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- CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 7S
fell on the very top of her skull. She cried out, but very faintly,
and suddenly sank all of a heap on the floor, raising her hands
to her head. In one hand she still held "the pledge." Then hedealt her another and another blow with the blunt side and on
the same spot. The blood gushed as from an overturned glass,
the body fell back. He stepped back, let it fall, and at once bent
over her face; she was dead. Her eyes seemed to be starting out
of their sockets, the brow and the whole face were drawn" and
contorted convulsively.
He laid the axe on the ground near the dead body and felt
at once in her pocket (trying to avoid the streaming body) —
the same right hand pocket from which she had taken the key
on his last visit. He was in full possession of his faculties, free
from confusion or giddiness, but his hands were still trembling.
He remembered afterwards that he had been particularly col-
lected and careful, trying all the time not to get smeared with
blood. . . . He pulled out the keys at once, they were all, as
before, in one bunch on a steel ring. He ran at once into the bed-
room with them. It was a very small room with a whole shrine
of holy images. Against the other wall stood a big bed, very
clean and covered with a silk patchwork wadded quilt. Against
a third wall was a chest of drawers. Strange to say, so soon as
he began to fit the keys into the chest, so soon as he heard their
jingling, a convulsive shudder passed over him. He suddenly
felt tempted again to give it all up and go away. But that was
only for an instant; it was too late to go back. He positively
smiled at himself, when suddenly another terrifying idea
occurred to his mind. He suddenly fancied that the old woman
might be still alive and might recover her senses. Leaving the
keys in the chest, he ran back to the body, snatched up the axe
and lifted it once more over the old woman, but did not bring
it down. There was no doubt that she was dead. Bending down
and examining her again more closely, he saw clearly that the
skull was broken and even battered in on one side. He was about
to feel it with his finger, but drew back his hand and indeed it
was evident without that. Meanwhile there was a perfect pool of
blood. All at once he noticed a string on her neck; he tugged at
it, but the string was strong and did not snap and besides, it was
soaked with blood. He tried to pull it out from the front of the
dress, but something held it and prevented its coming. In his
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