Adrift in Pacific and Other Great Adventures – 17 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Jules Verne
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do not believe in diabolic intervention. And so they had resolved to destroy the castle completely, and were only waiting for the moment to act. An electric current had been prepared for firing the charges of dynamite which had been buried in the donjon, the bastions, and the old chapel, and the arrangement would allow of the baron and his accomplice having time to escape by the tunnel on to the Vulkan road. After the explosion, of which the count and a number of those who had scaled the castle wall would be the victims, the two would get so far away that no trace of them would be discoverable.
What he had just heard had given Franz the explanation of many things that had happened. He now knew that telephonic communication existed between the Castle of the Carpathians and the village of Werst. He also knew that the castle was about to be destroyed in an explosion which would cost him his life and be fatal to the police brought by Rotzko. He knew that the Baron de Gortz and Orfanik would have time to get away, dragging with them the unconscious La Stilla.
Ah! why could not Franz rush into the chapel and throw himself on these men? He would have knocked them down, he would have stopped their injuring anyone, he would have prevented the catastrophe.
But what was impossible at the moment might not be so after the baron’s departure. When the two had left the chapel Franz would throw himself on their track, pursue them to the castle, and with God’s help would settle with them.
The baron and Orfanik were already in the apse. Franz had not lost sight of them. Which way were they going out? Was there a door opening on to the enclosure? or was there some corridor connecting the chapel with the donjon? for it seemed as though all the castle buildings were in communication with each other. It mattered little if the count did not meet with an obstacle he could not surmount.
At this moment a few words were interchanged between Baron de Gortz and Orfanik:—
“There is nothing more to do here?”
“Nothing.”
“Then we can leave each other.”
“You still intend that I should leave you alone in the castle?”
“Yes, Orfanik; and you get off at once by the tunnel on to the Vulkan road.”
“But you?”
“I shall not leave the castle until the last moment.”
“It is understood that I am to wait for you at Bistritz?”
“At Bistritz.”
“Remain here, Baron Rodolphe, and remain alone, if that is your wish.”
“Yes—for I wish to hear her—to hear her once again during this last night I shall pass in the Castle of the Carpathians.”
A few moments afterwards the Baron de Gortz and Orfanik had left the chapel.
Although La Stilla’s name had not been mentioned in this conversation, Franz understood; it was of her that Rodolphe de Gortz had just spoken.
CHAPTER XVI.
The catastrophe was imminent. Franz could only prevent it by rendering the baron incapable of executing his plan.
It was then eleven o’clock at night. With no further fear of being discovered, Franz resumed his work. The bricks were easily taken out of the wall, but its thickness was such that half an hour elapsed before the opening was large enough to admit him through.
As soon as he set foot in this chapel, open to all the winds that blew, he felt himself refreshed by the night air. Through the gaps in the roof and window-frames the sky could be seen, with the light clouds driving before the breeze. Here and there were a few stars, which were growing pale in the light of the moon now rising on the horizon.
Franz’s object was to find the door which opened at the end of the chapel, by which the Baron de Gortz and Orfanik had gone out; and, crossing the nave obliquely, he advanced towards the apse.
This was in the darkness where none of the moonlight penetrated, and his foot stumbled against the ruins of the tombs and the fragments fallen from the roof.
At last, at the very end of the apse, behind the reredos, in a dark corner Franz felt a mouldy door yield before his hand.
This door opened on a gallery which apparently traversed the outer wall.
By it the baron and Orfanik had entered the chapel, and by it they had just departed.
As soon as Franz was in the gallery, he again found himself in complete darkness. After winding about a good deal without either a rise or a fall, he was certain that he was now on a level with the interior courts.
Half an hour later the darkness did not seem to be so deep; a kind of half-light glided through several lateral openings in the gallery.
Franz was able to walk faster, and reached a large casemate contrived under the platform of the bastion which flanked the left angle of the outer wall.
This casemate was pierced with narrow loopholes, through which streamed the rays of the moon.
In the opposite wall was an open door.
Franz’s first care was to place himself at one of the loopholes so as to breathe the fresh night breeze for a few seconds.
But just as he was moving away he thought he saw two or three shadowy shapes moving at the lower end of the Orgall plateau, which was now full in the moonlight up to the sombre masses of the pine-forest
Franz looked again.
A few men were moving about on the plateau just in front of the trees—doubtless the Karlsburg police brought by Rotzko. Had they, then, decided to attack that night in the hope of surprising the occupants of the castle, or were they waiting for daybreak?
It required considerable effort on Franz’s part not to shout and call Rotzko, who would have heard and recognized his voice. But the shout might reach the donjon, and before the police had scaled the wall Rodolphe de Gortz would have had time to put his device in action and escape by way of the tunnel.
Franz succeeded in restraining himself and moved away from the loophole. Crossing the casemate, he went out at the other door and continued along the gallery.
Five hundred yards farther on he arrived at the foot of a staircase which rose in the thickness of the walls.
Had he, then, at last arrived at the donjon, in the centre of the place of arms? It seemed so.
But this staircase might not be the principal one giving access to the different floors. It was composed of a series of circular steps, arranged like the thread of a screw, within a dark, narrow cage.
Franz went up quietly, listening but hearing nothing, and after twenty steps reached a landing.
There a door opened on to the terrace which surrounded the donjon at the height of the first floor.
Franz glided along this terrace, and, taking care to keep in shelter behind the parapet, looked out over the Orgall plateau
Several men were still on the edge of the fir-wood, and there was no sign of their coming nearer the castle.
Resolved to meet the baron before he fled through the tunnel, Franz went round the terrace, and reached another door where the staircase resumed its upward course.
He put his foot on the first step, rested both his hands against the wall, and began to ascend.
All was silent.
The room on the first floor was not inhabited.
Franz hurried on up to the landings which gave access to the higher floors.
When he reached the third