Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-02-15

by Dis devotion. 10 leave ms mouse 81
ns not to compromise the fisherman,
yesi But to embark under his charge
and send Kim to the hulks. mol
Come, A" said Sandorf, "once out of
the house we shall only have to fear for
ourselves"
And by the open window they began
to get down into the yard to cross it and
escape, when Luigi rushed in.
1.-THE police !" he said.
"AdieuI" said Sandorf.
And followed by Bathory he leaped to
the ground At the same moment the
police came running into the front
room
Carpena was at their head.
"Scoundrel !" said Ferrato.
That is my answer to your refusal"
replied the Spaniard.
The fisherman was seized and Rarot-
ted. In a moment the police had
seized and visited every room in the
house. The window opening on to the
yard showed the road taken by the
fugitives. They started in pursuit.
Sandorf and his companion had
reached the hedge which ran along the
stream Sandorf leaped it at a bound
and turned to help over Stephen when
the report Of a gun rang out some fifty
PAGES off
Bathory was hit by the bullet, which
only grazed his shoulder, it is true;
but his arm remained paralyzed and he
could not let his companion seize it to
help HIM.
Escape Mathiasl" he exclaimed.
Escape"
"No, Stephen, no. We will die to-
gether," replied Sandorf, after trying
companion in his arms.
Escape, Matthias !" repeated Bathory.
And live to punish the traitors !"
Bathory's last words were, as it were,
o command to Sandorf. To him there
fell the work of the three-to him alone.
The magnate of Pennsylvania, the con-
spirator of Trieste, the companion of
Stephen Bathory and Ladislas Zathmar
must give place to the messenger of
justice.
AT this moment the police hadreached
the end of the yard and thrown them
selves on the wounded man. Sandorf
would fall into their hands if he hest
tated another second.
''Adieu, Stephen, adieu7" he ex-
claimed.
With q leap he cleared the brook
which ran along by the hedge and dis
appeared.
Five or six shots were fired after him,
but the bullets missed, and turning aside
he ran quickly towards the sea-
The police, however, were on his
track. Not being able to see him in the
darkness they did not try to run straight
after him. They dispersed SO as to cut
him off not only from the interior, but
from the town and from the promon-
tory which shelters the Bay of Rovigno.
A brigade of gendarmes reinforced
them, and were so man9uvred as to pre-
vent hum from taking any other route
than that towards the sea. But what
could he do there? Could he possess
himself of boat and put out to the open
scar He would not have time and be-
fore he could get her clear he would be
shot From the first he saw that his re-
treat to the east was cut of. The noise
OF the guns, the shouts of the police and
the gendarmes as they approached told
him that he was hedged in on the beach.
His only chance of escape was to the sea
and by the sea. 1t was doubtless 10
rush to certain death: but better TO find
1t among the waves than before the mr.
ing party In the courtyard Of the fortress
of Pisino.
Sandorf then ran towards the beach.
In few bounds he had reached the first
small that I,nlr,I l.
already felt the police behind him, and
the bullets fired at random whistled past
his head.
All down the Istrian coast there is
reef Of isolated rocks Just little way
out from the shore Between these
rocks there are pools filling the depres-
sions IN the Sandstone of them several
feet deep, some of them quite shallow.
1t was the last road that was open,
and although Sandorf thought death
was at the end he did not hesitate TO
take it
Behold him then clearing the pools,
jumping from rock to rock but his pro-
file thus became more visible against
the less dense darkness of the horizon.
And Immediately the shouts gave tho
alarm and the police dashed out after
him.
He had resolved not to be taken alive.
If the sea gave him up it would give up
q corpse.
The difficult chase over the shaking
and slippery rocks, over the viscous
wracks and weeds, through the pools
where every step might mean o fall,
lasted for more than a quarter of an
hour. The fugitive was still ahead, but
the solid ground was soon to fail him.
He reached the last rocks of the reef.
Two or three police were not more than
ten yards away, the others were about
double as far behind.
Count Sandorf stopped. A last cry
escaped nina cry of farewell thrown
to Heaven. Then, as discharge of
bullets rained around him, he precipi-
tated himself into the sea-
The police came to the very edge of
the rock, and saw nothing but the head
OF the fugitive, like black point, turned
toward the offing.
Another volley battered into the water
round the Count. And doubtless one
or two bullets reached him, for he sank
under the waves and disappeared.
Till day broke the police kept watch
along the reef and the beach, from the
promontory to beyond the fort of
Rovlgno 1t was useless. Nothing
showed that Sandorf had again set foot
on shore. 1t remained undoubted then
that II he had not been shot he had been
drowned.
But though careful search was made
no body was ever found among the
breakers nor ON the sands for more than
couple of leagues along the coast.
But as the wind was off shore and the
current running to the southwest there
could be no doubt that the corpse of the
fugitive had been swept out to the open
sea.