The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1907-05-20

At The farther end a man II uniform
sat behind a long table.
sat down upon it BE was surprised to
find himself SO little depressed - was
actually the case. he did not feel In
the least dlsheartened. Something was
going to happen ON his behalf. OF that
he was quite certain. twas perfectly
ridiculous that even in Russia a loyal
subject who had never done any illegal
act In his life. a nobleman of the en-
plre and a friend OF the car should
be incarcerated for loag without trial
and even without accusation. He had
no enemies mat he knew of and many
friends. and yet he experienced q
vague uneasiness when he remembered
that his own course of life had been
such that he would not be missed hy
his friends. For more than year he
had been in England, Mt sea and in
America, SO much absorbed in his re-
searches that he had written no pris
vate letters worth speaking OF, and II
any friend were asked his whereabouts
he was likely to reply:
"0h, Lermontoef Is In some German
university town sr in England or tray.
cling elsewhere. haven't seen him
or heard Of him for months. Lost In a
wilderness or In an experiment per
haps."
These unhappy medltations were In
terrupted by the clang Of bolts. He
thought at first it was his own door
that was being opened, but a moment
later knew II was the door of the next
cell upstream. The sound Of course
could not penetrate the extremely thick
wall, but came through the aperture
whose roof arched the watercourse.
From the voices he estimated that sew
eral prisoners were being put into one
cell, and he wondered whether or not
.e cared for companion. 1t would all
depend. II fellow prisoners hated each
other, their enforced proximity might
prove unpleasant.
1--WE are hungry" he heard one say.
Bring US food9
The jailer laughed,
II win give you something to drink
first"
That's rightr' three voices shouted.
Vodka, yodkaw
Then the door changed shut again,
and he heard the murmur Of voices In
Russian, but could not make out what
was said. One of the new prisoners,
cropping round, appeared to have struck
the stone bench, as he himself had
done. The man in the next cell swore
coarsely, and Lermontoff, judging from
such snatches Of their conversation as
he could hear that they were persons
of lew order, felt no desire to make
their more intimate acquaintance and
SO did not shout to them, as he had In.
tended to do. And now he missed
something that had become familiar;
thought It was cigarette he desired,
for the one he had lit had been smoked
to his very lips, then he recognized It
was the murmur Of the stream that
had ceased.
"Ah, they can shut 1t or" he said;
that's interesting. / must Investigate
and learn whether or no there is COM
munlcatton between the cells; not very
likely though"
He crawled ON hands and knees IN.
til he came to the bed of the stream,
which was now damp, but empty.
Kneeling down in its course, he work
ed his way toward the lower cell and,
as he expected, came to stout iron bars.
Crouching thus he sacrificed second
match and estimated that the distance
between the two cells was as much as
ten feet OF solid rock and saw also
that behind the perpendicular iron bars
were another horizontal set, then an
other perpendicular, then a fourth
horizontal.
While In this position he was star
tied by piercing scream 10 the rear.
He backed out from the tunnel and
stood upright once more. BE heard the
sound OF people splashing round in the
water. The screamer began to jabber
hke maniac, punctuating MS rawlings
with shrieks. Another was cursing
vehemently and third appealing to
the saints Lermontof quickly kneit
down in the watercourse, this time
facing the upper cen. and struck his
third match. He saw that a steel
shield. reminding him Of the thin shut
ter between the lenses Of camera,
bad been shot across the tunnel be
hind the second group Of cross bars.
and as an engineer he could not but
admire the SKIN Of the pracscal ex-
pert who had constructed this diabol-
lcal device, for IN spite Of the pressure
on the other side hardly a drop Of wa
ter oozed through BE tried to reach
the shield, but could not. It was Just
Il