The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-01-01
lUoN4INUEp FROM 3RD FACE |

worked for the independence of Hun.
gary1 Our cause wait JUST l. is ou
duty to defend her! 1t Is an honor tc
die for heri"
Matthias, " said Bathory, "we thank
you for having associated us with you in
the patriotic work which would have
been The work of all your life"
"As we are asso lated with you in
death!" added Zathmar.
Then during momentary silence the
three gazed round the gloomy cell in
which they were to spend their last
hours. A narrow window some four or
five feet high, cut through the thick wall
Of the donion, let in a certain amount of
light. There were three iron bedsteads,
few chairs, table and o shelf or two,
on which were q few articles of crockery.
Zathmar and BathoTy were soon lost
In thought.
Sandorf began to walk up and down
the cell.
Zathmar was alone in the world, had
no family ties and no near relations.
There was only his old servant, Borik,
TO mourn for him.
1t was not so with Bathory. His
death would not only prove blow to
himself He had wife and son whom
it would reach. That wife and child
might even die! And if they survived
him, how were they to live? What was
to be the future of penniless woman
and her eight year old child? Had
Bathory possessed any property, how
much of it would remain after a judg-
ment which dii ected it to be confscated
and sentenced him 20 death?
AS for Sandorf, all his past life re-
turned to him His wife came to him
His little daughter came-a child of two
years old, now left to the care of the
steward. And there were his friends
whom he had led to ruin He asked
himself if he had done we'll, if he had
not gone farther than his duty towards
his country required? Woul that the
punishment had fallen on him alone,
and not upon those that were innocent
"No! no! have only done my duty! !"
he said to himself. MY country before
all, and above all ~
At five o'clock warder entered the
cell, placed the dinner on the table, and
went out again without saying a word.
Sandorf would have liked to know in
what fortress he was kept prisoner,
but as the President of the court-martial
had not thought fit to answer the ques-
tion it was qui certain that the warder
would not give the information.
The prisoners hardly touched the din
ner which had been prepared for them.
They passed the rest of the day talking
on various matters, in the hope that
their abortive movement would one day
be resumed. Very often they returned
to the incidents of the trial.
eve now know, said Zathmar, "why
we have been arrested, and how the
police discovered us from that letter
which they came across"
eyes, Ladislas," said Sandorf, "but
into whose hands did that message,
which was one of the last we received,
at first fall, and who copied it ?"
"And when it was copied" added
Bathory, "how did they read it without
the grating 2"
"The grating must have been stolen,
said Sandorf
"S.olen! and and by whom ?" asked
Zathmar The day we We're arrested
it was still i'll the drawer on my desk,
whence the police took it."
This was indeed inexplicahle. 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 it was adj
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 Incompetent
sible
Sand besides" continued Sandorf,
"we know that the letter Was read, and
it could not have been read without
the grating It was this letter which
put the police on our traces, and it was
On it that the whole charge was based. I"
eft matters very little, after all, an
severed Bathory.
.'On the cont airy, it does matter.
said Sandorf 1--WE have been betray-
edi 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
um all that was unintelligble with re-
gard to these matters.