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. ... 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.

"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 ran through his heart. The windows of the vessel were all lighted up, and the crew were lining the bulwarks.

"Betrayed!—utterly betrayed!" he cried in despair as he cursed and abjured the Devil and all his works. "Nay, there is no Devil!—there is nothing!—nothing!"