Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen Between Heaven and Earth

After the second interrogation, Radko returned to his cell, not understanding what had happened.The entrusted investigation came to such a result, Radko's mind seemed to be emptied all of a sudden, and he could barely hear the few questions the judge asked him, and when he answered, his expression was completely dull .Everything he encountered far exceeded his expectations.How on earth are people going to treat him?He had been hijacked by a group of mysterious enemies, held for many days on a barge, only to lose it again as soon as he was freed.Now, they actually found another Elijah in Sarka.Brush, the alter ego, is still at his house!This can't be a phantom!

He was panicked and at a loss for what to do by this series of unexplainable changes. He only felt that he had become a puppet in the hands of those upper-level forces and hostile forces, like a dying prey that could not be parried, and was involuntarily drawn into a Among the cogs of a gigantic machine, the name of this machine is: Justice! Radko's depression and mental fatigue were so clearly written on his face that one of the jailers who escorted him could not help but feel pity, although the guard thought him the most despicable and detestable criminal. . Man, it doesn't seem to be going well!asked the little official.Due to his occupation, he was used to watching the tragedies in the world, and had long since become insensitive, but at this moment, there was a bit of comfort in his words.

He was literally talking to the deaf, and that was about as good as it got. Do not be discouraged!The sympathetic guard said again, you have to find a reason for yourself.Izar.Mr. Rona is not unreasonable. Maybe everything will be much better than you think. I leave this to you. There is news about your hometown on it. You can take a look at the newspaper to relax. The prisoner remained motionless.He heard nothing. He didn't hear the door lock, and he didn't notice the newspaper on the table when the jailer left.What the jailer did was essentially a form of dereliction of duty. The suspect should have been under strict supervision, and any news should have been blocked.

Time passed quietly.The day is over, it is night, and then a new dawn is ushered in.Radko collapsed on the chair, not feeling the slip of time at all. However, when the sun hit his face again, Radko seemed to gradually emerge from this tired and hopeless depression.He opened his eyes and looked around the cell in a daze.The first thing he found was the newspaper left by the sympathetic guard the night before. The newspaper was pushed on the table untouched.Directly below the masthead, the headline printed in large letters stood out: "Bulgarian Massacre", Radko's eyes were suddenly attracted by this headline.

He shuddered, grabbed the newspaper, and recovered reason surged into his heart.His eyes were like lightning, and he quickly read the full text. The events recorded in the newspapers were the subject of widespread discussion throughout Europe at the moment and aroused widespread protests throughout Europe.In the future, this incident will be recorded in history as a very disgraceful page. When this story begins, as this book has already mentioned, the entire Balkan region is seething.In the early summer of 1875, Herzegovina revolted. The troops sent by the Ottoman Empire to suppress it failed to extinguish the flames of the uprising. Since then, in May 1876, Bulgaria has also risen.The Ottoman authorities reacted quickly and assembled a large army in the triangle area with the city of Ruse, Vidin and Sofia as the apex.Finally, on July 1 and 2 of the same year, Serbia and Montenegro also took action, officially declaring war on Turkey.The Serbs, led by the Russian general Chernaev, had initially won some battles but had to withdraw to their own borders.On September 1, Prince Milan was forced to request a ten-day cease-fire. During the cease-fire, he asked the Christian Western powers to intervene. Unfortunately, these powers did not agree.

Thus, the French historian ÉdouardAs Mr. Del Rio wrote in his book "History of the Eastern Question", the most terrible scene in this battle began.It is reminiscent of the scene of the bloodbath on Chios Island during the Greek War.This time, the corpses were strewn all over the land of Bulgaria, which was extremely tragic.During the war against Serbia and Montenegro, the Turkish Sultanate ordered the Bulgarian governor Chevkat Pasha to crush the rebel army at any cost, fearing that the Bulgarian uprising would set fire to his backyard.This is probably the case. Turkey summoned a team of Baki Busuk and Circassians from Asia to Bulgaria.So within a few days Bulgaria became a sea of ​​blood and fire.These soldiers did whatever they wanted, burning down villages, torturing, beating and massacring men, disemboweling women and chopping up children.Twenty to thirty thousand people were killed

