“No, perhaps I am not going to give up the common cause. You must understand that⁠ ⁠…”

“What, would you join the quintet if I proposed it to you?” Verhovensky boomed suddenly, and he laid down the scissors.

Everyone seemed startled. The mysterious man had revealed himself too freely. He had even spoken openly of the “quintet.”

“Everyone feels himself to be an honest man and will not shirk his part in the common cause”⁠—the lame man tried to wriggle out of it⁠—“but⁠ ⁠…”

“No, this is not a question which allows of a but