Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-07-25

actually the case. He did not feel in
the least disheartened. Something was
going to happen on his behalf. Of that
he was quite certain. 1t was perfectly
ridiculous that even in Russia a loyal
subject who had never done any illegal
act in his life, a nobleman of the en-
pire and a friend Of the czar should
be incarcerated for long without trial
and eve without accusation. He had
20 enemies that he knew of and many
friends, and yet he experienced a
vague uneasiness when he remembered
that his own course Of life had been
such that he would not be missed by
his friends. For more than a year he
had been in England, at sea and in
America, so much absorbed in his re-
searches that he had written no pri-
vate letters worth speaking of, and If
any friend We're asked his whereabouts
he was likely to reply:
"Oh, Lermontoff is in some German
university town or in England or trav-
cling elsewhere. l haven't seen him
Or heard Of him for months. Lost in q
wilderness or in an experiment per-
aaps."
These unhappy meditations We're 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 it 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
cell, and he wondered whether or not
he cared for q companion. 1t would all
depend. If fellow prisoners hated each
| other, their enforced proximity might
prove unpleasant.
"We are hungry" he heard one say.
Bring us food"
The jailer laughed.
81 will give you something to drink
first"
'That's right!' three voices shouted.
"Vodka, vodka!"
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 a low order, felt no desire to make
their more intimate acquaintance and
so did not shout to them, as be had in
tended to do. And now he missed
| something that had become familiar;
thought it vas a 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 it Off" he said;
that's interesting. I must investigate
and learn whether or no there is com-
munication 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 it's course, he work
ed his way toward the lower cell and,
as he expected, came to stout iron bars.
C%rouching thus he sacrificed q 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, her an
other perpendicular, then a fourth
horizontal.
While In this position he was star
tied by a piercing scream to the rear.
He backed out from the tunnel and
stood upright once more. He. heard the
sound Of people splashing round in the
water. The screamer began to jabber
like a maniac. ~punctuating his rawlings
with shrieks. Another was cursing
vehemently and a third appealing to
the saints. Lermontof quickly kneit
down in the ~watercourse, this time
facing the upper cell, and struck his
third match. He saw that a steel
shield, reminding him of the thin shut
ter between the lenses Of a camera,
had been shot across the tunnel be-
hind the second group Of cross bars,
and as an engineer he could not but
admire, the skill Of the practical ex-