. . Now they are
hauling down the flag. . . . The captain has gone into his cabin and
his lieutenant has taken the quarter-deck. . . . Now the look-out in
the main-top is taking a pull from his bottle. In a moment he will
drop off to sleep. . . . One by one the lights are being put out; only
those from the captain's windows are now to be seen. . . . Soon they
will all be asleep--in the Lord! So--good-night!"

"And now, brother," said Feodor, "the entertainment I promised you is
about to begin. My fellows are already sitting in your long-boat and
their own skiffs. The sound of the bell is the signal that all is
ready."

With these words he left Zeno alone in the observatory and hurried
downstairs to give the signal.

With a violent effort, Zeno succeeded in getting one foot so far out
of his bonds that he could reach the ground with his heel. With this
foot he gradually pushed himself nearer and nearer to the edge of the
low open window. Then, with a desperate effort, he tilted the chair
forward, and precipitated himself and it together into the depths
beneath. For him there was neither entertainment nor spectacle any
more on this earth.

Meantime Feodor strode down to the dining-room where he usually rang
the bell in the concealed room by means of the silken cord. He stopped
suddenly and turned pale with fear when he discovered that the cord
had been cut.

[Illustration: "The cord had been cut"]

He burst into the next room. There Mashinka's bed was empty. He
hurried into his son's bedroom. The boys were nowhere to be seen. The
open window and the rope dangling outside in the wind told him plainly
enough of their flight.

It was too late now. In vain his cry of wrath sounded through the
fortress. In vain he pierced with his sword the empty bed from which
his victim had escaped. In vain he now beat his breast for having
harboured a human feeling within it. That weakness, he now saw, had
indeed been his ruin.

In his boundless wrath he rushed up to the observatory to wreak all
his baffled vengeance on his one remaining victim. He consoled himself
with the thought that he at least could not escape.

But Zeno too had vanished. He was no longer where he had left him.

Feodor stretched his body far out of the open window and shrieked his
brother's name. There was no response but the dull dashing of the
waves against the rocks below.

When he raised his eyes again and looked towards the war-ship an icy
chill ra