Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/167

  the wall, and I heard his discordant laugh stifled to a hissing gurgle. He carried a pick axe.

" 'Diable!'  said he. 'I heard you relieve the sentries! I was close under the wall. It was funny! Have you found where they have put little Jacob?'

Yes,' I answered. 'Follow me.'

"I led him along the angle of the wall until we came to the casemates where the sentry had said that the prisoners were confined, and then, as we paused before the first of these, the utter stillness was again broken by a paroxysm of coughing; and this time, although no less violent than before, it struck me that there was in it an accent of exhaustion—an extreme exhaustion as of muscles too fatigued to respond even to a reflex.

"  'Sacré!'  growled Rosenthal, and gripped my arm. 'Do you hear that? It is the little Jacob. 'He flew to the door of the casemate; the port on the other side opened on the sea, and was, of course, heavily barred. [ 151 ]