“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.”