Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1885-12-25
said sandort 1--WE have been betray.


caring To communicate II to his COM
panions.
Far into the night Sandorf and his
companions continue their conversation
on all that was unintelligble with re-
gard to these matters.
In the morning they were awakened
from sound sleep by the entry of the
warder. 1t was the morning of their
last day but one. The execution was
fixed 10 take place in twenty-four hours
from then.
Bathory asked the wOrder if he might
be permitted to see his family.
The warder replied that he had no
orders ON the subject Ii was not likely
that the Government would consent
to give the prisoners this last cul-
ISOLATION. inasmuch rs they had conducted
the affair throughout with the greatest
secrecy, and not even the name of the
fortress which served them As prison
had been revealed.
III we write letters. will they he for
warded asked Sandorf.
II will bring YOU paper pens AMI
ink, replied tine wrder; and | prom
ise 10 give your letters into the Gov
ernors hands.
ave are much obliged to You, said
Sandorf. "If Won do that. you do all
you can How shall we reward yous
Your thanks are sufficient, gentle
men. said the warder, who could not
conceal hi, emotion.
He soon brought in the writing mate
rials The prisoners spent the greater
part of the day in making their last
arrangements. Sandof said all that
structions regarding his Laby girl, who
would soon be an orphan Bathory all
that Il husband and father could
think of in bidding Il loving farewell
to his wife and son Zathmr all that
master could say to an old servant
who remained his only friend.
But during the day, although absorb
ed in then writing. how many times did
they stop 10 listen How many times
did they seek to discover if some distant
noise WAS not coming along the corridors
of the doniou, How many times did it
seem TO them rs though the door of their
cell had opened, and that they were TO
~ permitted one last embrace of wife.
son or daughter That would have
been some consolation But. in truth. the
pitiilcss order deprived them of this
last adieu and spared them the heart
rcodiug scene.
The door did not open. Doubtless
neither Nine. Bathory or her son, nor
the steward, Lcndeck, TO whose care
Saudori's daughter had been Ci-cn knew
no more whore the prisoners were taken
90 after their arrest than Borlk in his
prison ai Trieste Doubtless also, neither
81 them knew of the doom in store for
the cousprat rs
Thus passed the earlier hours Of the
day. Occasionally Sand-ord and his
friends would talk for a while. Dc
casionally they would bc silent for some
time. and then the whole of their lives
would loo lived over again IN their menu
cries with an intensity of impression
quite supernatural. 1t WAS not with the
past, rs affecting the past that they
were entirely concerned; the recollec-
tionssccmed all TO shape themselves with
a Wow to the present Was it then, a
prescience of that eternity which was
about 10 open on them, of that incom-
prehensible and incommonsurate state
of things which is called the infinite
Bathory and Zathmar abandoned
themselves without reserve 10 their rev.
cries, but Sandorf was inyincibly domi-
mated by an idea which hadtakcn posses
-. of htr l..
what there had been treachery in this
mysterious uil'tir. For man of his
character 10 die without furnishing the
traitor. whosoeVer he was, without know
ing even who had betrayed him, was to
die twice over Who had got hold of
tins message to which the police owed
the discovery of the conspiracy and ihe
arrest of the conspirators; Who had
read II, who had given it up, who had
sold it, perhaps? Pondering over this
inso!uble problem, Sandorf's excited
brain became II prey to sort Of fever.
And while his friends wrote on or re-
manned silent and motionless, lac strobe
uneasy and agitated, pacing the floor
Of his cell like wild beast shut up III
cage
a phenomeon strange but not unin-
telligible in accordance with acoustical
law came Mt last to his aid and Whisper
ed the secret he had despaired of dis
covering.
Several times he had stopped short rs
lie turned al the angle which the dividing
wall of the cell made with the main wall
of the corridor, on to which the different
cells opened. In this anglo. just where
the door was hinged he seemed TO hear
a mulmur of VOICES, distant and hardly
recogniz bile. At first he paid no atten-
ton to this but suddenly a name was
pronounced own-and he listened
intently. At once no detected an ac-
oustical phenomenon, such rs is observ-
able in the interiors of galleries and
domes or under vaults of ellipsoidal
form. The voice travelling from ono
point of the ellipse, after following tho
contour of the walls without being per-
ceptible at any intermediate point, is
plainly heard Mt the other focus. Such
is the phenomenon met with in the
crypts of the Pantheon in Paris, iii the
interior of the dome of St. Peters at
Rome, and in the whispering gallery No
St. Pauls in London. The iaintest
word uttered Mt one focus of these curves
is distinctly heard at the focus opposite.
There could be no doubt that the two
or more persons who were talking either
in the corridor or in n cell situated at
the end of the diameter, the vocal point