The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-05-18

tons attached"
''I am quite sure Of that" said Doro-
thy, bending over her writing. She
handed him the check, and he rose to
go.
"Sit down again, If you please.
wish to talk further with you Your
people in St. Petersburg think my
friends have not been sent to Siberia.
Are they sure Of thatY'
"Well, madam, they have means of
knowing those who are transported,
and they are certain the two young
men were not among the recent gangs
sent. They suppose them to be in the
fortress OF St Peter and st. Paul; at
least, that's what they say"
''You speak as If you doubted It."
"I do doubt it,
"They have been sent to Siberia. aft
er ALP
"Ah, madam, there are worst places
than Siberia In Siberia there is a
chance. In the dreadful Trogzmon-
doff there is none"
"What is the Trogzmondoff"
"a bleak rock in the Baltic, madam,
the prison In which death is the only
goal that releases the victim"
Dorothy rose trembling, staring at
him, her lips white.
"a rock in the Baltic! Is that a
prison and not fortress, then?"
at is both prison and fortress, mad
am. If Russia ever takes the risk Of
arresting a foreigner, it is to the Trogz-
mondoff he is sent. They drown the
victims there-drown them in their
cells. There is a spring in the rock, and
through the line of cells it runs like a
beautiful rivulet, but the pulling Of a
lever outside stops the exit of the wa
ter and browns every prisoner within.
The bodies are placed one by one on a
smooth inclined chute of polished sand
stone, down which this rivulet runs,
SO they glide out into space and drop
200 feet into the Baltic sea. No mat
ter in what condition such q body is
found or how recent may have been
the execution, 1t is but drowned man
In the Baltic. There are no marks of
bullet or strangulation, and the cur
rents bear them swiftly away from
the rock"
How come you to know all this
which seems to have been concealed
from the rest Of the worldp'
II know it, madam, for the best of
reasons. l was sentenced this very
year to Trogzmondoff. In my youth
trading between Helsingfors and New
York l took out naturalization papers
/ In 80
the crew on an American ship. When
they illegally impressed me at Helsing.
fors and forced me to join the Russian
navy, l made the best of a bad bar
gain and, being an expert seaman, was
reasonably well treated and promoted
but at last they discovered l was in
correspondence with a nihilist circle
in London, and when I was arrested
l demanded the rights of an Amer
lean citizen. That doomed me.
was sent, without trial, to the Trogz
mondoff in April of this year. Arriv
ing there l was foolish enough tC
threaten and say my comrades had
means of letting the United States
government know and that a battle
ship would teach the jailers Of the
rock better manners.
1.-THE cells hewn in the rock are
completely dark, so I lost all count OF
time. You might think we would know
night from day by the bringing in OF
our meals, but such was not the case
The iailer brought in a large loaf o.
black bread and said 1t was to serve
me for four days. He placed the loa
on a ledge of rock about three fee
from the floor which served as bOtl
table and bed. In excavating the eel
this ledge had been left intact, with {
bench of stone rising from the foo
opposite. Indeed SO ingenious had beer
the workmen who hewed out thi
room that they carved a rounded ston
pillow at one end of the shelf.
81 do not know how many days
had been in prison when the explosion
occurred. 1t made the whole rocl
, CULVER, and wondered what had hap
, pened. Almost Immediately afterwart
, there seemed to be another explosion
not nearly so harsh, which l though
|, was perhaps an echo Of the first
: About an hour later my cell door wa
' unlocked. and the jailer. with an
Y other man holding a lantern, came in
+ My third loaf of black bread was part
! " consumed, so 1 must have been Il
e prison nine or ten days. The jaile
II took the loaf outside. and when he re
q turned l asked him what had happen
r ed. He answered in n surly fashion
g that my American warship had fire.
= at the rock and that the rock had strucI
d back, whereupon she sailed away
Q crippled"
l. Dorothy. who had been listening IL
q tently to this discourse, here interrupt
/ ed with:
= 1T was an English warship that fire
d the shell. and the Russian shot did nc
(. come within half mile of her"
The sailor stared at her in wide eye
n SI1rDriSp