Radko read the newspaper and broke out in a cold sweat.Nadya!What will happen to Nadya in this terrible upheaval?is she still aliveOr was it a victim, disemboweled and chopped up like so many other innocent victims, thrown in the mud, in the pollution, in the pool of blood, and trampled by the enemy cavalry? Radko stood up abruptly, and ran wildly around the cell, like a beast trapped in a cage, as if looking for an exit so that he could fly to rescue his Nadya! This desperate struggle soon subsided.Soon, he regained his sanity, forced himself to calm down with great perseverance, and used a clear head to think about the way to regain freedom.

Is it all right to go to a judge and tell him the truth without reservation, begging him if necessary?This is not a good idea.He has been hiding the truth of the matter for so long with a mouthful of lies, and now it is not easy to gain the trust of a preconceived person.How could he wipe away all the suspicions in Radko's name with a few understated explanations?Overturn all the criminal charges against him in a blink of an eye?He can't do it.Even if it can be done in the end, at least it will have to wait for the court to investigate clearly, and their investigation can range from a few weeks to a few months.

It seems that the best way is to escape. From the moment he stepped into this cell, this was the first time Radko had observed his cell carefully.He saw it quickly.There are four walls with two openings: one is a door and the other is a window.Behind the three walls are other cells and prisons, and only outside the windows is space and freedom!The windows reached to the ceiling, and the sills were more than a meter and a half high.A row of thick iron rods are deeply embedded in the belly of the window frame, preventing prisoners from going out through the window.In addition, after overcoming this obstacle, there is another layer of obstacles.A ventilation hood was installed outside the window, blocking all views except upwards to a narrow sky.Before the real prison escape, just to find a way to escape, you must first break through the barrier of the window grille, and then use the strength of your arms to do a pull-up movement and poke your head out of the ventilation hood, so that you can see the surrounding situation clearly.

According to the previous visits to Izar.When Mr. Rona judged the series of stairs, Serge.Radko estimated that he was being held on the fifth floor of the prison, that is to say, he was at least twelve to fourteen meters above the ground.Can it pass this distance?He had no intention of exploring its possibilities, and decided to act immediately. First, though, you have to get a tool.When he was imprisoned, everything on him was confiscated.Nothing in the cell could help him.A table, an armchair, and a bed. The so-called bed is just a brick arch with some bedding on it. These are all the possessions here.

