CELL Number One was a great improvement on Number Nine. There was no
shelf of rock, or stone bench, but a cot bed in the corner, a table,
and a wooden chair. The living spring issued from the living rock in a
corner of the room. When the gaoler and his assistant had retired
and shoved in the outside bolts, Jack lit his candle and a cigarette,
feeling almost happy. He surveyed the premises now with more care.
The bed was of iron and fastened to the floor. On the top of it was
a mattress, a pillow, and a pair of blankets. At its head a little
triangular shelf of rock had been left in the corner, and on this
reposed a basin of tin, while a coarse piece of sacking took the place
of a towel. Jack threw off his overcoat and flung it on the bed, intent
on a satisfactory wash. He heard something jingle in the pockets, and
forgetting for the moment what it could possibly be, thrust his hand in,
and pulled out a glass-stoppered bottle of ozak. He held it out at arm’s
length, and stared at it for some moments like a man hypnotized.
“Holy Saint Peter!” he cried, “to think that I should have forgotten
this!”
He filled the tin basin with water, and placed it on the table. Again
he dissolved a minute portion of the chemical, and again filled the
syringe.
“I must leave no marks on the wall that may arouse attention,” he said,
and taking the full syringe to the arch over the torrent, and placing
the candle on the floor beside him, he gently pushed in the piston. The
spray struck the rock, and the rock dissolved slightly but perceptibly.
Coming back to the table he stood for a few minutes in deep thought.
Although the cot bed was fixed to the floor, and although it was
possible that the shelf in the next cell coincided with its position,
the risk of discovery was too great to cut a passage between the two
cells there. The obvious spot to attack was the interior of the tunnel
through which the streamlet ran, but Jack, testing the temperature of
the water with his hand, doubted his physical ability to remain in that
ice-cold current more than a few minutes at a time, and if he worked in
the tunnel he would be all but submerged. He feared he would perish with
cold and cramp before he had made any impression on the rock.
To the edge of the stream he drew the table, and, mounting it, examined
the upper orifice through which the water escaped when the cell was
full. He found he could stand on the table and work in comfort until
he had excavated sufficient rock to allow him to clamber into the upper
tunnel and so continue his operations. The water he used would flow
through the tunnel, and down to the main stream in the next cell. All
he had to do was to dissolve a semi-circular hole in the rock that would
bend round the end of those steel bars, and enter the tunnel again on
the other side. Eager to be at work, he took the full basin, shoved it
far along the tunnel until it was stopped by the bars, then, placing his
candle beside it, and standing on the table, he began operations.
The limestone, under the influence of the spray, dissolved very slowly,
and by the time the basin of water was exhausted, all the effect
visible under the light of the candle was an exceedingly slight circular
impression which was barely visible to the naked eye.
“I must make the solution stronger, I think,” he said, grievously
disappointed at the outcome of his labors, and as he looked at it he
heard the clank of the withdrawing bolts. Blowing out the candle he
sprang to the floor of the cell, picked up the table, set it down in
the center of the room, groped for the chair, and sat down, his heart
palpitating wildly at the fear of discovery.
Followed as usual by the man with the lantern, the gaoler came in,
carrying a bowl of hot steaming soup, which he placed on the table,
then he took from his pocket a spoon, a small hunk of black bread, and
a piece of cheese. In the light of the lantern Lermontoff consulted his
watch, and found it was six o’clock. The gaoler took the lantern from
his assistant, held it high, and looked round the room, while Lermontoff
gazed at him in anxiety, wondering whether that brutal looking official
suspected anything. Apparently he did not, but merely wished to satisfy
himself that everything was in order, for he said more mildly than he
had hitherto spoken:
“It is a long time since any one occupied this cell.”
Then his eye rested on the vacant corner shelf.
“Ah, Excellency,” he continued, “pardon me, I have forgotten. I must
bring you a basin.”
“I’d rather you brought me a candle,” said Lermontoff nonchalantly,
although his lips were dry, and he moistened them as he spoke; then,
to learn whether money was valueless on the rock, as the Governor had
intimated, he drew from his pocket one of the remaining gold pieces,
glad that he happened to have so many, and slipped it into the palm of
the gaoler’s hand, whose fingers clutched it as eagerly as if he were in
St. Petersburg.
“I think a candle can be managed, Excellency. Shall I bring a cup?”
“I wish you would.”
The door was again locked and bolted, but before Lermontoff had finished
his soup, and bread and cheese, it was opened again. The gaoler placed
a tin basin, similar to the former one, on the ledge, put a candle and a
candle-stick on the table, and a tin cup beside them.
