MATHIAS SANDORF.
came from the Foiba and were brought through the gorge
0f the Brico during heavy rains.                                   &
A few paces from the bank there was a deserted hut and
Sandorf and Bathory after a short rest took shelter m it
There they stripped and waited while thev sun-dried their
clothes.  The fishing vessels were leaving the Lerne Canal
and as far as they could see the place was deserted.
The man who had been watching them since they land-
ed now got up and carefully noted the position of the hut
A.nd then he disappeared around a knoll and made off
toward the south.
Three hours afterward Sandorf and his companion re-
sumed their clothes. They were still damp, but it was
necessary to move on.
 We must not stay too long in this hut," said Bathory
"Do you feel yourself strong enough to start?" asked
Sandorf.
"I am almost exhausted with hunger."
" Let us try to reach the coast!    There we may perhaps
procure something to eat and something to take us to sea
Come, Stephen!"
And they left the hut, evidently suffering more from
hunger than fatigue.
Sandorfs intention was to follow the southern bank of
the Leme Canal until he reached the sea. The country
was deserted, it is true, but quite a number of streams in-
tersected it on their way to the estuary. This watery net-
work along the banks is nothing more nor less than a vast
sponge, and the mud is impassable, so that the fugitives
had to strike southward obliquely, easily keeping their
course by the sun, which had now risen. For two hours
they kept on without meeting a human being, and with-
out finding anything to satisfy fhe hunger that was de-
vouring them.
Then the country became less arid. They found a road
running east and west, which boasted a milestone that
gave no indication as to the region across which they were
feeling their way like the blind. There were, however,
some hedges of mulberry-trees, and further on a field of
sorghum, wliich enabled them to allay their hunger, or
rather to cheat the wants of their stomachs. The sorghum
chewed, and even eaten, and the refreshing mulberries,
might perhaps be enough to keep them from fainting
from exhaustion before they reached the coast.
But if the country was inhabited, if a few fields showed
that the hand of man was employed about them, the
fugitives had to be careful how they met the inhabitants.
About noon five or six foot passengers appeared on the
road. As a matter of caution Sandorf thought he and
Bathory had better get out of sight. Fortunately an in-
closure around an old ruined farm lay some fifty yards to
the left. There, before they had been noticed, he and
his companion took refuge in a kind of dark cellar, where
m the event of any one stopping at the farm they ran lit-
tle risk of discovery if they waited till the night.
The foot passengers were peasants and salt-marsh work-
ers. Some were driving a flock of geese, doubtless to
market at some town or village which could not be very
jar from the canal. Men and women were clothed in
Istrian style, with the jewels, medals, ear-rings, breast
crosses and filigree pendants wliich ornament the ordinary
costume of both sexes. The salt-marsh workers were
more simply dressed, as, with sack on back and stick in
hand, they marched along to the salterns in the neigh-
borhood, or perhaps even to the important establishments
at Stagnone or Pirano, in the west of the province.
oome of them stopped when they reached the farm and
rested for a little on the door-step. They talked in a loud
Tice, not without a certain animation, but only of things
concerning their trade.
Ihe fugitives leaned against the corner and listened.
Perhaps these people had already heard of the escape,
*nd were talking about it? Perhaps they were saying
something which might reveal in what part" of Istria they
en were?                                           *
ot a word passed on the subject. They could only
cotinue to guess.
... the country people say nothing about our escape,
IV fir inference," said Sandorf, " that they have not
Jet heard of it."
3om  '" sa'cl Bathory, "would go to prove that we are
me distance from the fortress.    Considering the rapidity
25
of the torrent which kept us underground for more than
six hours, I am not surprised at that."
" That must be it," said Sandorf.
A couple of hours passed, and then some salt-workers
as tney passed the farm without stopping, were heard to
speak abou the gendarmes they had met at the gate of
the town.                                                               to
What town?   They gave it no name.
1 his was not very reassuring. If gendarmes were about,
it was probable that they were scouring the country in
search of the fugitives.
ti,l!But'"Ii3aid,?alth,01T' "oonsidering how we escaped,
they  might well  believe  us  dead, and  never think of
J)U1 Sill t.
"They will believe we are dead when they find our
bodies," answered Sandorf.                               y
There being no doubt that the police were afoot and in
search of them, they decided to stay till it was night
Although they were tortured with hunger they dared not
leave their retreat; and they were wise.
About five o'clock the tramp of a small troop of horse
was heard along the road.
Sandorf, who had been out to the gate of the inclosure,
hurried y rejoined his companion and dragged him into
the darkest corner of the cellar. There they hid .hem-
less            l' a          f brushwood and remained motion-
Half a dozen gendarmes headed by a sergeant were
coming along the road toward the east. Would they stop
at the farm? Sandorf anxiously asked. If they searched
the place they could not fail to find them.
They halted. The sergeant and two of the men dis-
mounted, while the others remained in the saddle and re-
ceived orders to search the country along the canal and
then return to the farm, where the rest would meet them
at seven o clock.
The four gendarmes moved off immediately. The ser-
geant and the two others picketed their horses and sat
down to talk. From the corner of the cellar the fugi-
tives could hear all that passed.
"Yes, we shall go back to the town this evening and
get the orders for to-night," said the sergeant in reply to
one of the men. "The telegraph may bring us fresh
instructions from Trieste."
The town in question was not Trieste; that was one
point of which Count Sandorf made a note.
"Are yon not, afraid," said the second gendarme, " that
while we are looking about here the fugitives may have
got down the Quamero Canal?"
"Yes, that is possible," said the first gendarme, "for
they might think it safer than here."
_ "If they do," said the sergeant, "they none the less
risk being found, for the whole coast is being looked after
from one end to the other."
Second fact worth noting: Sandorf and his companion
were on the west coast of Istria, that is to say, near the
Adriatic shore, and not on the banks of the opposite canal
whicli runs out at Flume.
"I think they are having a look round the salt-works
at Pirano and Capo d'lstria," said the sergeant. "They
might hide there easily and get on board a vessel crossing
the Adriatic and bound for Rimini or Venice."
"They had much better have waited patiently in their
cell," said one of the gendarmes philosophically.
"Yes," added the other, "sooner or later they'll be
caught, if they have not fished them up out of the Brico!
That would finish it, though, and we should not have to
trot about the country in all this heat."
"And who says it hasn't finished it?" replied the ser-
geant. " Perhaps the Foiba has been the executioner,
and when it is in flood the wretched men could not have
chosen a worse road out of the  donjon of Pisino."
The Foiba then was the name of the river which had
carried off Count Sandorf and his companion. It was
the fortress of Pisino to which they had been taken after
their arrest, and there they had been imprisoned, tried
and sentenced. It was from its donjon that they had es-
caped. Oount Sandorf knew this town of Pisino well.
He had at last fixed on this point, which was so impor-
tant for him to know, and it would no longer be by chance
that he would cross the Istrian Peninsula, if flight was
still possible.
The conversation of the gendarmes did not stop here;
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