CHAPTER XXXIX.
SAVED.
"I hear two distinct knocks following each other," cried Lenz; "I will give a signal in answer; I will set the clocks all playing."
He did so, but the confusion of sounds quite stupefied him; even at this moment of deadly anguish, the discord was insupportable to him. In his excitement, he had injured the mechanism of the largest musical clock, which went to his heart.
Again they held their breath and listened eagerly, but all was still.
"I rejoiced too soon," said Petrowitsch, his teeth chattering from excitement, "we are still nearer death than life."
Again distinct knocks were heard, and Petrowitsch complained that the hammering seemed to knock his head, and that every blow went through his brain.
Lenz could not have set the clocks properly, for suddenly one of them began to play the air of the grand Hallelujah, and Lenz sang with it:—"Hallelujah! Praise God, the Lord!"
Annele sang with him, placing one hand on Lenz's shoulder, and the other on the head of her child, and up above a voice shouted—"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"