Spies were sent from the city to stand at the street corners and carefully scan the working people on their gay passages from and to the factory at dinner time.

Everybody was pleased to see the impotence of the police, and even the elder workingmen would smile at one another: "Things are happening, aren't they ?" All over, people would cluster into groups hotly discussing the stirring appeals.

Life was at boiling point.

This spring it held more of interest to everybody, it brought forth something new to all; for some it was a good excuse to excite themselves--they could pour out their malicious oaths on the agitators; to others, it brought perplexed anxiety as well as hope; to others again, the minority, an acute delight in the consciousness of being the power that set the village astir.
Pavel and Andrey scarcely ever went to bed.

They came home just before the morning whistle sounded, tired, hoarse, and pale.