20
MATHIAS SANDORF.
ready to remain behind, if necessary, and sacrifice them-
selves to help Count Sandorf, or ready to follow him, if
their flight would not hamper his.
-"We'll all three go," said Sandorf.    "Wait till we get
•out before we separate!"                        ,,¦'..,
Eight o'clock then struck from the clock in the town.
The prisoners had only twelve hours to live.
Night began to close in—a night which promised to be
very dark. Thick, almost motionless, clouds unrolled
themselves cumbrously across the sky. The atmosphere
was heavy, almost unbreathable, and saturated with elec-
tricity. A violent storm was coming on. Lightning had
not yet passed between these masses of vapor, heaped
around like so many accumulators, but distant growlmgs
were heard along the summits of the hills that encircle
Pisino.                                               . ,            .
Under such circumstances there might have been some
chance of success, if an unknown gulf had not gaped be-
neath the feet of the fugitives. In a dark night they
might not be seen; iu a noisy night  they might not be
heard.                                                    .                        ,
As Sandorf had instantly recognized, flight was only
possible through the window of the cell. To force the
door, to cut into its strong planks of oak, all bound and
ironed, was not to be dreamed of. Besides, the step of a
sentinel resounded on the flags of the corridor. And once
the door was cleared, how were they to find their way
through the labyrinth of the fortress? How were they to
pass the portcullis and draw-bridges, at whicli there were
always so many men on guard? On the side of the Brico
there was no sentinel; but the Brico was a better defense
to the face of the donjon than a cordon of sentries.
Sandorf then went to the window and examined it, to
see if they could squeeze through it.
This window was exactly three and a half feet wide and.
two feet high. The gap widened, as it ran outward
through the "wall, whicli hereabouts was nearly four feet
thick. A .solid crossbar of iron guarded it. It was fixed
in the side near the interior opening. There were none of
those wooden boards which allow the light only to enter
from above, for they would have been useless, owing to
the position of the opening. If, then, the crossbar could
be removed or displaced it would be ea»sy to get through
the Window, which was not unlike an embrasure in a
fortress wall.
But once the passage was free, how were they to make
the descent down the perpendicular side? By a ladder?
The prisoners had not one and could not make one. By
the bedclothes? They had only the heavy woollen coun-
terpanes thrown on the mattresses which lay on the iron
frames fixed to the wall. It would have been impossible
to have escaped by the window if Count Sandorf had not
noticed a chain, or rather an iron rope, hanging outside,
which might aid them to escape.
The cable was the lightning conductor fixed to the crest
of the roof above the side of the donjon, the wall of whicli
rose straight from the Brico.
"D<*you see that cable?" said Count Sandorf to bis
two friends. " You must have the courage to use it if
you want to make your escape."
"The courage we have," said Zathmar; "but have we
the strength?"
"What does it matter?" replied Bathory; "if strength
fail us we shall die an hour or two sooner, that is all."
" There is no need to die, Stephen," said Sandorf.
"Listen to me, and you also, Ladislas; do not miss any
of my words. If we possessed a rope, we should not
hesitate to suspend ourselves outside the window,so that we
might slip down it to the ground. Now, this cable is
better than a rope, becnuse its rigidity will render its
descent much easier. Like all lightning conductors,
there is no doubt but that it is fastened to the wall with
staples. These staples will be fixed points, on which our
feet may find a rest. There is no swinging to dread, be-
cause the cable is fixed to the wall. There is no vertigo
to fear, because it is night, and you will see nothing.
Then, once through the window, we have only to keep
our coolness and courage, and we are free. That we risk
our lives is possible. But it gives us ten chances to one;
whereas, if we wait till the morning, and our keepers find
us here, it is hundreds upon hundreds to one that we have
to die!"
" Be it so," replied Zathmar.
"but
"Where does the cable end?" asked Bathory.
"In a well, probably," answered Sandorf; "but cer
tainly outside the donjon, and we'll take advantage of it
I do not know.    I only see one thing at the end of it'
and that is liberty—perhaps!"
Count Sandorf was right in his supposition that the
lightning conductor was fastened to the wall by staples a'
equal distances. The descent would thus be easy, for tu
fugitives could use the staples as stepping-stones" to keen
them from sliding down too swiftly. But what they did
not know was that when it left the crest of the plateau on
which rose the wall of the donjon, the iron cable became
free, floating, abandoned in the void, and its lower end
plunged into the waters of the Foiba, then swollen by re.
cent rains. Where they reckoned on finding firm ground
at the bottom of the gorge was a foaming torrent, leaping
impetuously into the caverns of the Brico. If they had
known this, would they then have recoiled from their at-
tempted escape?   No.
"Death for death," said Sandorf. "We may die
after doing all we can to escape death."
The first thing was to clear the passage through the
window. The crossbar that obstructed it would have to
be removed. How was this to be done without a pair of
pincers, a wrench, or any other tool? The prisoners had
not even a knife.
" The rest will not be difficult," said Sandorf,
that may prove impossible!   To work!"
And he climbed up to the window, seized the crc
vigorously with his hand, and felt that it would not re-
quire such a very great effort to pull it down.
The iron bars which formed it were loose in their sock-
ets. The stone, split away at the edges, did not offer
very much resistance. Probably the lightning conductor,
before it was repaired, had been in inferior condition for
its purpose, and electric sparks had been attracted by the
iron of the crossbar, and had acted on the wall, and how
powerful such influence would be we are well aware.
This may have been the cause of the breakages round the
sockets into which the ends of the bars were thrust, and
of the decomposition of the stone, which was reduced to
a sort of spongy state, as if it had been pierced by
millions of electric points.
This explanation was given by Stephen Bathory as soon
as he noticed the phenomenon.
But it was not explanation, but work that was wanted,
and that without losing a moment. If they could man-
age to clear the extremity of the bars, after forcing them
backward and forward in their sockets, so as to knock
off the angles of the stone, it might be easy to push the
iron-work out of the embrasure,which widened as it went
outward. The noise of the fall was not likely to be heard
amid the long rollings of the thunder which were going
on almost continuously in the lower strata of the clouds.
" But we shall never get that iron-work out with our
hands," said Zathmar.
" No!" answered Sandorf. " We ought to haveapiece
of iron, a blade—"
Something of the sort was necessary, there could be no
doubt. Friable as the wall might be round the sockets, tbe
nails would be broken, and the fingers worn till they bled
in trying to reduce it to powder. It could never be done
without some hard point or other.                            ,   ,
Sandorf looked around the cell, wliich was feebly hgl»ea
from the corridor by the small fanlight over the door.
Then he felt the walls on the chance of a nail having been
left in them. He.found nothing. Then it occurred to mm
that it would not be impossible to take off one of the tegsoi
the iron bedsteads, which were fixed to the wall. J-™
three set to work and soon Bathory called to his cm-
panions in a whisper.                                              ...
The rivet of one of the metal laths forming the latww
work of the bed had given way. All that was f°f2
was to seize hold of this by the free end and twist itnaw»
ward and forw»ard until it broke off.              .          ,, ;
This  was soon done.    Sandorf thus obtained a un
piece of iron, about an inch wide and  five inchesi ii> g.
which he wrapped around the end   with Ins silk cu
and with it he began to clear away the four sockets.
This  could not be done without som3 noise.   *
natelv the rumbling of the thunder prevented tne¦
from being heard.    During the intervals of silence sa»