and is always playing the fiddle"--et cetera, et cetera.
So there you have the situation we are confronted with,
gentlemen.

AMMOS. An extraordinary situation, most extraordinary!
Something behind it, I am sure.

LUKA. But why, Anton Antonovich? What for?
Why should we have an Inspector?

GOVERNOR. It's fate, I suppose. [Sighs.] Till now,
thank goodness, they have been nosing about in other
towns. Now our turn has come.

AMMOS. My opinion is, Anton Antonovich, that the
cause is a deep one and rather political in character. It
means this, that Russia--yes--that Russia intends to
go to war, and the Government has secretly commissioned
an official to find out if there is any treasonable activity
anywhere.

GOVERNOR. The wise man has hit on the very thing.
Treason in this little country town! As if it were on
the frontier! Why, you might gallop three years away
from here and reach nowhere.

AMMOS. No, you don't catch on--you don't-- The
Government is shrewd. It makes no difference that our
town is so remote. The Government is on the look-out
all the same--