"We will all go with you against Hell itself!" shouted the men.
"Nay, my men; against the powers of Hell we will never fight, but only against those of Heaven and Earth. Henceforth we will league ourselves with all the fiends of Darkness and the Storm!"
The weather was tempestuous and the sea was running high. Not until the following day did the Admiralty decide to pursue the vessel which had vanished so suddenly in full sail. It was then too late to overtake her.
It was shortly afterwards that the sad news reached St. Petersburg that the fugitive vessel had run upon the rocks of Dago. Her mainmast and bowsprit were all that was ever picked up, so it was plain to all men that the Gladova Strela, with her fifty men and seven guns, had gone to the bottom. So after all, men said, things had perhaps happened as they ought. At all events, the name of Captain Feodor Von Ungern was utterly forgotten.
CHAPTER III
The Observatory
It was in the following spring that the lofty tower arose on the promontory of the Isthmus of Dago. The building was quite unnoticed except by the inhabitants of the island. The ordinary track of vessels was then far distant from the spot.
At that time the island of Dago still belonged to Finland. Although under Swedish rule, it formed a small republic standing by itself, in whose internal affairs no one interfered. The governor of the island had, of course, made inquiries regarding the inhabitants of the tower, and had learnt that they were foreign seamen, whose vessel had been wrecked in the neighbourhood. Their commander was reported to be a most cultured gentleman, capable of conversing fluently in Latin as well as in Dutch. He had purchased the whole of the waste promontory from the authorities of the island with hard cash, and had then had the stupendous edifice built by his own men and in accordance with his own plans. When it was completed the whole company lived together in the tower. How many of them there might be was never exactly known, for they never showed themselves outside their fortress walls. But what, it was often asked, could be the occupation of the men within? That, however, was a mystery to the islanders.
But the mystery of mysteries was: What did the inmates eat?