CHAPTER XV
THE MYSTERIOUS PRISON
"Good Lord! How my head aches! It feels as though it were made oflead!... I have a fire in my veins and such a thirst! Here and now Imake a firm resolution never to give way again to such dissipation.Never again will I drink champagne in such quantities. But, where thedeuce am I?... It's still pitch dark!... Ah, I remember ... it'soutrageous! Help! Help!"
King Frederick-Christian had wakened. At first he experienced the usualunpleasant sensations which follow a night of heavy drinking and then,as his memory returned, he was afraid, horribly afraid.
He recalled his arrival at Susy d'Orsel's apartment in company with theyoung companion he had picked up at Raxim's and the subsequent supper,and then he broke into a cold sweat as his mind flashed to the pictureof Fandor's return with the inanimate body of his mistress in hisarms--dead. Yes, she was undoubtedly dead!
And afterwards, what had happened?
His companion had declared himself to be the journalist, Jerome Fandor,and had called him by name--Frederick-Christian. Furthermore, he hadcried:
"It was you who killed Susy d'Orsel. It was you who threw her out of thewindow!"
What had happened after that? His mind was a complete blank.
Had these events occurred recently, or a long time ago? His headache andthirst were proof that they could not have been far distant.
"Where am I? Evidently not at the Royal Palace!"
When he first wakened he was lying flat on his back; now he sat up andgroped about with his hands. The ground beneath him was cold andhard ... a floor of earth. So they had put him in a vault? in acellar?
The air he breathed was heavy and warm, and the walls of his cell feltdamp to the touch. Could he be in prison? That was hardly possible, insuch a short time. Besides, he was innocent! As he sat listening, hedetected a faint and faraway rumbling sound. It seemed to come fromabove his head.
As his senses became more fully aroused, an indefinable terror struck tohis heart. At all costs he must take some action. He rose suddenly tohis feet but before he reached his full height his head struck theroof. The blow was so violent that he fell back again in a faintingcondition.
It was not until many hours afterward that he regained his sensessufficiently to make another attempt. This time he proceeded with morecaution.
"I am the victim of some gang," he thought. "This Jerome Fandor isprobably the leader of a band of cutthroats who, after killing Susyd'Orsel, took advantage of my intoxication to make me unconscious withsome narcotic, and then dragged me to the place I am now in."
The King now began to explore the place on his hands and knees, his earskeenly alive to the slightest sound. He crawled around trying todiscover the extent and nature of his prison.
The floor appeared to be of hard earth with occasional stretches ofcement. The walls were smooth, but whether of stone or metal he couldnot determine. The height of the ceiling at the point where he lay wasnot over three feet, but gradually rose, vault-like, until he was ableto stand fully upright. Was he buried alive in some kind of tomb? Theidea terrified him and he began to shout for help. After many fruitlessefforts and completely exhausted, he dropped to the ground overcome withthe horror of his situation.
The distant rumbling sound now became louder from time to time, and atmoments shook the walls of his prison, then died away to a faint murmur.
Frederick-Christian now tried to collect his thoughts upon the situationand bring some sort of order to his mind.
Susy d'Orsel was dead ...
The King had felt no deep love for the girl. Still, he had been fond ofher in a way and her sudden death affected him deeply.
He himself was a prisoner. But a prisoner of whom? Evidently of thosewho had killed his mistress. Again, in all probability, they did notcontemplate killing him since they had had the opportunity to do so andhe was still alive and unharmed. This being so, they would not let himdie of hunger and thirst.
His watch had stopped and he had no way of measuring the lapse of time;but his attention was called to the fact that the rumbling noises werehappening at greater intervals.
"The pulse-beats of a man are separated by intervals of a second," hethought, "and by counting my pulse I can determine the interval betweenthe rumbling, and thus gain some idea of the passing hours."
He was about to put this plan into practice when a sudden cry escapedhim:
"Good God!"
In the blackness of his cell a thin shaft of light appeared.
