The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-05-23

IL |
at the farther end man in uniform |
sat behind tong table.
or heard Of him for months. Lost in a
wilderness or In an experiment per-
haps"
These unhappy meditations were in
terrupted by the clang of bolts. He
thought at first it was his own door
that was being opened, but moment
later knew it was TIE 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
he cared for a companion. 1t would all
depend If fellow prisoners hated each
other, their enforced proximity might
prove unpleasant
eve are hungry" he heard one say.
Bring US food
The jailer laughed.
81 will give you something to drink
first"
That's rightr' 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 he had In
tended to do. And now he missed
something that had become familiar;
thought it was q cigarette he desired,
for the one he had lit had been smoked
to his very lips, then he recognized 1t
was the murmur of the stream that
had ceased.
"Ah, they can shut it off," he said;
that's interesting. l 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 its course, he work
ed his way toward the lower cell and,
as he expected, came to stout iron bars.
hn q
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 q 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 jabbeI
like a maniac, punctuating his rawlings
with shrieks. Another was cursing
vehemently and a third appealing tC
the saints. Lermontoff quickly knelt
down in the watercourse, this time
facing the upper cell, and struck his
third match. He saw that stee
shield, reminding him of the thin shut
ter between the lenses of q camera
had been shot across the tunnel be
hind the second group of cross bars
and as an engineer he could not bu
admire the skill of the practical ex
pert who had constructed this diabol
ical device. for in spite of the pressure
on the other side hardly drop Of wa
ter oozed through. He tried to reacl
the shield, but could not 1t was jus
beyond the touch of his fingers will
his arm thrust through the two set
of bars. but if he could have stretched
that far with the first bar retardin:
his shoulder, he knew his hand woulC
be helpless even if he had some weap
on to puncture the steel shield. tn
men would be drowned before he coul,
accomplish anything unless he was a
the lever in the passage outside.
Crawling into his cell again. he hear'
no more of the chatter and cries o
the maniac. and he surmised that tn
other two were fighting for places o.
bench or shelf, which was amply larg
enough to have supported both ha
they not been too demented with fea
TO recognize that fact. The cursin
man was victorious. and now he stoo
alone on the shelf, roaring maledit
tons. Then there was the sound or
plunge, and Lermontor, standing Their
helpless and Ghivering. heard the prii