“I thought there was no part of Russia where bribery was extinct,” said
the Prince to himself, as the door closed again for the night.
After supper Lermontoff again shined his table, stood upon it, lit his
candle, and resumed his tunnelling, working hard until after midnight.
His progress was deplorably slow, and the spraying of the rock proved
about as tiring a task as ever he had undertaken. His second basin-full
of solution was made a little stronger, but without perceptible
improvement, in its effect. On ceasing operations for the night he
found himself in a situation common to few prisoners, that of being
embarrassed with riches. He possessed two basins, and one of them must
be concealed. Of course he might leave his working basin in the upper
tunnel where it had rested when the gaoler had brought in his supper,
but he realized that at any moment the lantern’s rays might strike its
shining surface, and so bring on an investigation of the upper tunnel,
certain to prove the destruction of his whole scheme. A few minutes
thought, however, solved the problem admirably: he placed the basin face
downwards in the rapid stream which swept it to the iron bars between
the two cells, and there it lay quite concealed with the swift water
rippling over it. This done, he flung off his clothes, and got into
bed, not awakening until the gaoler and his assistant brought in bread,
cheese and coffee for breakfast.
The next day he began to feel the inconveniences of the Governor’s
friendship, and wished he were safely back to the time when one loaf
lasted four days, for if such were now the case, he would be free of the
constant state of tension which the ever-recurring visits of the gaoler
caused. He feared that some day he might become so absorbed in his
occupation that he would not hear the withdrawing of the bolt, and thus,
as it were, be caught in the act.
Shortly after lunch the Governor sent for him, and asked many questions
pertaining to the running of the dynamo. Lermontoff concealed his
impatience, and set about his instructions with exemplary earnestness.
Russian text books on electricity at hand were of the most rudimentary
description, and although the Governor could speak German he could not
read it, so the two volumes he possessed in that language were closed
to him. Therefore John was compelled to begin at the very A B C of the
science.
The Governor, however, became so deeply interested that he momentarily
forgot his caution, unlocked a door, and took Lermontoff into a room
which he saw was the armory and ammunition store-house of the prison.
On the floor of this chamber the Governor pointed out a large battery
of accumulators, and asked what they were for. Lermontoff explained the
purposes of the battery, meanwhile examining it thoroughly, and finding
that many of the cells had been all but ruined in transit, through the
falling away of the composition in the grids. Something like half of the
accumulators, however, were intact and workable; these he uncoupled and
brought into the dynamo room, where he showed the Governor the process
of charging. He saw in the store room a box containing incandescent
lamps, coils of silk-covered wire and other material that made his eyes
glisten with delight. He spoke in German.
“If you will give me a coil of this wire, one or two of the lamps, and
an accumulator, or indeed half a dozen of them, I will trouble you no
more for candles.”
The Governor did not reply at the moment, but a short time after asked
Lermontoff in Russian how long it would be before the accumulators were
charged. Lermontoff stated the time, and the Governor told the gaoler
to bring the prisoner from the cell at that hour, and so dismissed his
instructor.
One feature of this interview which pleased Lermontoff was that however
much the Governor became absorbed in these lessons, he never allowed
himself to remain alone with his prisoner. It was evident that in his
cooler moments the Governor had instructed the gaoler and his assistant
to keep ever at the heels of the Prince and always on the alert. Two
huge revolvers were thrust underneath the belt of the gaoler, and the
lantern-holder, was similarly armed. Lermontoff was pleased with this,
for if the Governor had trusted him entirely, even though he demanded no
verbal parole, it would have gone against his grain to strike down the
chief as he ruthlessly intended to do when the time was ripe for it, and
in any case, he told himself, no matter how friendly the Governor might
be, he had the misfortune to stand between his prisoner and liberty.
Lermontoff was again taken from his cell about half an hour before the
time he had named for the completion of the charging, and although the
Governor said nothing of his intention, the gaoler and his man brought
to the cell six charged batteries, a coil of wire, and a dozen lamps.
Lermontoff now changed his working methods. He began each night as soon
as he had finished dinner, and worked till nearly morning, sleeping all
day except when interrupted by the gaoler. Jack, following the example
of Robinson Crusoe, attempted to tie knots on the tail of time by
cutting notches with his knife on the leg of the table, but most days
he forgot to perform this operation, and so his wooden almanac fell
hopelessly out of gear. He estimated that he had been a little more than
a week in prison when he heard by the clang of the bolts that the next
cell was to have an occupant.
