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Alexandre Dumas: Twenty Years After73. Fatality. (continued)"What's the matter?" cried Mordaunt, who, coming up out of the hatchway, rushed to the stern, waving his torch. "Only that our enemies have escaped; they have cut the cord and gone off with the boat." Mordaunt bounded with one step to the cabin and kicked open the door. "Empty!" he exclaimed; "the infernal demons!" "We must pursue them," said Groslow, "they can't be gone far, and we will sink them, passing over them." "Yes, but the fire," ejaculated Mordaunt; "I have lighted it." "Ten thousand devils!" cried Groslow, rushing to the hatchway; "perhaps there is still time to save us." Mordaunt answered only by a terrible laugh, threw his torch into the sea and plunged in after it. The instant Groslow put his foot upon the hatchway steps the ship opened like the crater of a volcano. A burst of flame rose toward the skies with an explosion like that of a hundred cannon; the air burned, ignited by flaming embers, then the frightful lightning disappeared, the brands sank, one after another, into the abyss, where they were extinguished, and save for a slight vibration in the air, after a few minutes had elapsed one would have thought that nothing had happened. Only -- the felucca had disappeared from the surface of the sea and Groslow and his three sailors were consumed. The four friends saw all this -- not a single detail of this fearful scene escaped them. At one moment, bathed as they were in a flood of brilliant light, which illumined the sea for the space of a league, they might each be seen, each by his own peculiar attitude and manner expressing the awe which, even in their hearts of bronze, they could not help experiencing. Soon a torrent of vivid sparks fell around them -- then, at last, the volcano was extinguished -- then all was dark and still -- the floating bark and heaving ocean. They sat silent and dejected. This is page 696 of 841. [Mark this Page] Mark any page to add this title to Your Bookshelf. (0 / 10 books on shelf) Buy a copy of Twenty Years After at Amazon.com
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