The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-01-08
CHAPTER XI.
ALONG TIE FOIDA.

It. 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
Writer'S OF the Foiba and ratified over the
ROCKS down it's sides like the stream of
lead from mitrailleuse. The firing
from the embrasures had ceased. Why
waste ammunition on the fugitives? The
Foiba would only give them up as
cDrpses-if even it did that.
As soon rs Count Sandorf fell into tho
torrent he found himself swept help
Lpssly into the Buco. In q few momen.
he passed from the intense light with
which the electricity filled the ravine
into the profoundest darkness. The war
Of the waters had taken the place of the
roll of thunder. For into that impen-
etrable cavern there entered none of tho
outside light or sounds.
"Help!'
There was cry. 1t WAS Stephen
Bathory. The cold of the water had
called him back to life, but he could not
Keep himself afoat, and he would have
Been drowned had not vigorous arm
seized him as he was sinking.
81 am here! Stephen !! Don't DO
afraid |"
Count Sandorf was by his side, holding
him with one hand while he swan vita
he other.
The position was critical. Bathory
could hardly move his limbs. They had
been half paralyzed by the stroke.
Although the pain of his burned ha ds
had been ssnsioiy lessened by their
plunge irto the cold, the state of inertia
&to which they were thrown did not
allow of his using them. Had Sandorf
abandoned higu Tor 3 moment he would
gave been drowned; and yet Sandorf
dad enough to do to save himself.
There was complete uncertainty "a
TO the direction which this torrent took,
the place it ended, the river or sea in
which it flowed. Had even Sandorf known
Chat the river was the Foiba the position
could not have been more desperate than
If 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 Istriau
peninsula; perhaps from their having
been broken against the rocks in their
course, perhaps from having been
swept below in some mysterious rift III
the earths crust
The fugitives were carried along with
extreme rapidity, and thus found it easy
to keep on the surface. Bathory had be-
come unconscious. He was quite help
less and motionless in the hands OF
Eandorf. who fought we'll for both, but
felt that all would soon end in his sinking
from sheer exhaustion. To the danger
OF being dashed against some projecting
rock or 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 folmed in
many q 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 liquid
suckers and iiresi~tibly drawn to its
cpntre in the manner OF the Maelstorm.
Then they would be spun round by the
gyratory movement. and then thrown oil
from the edge like stone from q sling
as the eddy broke.
Half all hour went by under such
circumstances with death imminent
each minute and each second Sandorf
endowed with superhuman energy, had
not yet yielded i'll despair. He rejoiced
that his companion was almost sense
less. Had he retained the instinct of
self preservation he would struggle, and
then Sandorf woald be obliged to leave
him to his fate, or both would be over
whelmed.
ro BE CONTINUED