“I must prepare a welcome for him,” he said, and so turned out the
electric light at the end of the long flexible wire. He had arranged a
neat little switch of the accumulator, and so snapped the light on and
off at his pleasure, without the trouble of unscrewing the nuts which
held in place one of the copper ends of the wire. Going to the edge
of the stream and lighting his candle, he placed the glass bulb in the
current, paid out the flexible line attached to it, and allowed the bulb
to run the risk of being smashed against the iron bars of the passage,
but the little globe negotiated the rapids without even a perceptible
clink, and came to rest in the bed of the torrent somewhere about
the center of the next cell, tugging like a fish on a hook. Then Jack
mounted the table, leaned into the upper tunnel, and listened.
“I protest,” Drummond cried, speaking loudly, as if the volume of
sound would convey meaning to alien ears, “I protest against this as
an outrage, and demand my right of communication with the British
Ambassador.”
Jack heard the gaoler growl: “This loaf of bread will last you for four
days,” but as this statement was made in Russian, it conveyed no more
meaning to the Englishman than had his own protest of a moment before
brought intelligence to the gaoler. The door clanged shut, and there
followed a dead silence.
“Now we ought to hear some good old British oaths,” said Jack to
himself, but the silence continued.
“Hullo, Alan,” cried Jack through the bars, “I said you would be nabbed
if you didn’t leave St. Petersburg. You’ll pay attention to me next time
I warn you.”
There was no reply, and Jack became alarmed at the continued stillness,
then he heard his friend mutter:
“I’ll be seeing visions by and by. I thought my brain was stronger than
it is--could have sworn that was Jack’s voice.”
Jack got speedily and quietly down, turned on the switch, and hopped
up on the table again, peering through. He knew that the stream had
now become a river of fire, and that it was sending to the ceiling an
unholy, unearthly glow.
“Oh, damn it all!” groaned Drummond, at which Jack roared with laughter.
“Alan,” he shouted, “fish out that electric bulb from the creek and
hold it aloft; then you’ll see where you are. I’m in the next cell; Jack
Lamont, Electrician and Coppersmith: all orders promptly attended to:
best of references, and prices satisfactory.”
“Jack, is that really you, or have I gone demented?”
“Oh, you always were demented, Alan, but it is I, right enough. Pick up
the light and tell me what kind of a cell you’ve got.”
“Horrible!” cried Drummond, surveying his situation. “Walls apparently
of solid rock, and this uncanny stream running across the floor.”
“How are you furnished? Shelf of rock, stone bench?”
“No, there’s a table, cot bed, and a wooden chair.”
“Why, my dear man, what are you growling about? They have given you one
of the best rooms in the hotel. You’re in the Star Chamber.”
“Where in the name of heaven are we?”
“Didn’t you recognize the rock from the deck of a steamer?”
“I never saw the deck of a steamer.”
“Then how did you come here?”
“I was writing a letter in my room when someone threw a sack over my
head, and tied me up in a bundle, so that it was a close shave I wasn’t
smothered. I was taken in what I suppose was a cab and flung into what
I afterwards learned was the hold of a steamer. When the ship stopped,
I was carried like a sack of meal on someone’s shoulder, and unhampered
before a gaunt specter in uniform, in a room so dazzling with electric
light that I could hardly see. That was a few minutes ago, Now I am
here, and starving. Where is this prison?”
“Like the Mikado, as Kate would say, the authorities are bent on making
the punishment fit the crime. You are in the rock of the Baltic, which
you fired at with that gun of yours. I told you those suave officials at
St. Petersburg were playing with you.”
“But why have they put you here, Jack?”
“Oh, I was like the good dog Tray, who associated with questionable
company, I suppose, and thus got into trouble.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You ought to be glad. I’m going to get out of this place, and I don’t
believe you could break gaol, unassisted, in twenty years. Here is where
science confronts brutality. I say, Drummond, bring your table over to
the corner, and mount it, then we can talk without shouting. Not much
chance of any one outside hearing us, even if we do clamor, but this is
a damp situation, and loud talk is bad for the throat. Cut a slice of
that brown bread and lunch with me. You’ll find it not half bad, as you
say in England, especially when you are hungry. Now,” continued Jack, as
his friend stood opposite him, and they found by experiment that their
combined reach was not long enough to enable them to shake hands
through the bars, “now, while you are luxuriating in the menu of the
Trogzmondoff, I’ll give you a sketch of my plan for escape.”
“Do,” said Drummond.
“I happen to have with me a pair of bottles containing a substance
which, if dissolved in water, and sprinkled on this rock, will
disintegrate it. It proves rather slow work, I must admit, but I intend
to float in to you one of the bottles, and the apparatus, so that you
may help me on your side, which plan has the advantage of giving you
useful occupation, and allowing us to complete our task in half the
time, like the engineers on each side of the Simplon Tunnel.”
