The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-01-29

"And when II was copied, aided
Bathory, "how did they read it without
the grating =
"The grating must have been stolen"
said Sandorf
"Stolen! and aud by whom ?" asked
Zathmar. 1.-THE day we were arrested
it was still in the drawer on my desk,
whence the police took it.
This was indeed inexplicable. That
the letter had been found on the pigeon;
that it had been copied before being
sent to its destination that the house
where the person to whom 1T was ud-
dressed had been discovered-all that
could be explained. But that the crypt
ographic despatch could have been
deciphered without the grating by which
it had been formed was incomprehen-
sible.
And besides continued Sandorf,
eve know that the letter was read, and
it could not have been read without
the grating 1t was this letter which
put the police on our traces, and it was
on it that the whole charge was based"
:" 1t matters very little, after all, an
swered Bathory
"On the contrary, it does matter"
said Sandorf. I'VE have been betray-
ed And if there has been traitor-not
to know"
Sandorf suddenly stopped. The name
of Sarcany occurred to him; but he
abandoned the thought at once without
caring to communicate it 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 to take place in twenty-four hours
from then.
Bathory asked the warder if he might
be permitted to see his family.
The warder replied that he had no
orders on the subject 1t was not likely
that the Government would consent
to give the prisoners this last con-
ISOLATION, inasmuch as they had conducted
the affair throughout with the greatest
secrecy, and not even the name of the
fortress which served them as a prison
had been revealed.
If we write letters, will they be for
warded asked Sandorf.
II will bring you paper, pens and
ink" replied the warder; land / prom
Use to give your letters into the Gov
ernors hands"
1--WE are much obliged to you" said
Sandorf. "If you do that, you do all
you can How shall we reward you?
Your thanks are sufficient, gentle
men," said the warder, who could not
conceal his emotion.
He soon brought in the writing mate
rails The prisoners spent the greater
part of the day in making their last
arrangements. Sandorf said all that
fathers heart could prompt in his in
structions regarding his taby girl, who
would soon be an orphan Bathory all
hat husband and father could
think of in bidding loving farewell
to his wife and son Zathmar all that
master could say to an old servant
who remained his only friend.
But during the day, although absorb
ed i'll their writing, how many times did
they stop to listen How many times
did they seek to discover if some distant
noise was not coming along the corridors
of the donjon! How many times did it
seem to them as though the door of their
cell had opened, and that they were to
he permitted one last embrace of wife.
son or daughter That would have
been some consolation! But, i'll truth, the
pittiless order deprived them of this
last adieu and spared them the heart
rending scene.
The door did not open. Doubtless
neither Nine. Bathory or her son, nor
the steward, Lendeck, to whose care
Sandorf's daughter had been given, knew
no more where the prisoners We're taken
to after their arrest than Borik in his
prison at Trieste. Doubtless also, neither
of them knew of the doom in store for
the conspirators.
Thus passed the earlier hours of the
day. Occasionally Sandsord and his
friends would talk for while. Oc-
casionally they would be silent for some
time, and then the whole of their lives
would be lived over again in their men,
ories with an intensity of impression
quite supernatural. 1t was not with the
| past, as affecting the past, that they
| were entirely concerned; the recollec-
| tons seemed all to shape themselves with
a view to the present. Was it then. q
| prescience Of that eternity which was
| about to open on them, of that incom-
| prehensible and incommensurate state
OF things which is called the infinite !?
| Batholy and Xathmar abandoned
themselves without reserve to their rev.
cries, but Sandorf was invincibly domi-
mated by an idea which hadtaken posses
sion OF him. He could not doubt but
what there had been treuchery in this
mysterious affair, For man of his
character to die without Furnishing the
traitor, whOsoeycr lie was, without know
ing even who had betrayed him, was 10
die twice over. Who had got hold of
this message to which the police owed
the discovery of the conspiracy and the
arrest OF the cOuspirators? Who had
read it, who had given II mp, vino had
sold it, perhapsl Pondcling over this
insoluble problem, Su d ,rf's excited
brain became prey to Il sort OF fever.
And while his friends wrote on or re-
manned silent and motionless, he strobe
uneasy and agitated, pacing the floor
OF his cell like wild beast shut up in q
cage.
a phenomeon-strange but not unin.
telliglble i'll accordance with acoustical
law-came at last to his aid and whisper,
ed the secret he had despaired of dis
covering
Several times he had stopped short rs
he turned atthe angle which the dividing
wall of the cell made with the main wal
OF the corridor, ON TO which the different
cells opened Iu this angle, Just where
the door was hinged, he seemed to heal
n murmur of vo ces, distant and hardl,
recognizable, At first he paid no atten
ton to this, but suddenly a name wa
pronounced-hi own-aud he listened
intently, At once he detected an nc
oustical phenomenon, such as is obsery
able III the interiors of galleries an,
domes or under vaults of ellipsoida
form. The voice travelling from on
point of the ellipse after following tn
contour of the walls without being pei
ceptible at any intermediate point,
| plainly heard at the other focus, Sue
IL the phenomenon met with in III
crypts of the Pantheon in Paris, in tll
| interior of the dome of ST, Peters n