The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-02-05
CHAPTER Y I.
ALONG THE FOIBA.

1t was about eleven o'clock. The
clouds had begun to dissolve in drench.
ing showers mingled with rain. Then
fell huge hailStones which shot into the
waters OF the Euiba and ratified over the
rccss down its sides like the stream of
lead from n mitrailleuSe. The firing
from the embrasureS had ceased Why
waste ammunition on the fugitives? The
Foiba wonld only give them mp as
corpses-if if even il did that.
As soon us Count Saudorf fell into the
torrent he found himself swept help
i'sslY into The Buco In IA few momenIs
he passed from the intense light with
Which the electricity filled the rnvine
into the pro!oun lest darkness The war
of the waters had taken the place OF the
roll of Thunder. For into that impen-
etmhle cavern there entered none Of the
outside light OF sounds,
Help I"
There was cry. II was Stephen
Bathory. The cold of the water had
called him back to life but he could not
keep himself atloat and he would have
been drowned had not Il vigorous arm
| seized him uS he was sinking.
Il am here! Stephen Don't be
afraid :"
Count SandoH was by his side, holding
him with one band while he swan with
he other
The position was critical Bathory
cor Id hardly move his limbs. They had
been hall paralyzed by the stroke.
Although the pain of his burned hands
had been sensibly lesseued by their
plunge into the cold, the state of inertia
into which they were thrown did not
| allow of his using them. Had Sandorf
| abandoned him for moment he would
have been drowned and yet Sandorf
had enough to do to save himself.
There was complete uncertainty as
TO the direction which this torrent took.
the place it ended, the river or sea into
which it flowed, Had deven Sandorf known
that the river was the Foiba the position
could not have been mere desperate than
II he knew what become of its impetuous
waters. Bottles thrown into the en-
trance OF the cavern had never come To
sight again in any stream OF the Istrian
| peninsula; perhaps from their having
been broken against the rocks in their
course, perhaps from having been
swept below in some mysterious rift in
the earth's crust.
The fugitlves We're carried along with
extreme rapidity, aud thus found il IA sy
to keep ON the surface, Bathory had be-
come unconscious, He was quite help
less aud motionless in tho hands of
Sandorf, who fought we'll for both, but
felt that all would soon end in his sinking
from sheer exhaustion. 70 the danger
OF being dashed against some projecting
rock on the side OF the cavern or the
hanging prominences of the roof there
Was added that of being sucked down in
one OF the whirlpools which foamed in
many corner where the sharp angle of
the bank gave the current a sudden
curve, Twenty times were Sandorf and
his friend seized in one of these liunid
suckers and nresistibly drawn 70 ita
centre IN the manner of the Maelstorm.
Then they would he spun round by tho
| gyratary movement amt then thrown of
from the edge like a stone from sling
as the eddy lloke.
Halt an hour went by under suoiA
circumstances with death imminent
each minute and each second Saudort
e',lcwed with s"nerhuman energy had
TO BE CONTINUED.