“If there are bars in the lower watercourse,” objected Drummond, “won’t
you run a risk of breaking your bottle against them?”
“Not the slightest. I have just sent that much thinner electric lamp
through, but in this case I’ll just tie up the bottle and squirt gun in
my stocking, attach that to the wire, and the current will do the rest.
You can unload, and I’ll pull my stocking back again. If I dared wrench
off a table leg, I could perhaps shove bottle and syringe through to you
from here, but the material would come to a dead center in the middle of
this tunnel, unless I had a stick to push it within your reach.
“Very well; we’ll work away until our excavation connects, and we have
made it of sufficient diameter for you to squeeze through. You are then
in my cell. We put out our lights, and you conceal yourself behind the
door. Gaoler and man with the lantern come in. You must be very careful
not to close the door, because if you once shove it shut we can’t open
it from this side, even though it is unlocked and the bolts drawn.
It fits like wax, and almost hermetically seals the room. You spring
forward, and deal the gaoler with your fist one of your justly
celebrated English knock-down blows, immediately after felling the man
with the lantern. Knowing something of the weight of your blow, I take
it that neither of the two men will recover consciousness until we have
taken off their outer garments, secured revolvers and keys. Then we lock
them in, you and I on the outside.”
“My dear Jack, we don’t need any tunnel to accomplish that. The first
time these two men come into my room, I can knock them down as easily
here as there.”
“I thought of that, and perhaps you could, but you must remember we
have only one shot. If you made a mistake; if the lantern man bolted and
fired his pistol, and once closed the door--he would not need to pause
to lock it--why, we are done for. I should be perfectly helpless in the
next room, and after the attempt they’d either drown us, or put us into
worse cells as far apart as possible.”
“I don’t think I should miss fire,” said Drummond, confidently, “still,
I see the point, and will obey orders.”
“My official position on the rock, ever since I arrived, has been that
of electrical tutor-in-chief to the Governor. I have started his dynamo
working, and have wired such portions of the place as were not already
wired before. During these lessons I have kept my eyes open. So far as
the prison is concerned, there is the Governor, a sort of head clerk,
the gaoler and his assistant; four men, and that is all. The gaoler’s
assistant appears to be the cook of the place, although the cooking done
is of the most limited description. The black bread is brought from St.
Petersburg, I think, as also tinned meat and soup; so the cuisine is on
a somewhat limited scale.”
“Do you mean to say that only these four men are in charge of the
prison?”
“Practically so, but there is the garrison as well. The soldiers live
in a suite of rooms directly above us, and as near as I can form an
opinion, there are fourteen men and two officers. When a steamer arrives
they draft as many soldiers as are necessary, unload the boat; then the
Tommies go upstairs again. The military section apparently holds little
intercourse with the officials, whom they look upon as gaolers. I should
judge that the military officer is chief of the rock, because when he
found the Governor’s room lit by electricity, he demanded the same for
his quarters. That’s how I came to get upstairs. Now, these stairs are
hewn in the rock, are circular, guarded by heavy oaken doors top and
bottom, and these doors possess steel bolts on both sides of them. It is
thus possible for either the military authorities upstairs, or the civil
authorities, to isolate themselves from the others. In case of a revolt
among the soldiers, the Governor could bolt them into their attic,
and they would find great difficulty in getting out. Now, my plan of
procedure is this. We will disarm gaoler and assistant, take their keys,
outside garments and caps. The gaoler’s toggery will fit you, and the
other fellow’s may do for me. Then we will lock them in here, and if
we meet clerk or Governor in the passages we will have time to overcome
either or both before they are aware of the change. I’ll go up the
circular stair, bolt from the inside the upper door, and afterwards
bolt the lower door. Then we open all the cells, and release the other
prisoners, descend from the rock, get into the Finnish fishing boat,
keep clear of the two cannon that are up above us, and sail for the
Swedish coast. We can’t miss it; we have only to travel west, and
ultimately we are safe. There is only one danger, which is that we may
make our attempt when the steamer is here, but we must chance that.”
“Isn’t there any way of finding out? Couldn’t you pump the Governor?”
“He is always very much on his guard, and is a taciturn man. The
moment the tunnel is finished I shall question him about some further
electrical material, and then perhaps I may get a hint about the
steamer. I imagine she comes irregularly, so the only safe plan would be
for us to make our attempt just after she had departed.”
“Would there be any chance of our finding a number of the military
downstairs?”
“I don’t think so. Now that they have their electric light they spend
their time playing cards and drinking vodka.”
“Very well, Jack, that scheme seems reasonably feasible. Now, get
through your material to me, and issue your instructions.”