The King sprang toward it, but found the light too feeble for him todistinguish surrounding objects by. It entered the cell through a smallfissure in one of the walls, and after a few minutes was suddenlywithdrawn. Frederick-Christian stumbled forward in the darkness and,after taking a few steps, his feet struck some object lying on theground. Stooping down, he groped with his hands until they touchedsomething that drew from him an exclamation of joy ... he had found apile of bottles. He seized one and opened it with a corkscrew which laynear by.
One draught and he realized that the bottle contained wine. Thereupon heopened several more but with the same result. To drink them would onlyincrease his thirst. He had the strength to resist the temptation. Againhe moved forward and this time ran into a large box. His hand touchedsomething cold. It was meat of some kind. After smelling and tasting ithe flung it from him. It was a salt ham.
Hours passed while Frederick-Christian suffered the tortures of hungerand thirst. Cold and tired out, he finally lay down on the ground,writhing with violent pains in his stomach. At length he could stand itno longer, and dragging himself to the box, he seized the ham and beganto devour it ravenously. This brought on a maddening thirst, which hetried to quench by long draughts of the wine. Then he became very drunkand so, laughing and crying, he drank until he lost consciousness oncemore.
* * * * *
"Sire! Can you hear me?"
A sharp voice broke the silence. It seemed to come from a distance.
"Sire, can you hear me?... Answer!"
Frederick-Christian sprang up.
"Who is speaking? Who are you? Help! Help!"
The voice, mocking and authoritative, answered:
"Now, then, keep quiet. I am not within reach, so it is useless to cryfor help."
"Scoundrel!" cried the King.
"There's no use in behaving like a child ... you won't gain anything byit."
"Pity, pity!... I will make you rich ... I will give you anything youask, only set me at liberty ... take me out of this prison or I shallbecome mad."
"Have you done with your lamentations?"
"I'll be revenged!"
"I am beyond your vengeance, Sire, and you would do well to talk quietlywith me."
"You killed my mistress, Susy d'Orsel!"
"Yes, I killed her."
"You are Fandor--Jerome Fandor!"
"What you say is absurd."
"And my Kingdom? The Queen, my wife? What is happening?"
"I didn't come here to discuss politics with you. You must bereasonable."
"What do you want with me? Why was I brought here?"
"Ah, now we can discuss the matter together. You ask me what I want.First of all, let me reassure you. I do not intend to kill you. Yourdeath would not be of the slightest use to me. Otherwise I shouldn'thesitate an instant."
"I'm not afraid of death."
"I know that, Sire ... you are brave.... I want your diamond."
"My diamond!"
"Exactly. I am quite aware, Frederick-Christian, that your personalfortune is represented by a diamond of marvelous purity and size. I alsoknow that it is hidden in your Palace. You, alone, know where. I wantyou to disclose its hiding place to me so that I may go and get it."
"Never! I'm not a coward!"
"You are stupid, Sire. I repeat, once in possession of the diamond, Iwill set you at liberty."
"Lies!"
"Sire, consider a moment. It would be practically i
mpossible for me torealize anything like the value of the diamond. To sell it I should beobliged to break it into small pieces, and in that case it wouldscarcely fetch more than twenty millions. Now, I have a bettersuggestion to offer."
"What is it?"
"You are to give me directions how to find it. Once in my possession,you are free. You will then draw the sum of fifty millions from yourbank. As King that will be quite possible. This money you will turn overto me in exchange for your diamond. And don't think you will be able tocatch me. I shall take care that the exchange is made without witnesses,and in such a way that I run no risk of arrest. Now, what do you say tomy proposition?"
"I refuse."
"Very well, then in two hours you will be dead. I pledge my word forit.... And my word has some value. Perhaps you guess who I am."
"Who? Who?"
"I am Fantomas, Sire."
At this name of horror and crime, Frederick-Christian was seized withthe utmost terror. In a broken voice he replied:
"I accept."
And then in trembling, disjointed sentences, he gave up the secret ofthe hiding place in his Palace at Glotzbourg.