therefore, have heard nothing. It would be
sufficient, he reflected, to take the precaution of securing the key
of the door which opened on the outside steps leading down to the
garden. Mashinka and the two lads would thus be all securely locked
in.

He left the room and went up to the observatory.

* * * * *

Mashinka was not asleep. She had heard every word.

With almost superhuman strength she had fought down the terror that
rose within her, and was able to appear asleep even while the dagger
was pointed at her heart by the hand of the man whom she now knew in
all his infamy.

She sprang from the bed as soon as the sound of Feodor's footsteps had
died away, rushed to the little room where the two sleeping boys lay
clasping each other's hands, and called them.

"Wake, children, wake!" she cried in despair; "prepare yourselves for
death--it is close at hand!"

She then hastily told them all she had heard.

"And you are to be made to fight each other to death before your
fathers' eyes!" she exclaimed as she concluded.

Alexander and Paul tremblingly embraced each other. It was not the
thought of death that made them tremble, but the thought that their
fathers should hate each other so.

"Oh! if you could but fly from here!" cried Mashinka.

"But how?" exclaimed Alexander. "Ah!--the door to the garden!
Impossible--it is locked!"

"Here!" cried Mashinka suddenly; "through this window you can reach
the garden--then over the outer wall and on to the rocks on the shore!
There you will find a boat. In it you may reach the ship."

"But you--you must come with us too," they cried together.

But Mashinka had already begun to cut up the bed-clothes and tie the
pieces together into a stout rope. The clothes were not long enough.
Swiftly she passed into the dining-room, and cut off the bell-cord
which hung from the ceiling. With this the rope was soon completed.

The night was dark and favoured the flight of the fugitives.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XI

The Severed Cord

The two brothers were now alone in the observatory. Zeno had been
carried thither and bound in the easy-chair before the great open
window. Feodor sat at his big telescope watching the anchored vessel.
At intervals as he sat he informed his prisoner of what he saw passing
on board.

"The roll of the drum is summoning the crew to evening prayer. The
fools! . . . The watch is being set for the night. .