, however, he met Degaief in the third storey of a modest dwelling-house, occupied otherwise by small tradesmen who, of course, knew nothing whatever of the identity of their fellow tenant. Here, Degaief decided, the Chief of the Seecrct Police must die. Two Nihilists took rooms on the third floor ill the next house, and with the outside wall adjoining the outside wall of Soudieikin's apartments. During the day time, when Soudieikin was absent, for three weeks the conspirators laboriously scratched and tiled away brick and mortar between them and their victim. Not a blow was struck, not a fragment was cut. The powder from the walls was carried off in the pockets of Dcgaief's accomplices. At last only a thin sheet of plaster and paper separated them froiu the Chief's study. On the night of the murder Degaief and the man who had saved his life sat together at the study desk. Degaief let fall a lieavv paper weight, the wall was burst in witli a blow from a hammer, and the three Nihilists sprang upon Soudieikin. For ten minutes all four men struggled up and down the room, and then the chief was struck down dead by Degaief. Half an hour later the Nihilists in disguise left the neighborhood and hurried off to announce tlieir deed to a company of waiting revolutionists in a far-off basement. The murder was discovered 011 the next afternoon. Shortly afterwards Degaief's accomplices were arrested, but as they were only his creatures they were let off with a life sentence to hard labor in Siberia. Degaief could not be found, although his portrait was scattered over the length and breadth of Russia, and hiirh rewards were offered for the capture of him, alive or dead. Eight years later, while attempting to enter Russia with false passes, he has been overtaken by retribution. All this is not the fairy tale told by Czav haters or Nihilist haters. It. is the plain, unadorned narrative of the Russian Courts, in which the details of this remarkable crime have been revealed.