uld have killed him easily."

"But twenty feet is a long distance when two hundred feet yawn beneath.
Let him come. We have food enough for a siege--ah, there it is again!"

There was a significant silence between the two men, but Renwick
listened the more keenly, for he heard the deep rumble, as of thunder,
which had perplexed him in the afternoon--a reverberation, repeated and
continued, which seemed to make the very flags beneath him tremble. But
since he could hear and feel it within these solid walls, much nearer
and louder, he realized now that it meant the roar of artillery--the
defiant blasts of the Austrian guns at the end of the Pass, or the
triumphant salvos of the Russians. And the voice of Goritz confirmed
him.

"The thing has come rather sooner than I expected," he growled.
"_Donnerwetter!_ Why couldn't the Russians have put off the attack for a
week!"

"And if they win the Pass----"

"Perhaps it is just as well for us if they do. Herr Windt may neglect us
in the general scramble for safety."

"He is not of that sort, Herr Hauptmann."

"Then let him come. Twenty feet is a long jump even for the legs of the
Windt."

Goritz laughed at his joke and then yawned sleepily.

"You may go now, Karl. Is Strohmeyer at the gate?"

"Yes, Herr Hauptmann."

"You are sure that he will not go to sleep?"

"I think not."

"The signal is one stroke of the postern bell. He understands?"

"Yes, Herr Hauptmann. Any other orders?"

"None except these. That he is on no account to fire unless attacked.
But this fact is to be understood. No man is to pass into Schloss
Szolnok tonight."

"_Zu befehl_, Herr Hauptmann."

The chauffeur, Karl, passed across Renwick's range of vision and the
steps of Goritz resumed their pacing of the floor--more slowly now. The
Englishman had been kneeling, scarcely daring to breathe, and now he
wondered what he had better do next. Taking infinite pains to make no
sound he investigated the wall of the Hall with his finger tips. There
was a door here, a secret door, he thought, hidden from the interior of
the Hall in the paneling of the wainscoting. Did Goritz know of its
existence? The floor of the crypt, it was true, had shown no sign of
footsteps, and the door below, Renwick was sure, had not been opened for
many years. But if Goritz knew of this passage, there was a chance of
his entering and finding him. Renwick dared not strike matches now, and
determined to go on until he had