Radko searched for a long time but couldn't find anything usable. He touched his clothes back and forth hundreds of times, and finally, his hand finally touched a hard object.He, like the wardens, had never noticed such an insignificant thing as a belt buckle.It was the only metal object left on him now, and what a significance this little thing had! Radko undid the belt buckle without missing a second, digging at the foot of one of the bars.The steel belt buckle digs tirelessly on the brick wall, finally turning the bricks into dust and scattering them on the ground.The work itself was already difficult and slow, but it was further complicated by the close surveillance the prisoners were subjected to.In less than an hour, the guards will come over and glance at the prisoner through the surveillance hole on the door. Therefore, the prisoner's ears must always be alert to the wind and grass outside. All suspicious traces are removed. In order to eliminate the evidence, Radko even used bread.This bread, pinched together with the powder crumbs that fell from the wall, mixed into a wonderful masonry color, and made a good filling, and it was perfect to fill the hollowed-out wall bit by bit.As for the other debris he dug up, he hid them in the cracks in the bed. After twelve hours of hard work, the bottom of the iron grid was hollowed out by three centimeters, but the belt buckle pins were also worn bald.Radko snapped off the clasp and continued to use the fragments as tools.After another twelve hours, the fragments were also polished away. Happily, the good fortune which had already smiled upon the prisoner once seemed unwilling to abandon him again.When the jailer brought the next meal, Radko had the audacity to leave behind a knife, but no one noticed his petty theft.The next day, he did the same trick again, but actually kept it hidden from him.Thus he had two more presentable tools than the belt buckles he had had before.To be honest, these are just two rough table knives, ugly in appearance, but the blades are not bad, and they have handles, which save a lot of effort to operate. From then on, although the progress of the project was still slow, it was faster than before.The cement on the window sill, after a long time, is almost as hard as granite, and it is extremely difficult to break it.Besides, work had to stop whenever the guards came to spy on him, or when Mr. Rohner interrogated him.Interrogations have become more frequent. However, the results of the interrogation remained unchanged, and the preliminary trial was still standing still.There was a long queue of witnesses at each hearing, but their testimony did not reveal anything.Some witnesses said that Radko had a slight resemblance to the bandit leader, saying that he had seen him faintly when he was robbed; but other witnesses denied it, saying that the two were not alike at all.Mr. Rohner asked the defendant to wear all kinds of fake beards, asked him to take off his glasses to expose his eyes, or asked him to wear sunglasses to cover his eyes. It was the robber.Therefore, the judge wants to wait patiently for a few more days, because Christian the janitor, who was severely injured by the Danube gang,Joel is still recovering, and when his health permits, he is invited to come to Semling to confront the suspect. Radko was tired of these summonses.He obediently obeyed the judge's orders, and conducted various tests.Put on wigs and fake beards, take off and put on sunglasses without defiance.But his mind had long since flown from the courtroom to his cell, where the bars that separated him from his freedom were gradually loosening from the masonry. He only needs four more days to uproot the bars.On the night of September 23, he finally dug the root of the iron fence.Now, he has the other end of the hand saw iron. This part of the job is the toughest.Radko had to hang from the iron rod with one hand.File the tool back and forth with the other hand.And this tool is a knife, of course it will not be effective when used as a saw, but it will only wear down the iron rod very slowly.In addition, this hanging working posture is very strenuous, and you have to stop and rest frequently. On September 29th, after six days of heroic toil, Radko judged that the incision was deep enough.In fact, just a few millimeters more and the iron will break.Now, he can bend the iron rod with little effort, and the time has come!At this moment, the blade of the second table knife has also been ground into a thin line. In the early morning of the next day, after the first inspection, there would be an hour or so of no one to disturb him, and Radko promptly and methodically carried out his plan.As he expected, the iron bars were easily bent, and he got out of the iron bars through the opened hole.Then, with a thrust of his arms, he leaned out of the top hole of the ventilation hood, and Radko looked around greedily. It was about the same as he had predicted. It was about fourteen meters above the ground.It is not impossible to climb this height, as long as there is a long enough rope.However, reaching the ground is only to solve one of the easiest difficulties. Solving this problem does not mean that you are done. Radko could now clearly see that there was a circle of patrol trails around the prison, and after passing by, there was another wall about eight meters high, and there were layers of roofs outside the wall.Therefore, if you go down to the ground, you have to climb over the high wall first, and this obstacle seems insurmountable. There is still a space between the roof and the high wall.It is estimated that there is a street around the prison. Once the prison escaper reaches the street, he can be regarded as having escaped from the tiger's mouth.But is there a safe and secure way to escape to the streets? In order to find the trick to escape from prison, Radko carefully observed from left to right step by step to see if there was anything that could be used.Although he hadn't found any good solution yet, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar figure, which made his heart pound with excitement.It turns out that looking from the left, it is the Danube River. Countless large and small ships are dotted on the yellow and turbid river surface. Some ships sail along the current or against the current, while others are tightly tied to the pier with anchors or cables. .The navigator recognized his own small fishing boat at a glance among the many boats moored by the shore.There was no special marking to distinguish his boat from the ones beside it.It seems that his boat has not been specially monitored by the police!It would be all right if he could slip back to the boat, cross the border in less than an hour, and once on Serbian soil the Austro-Hungarian judiciary would have nothing to do with him. Radko turned his eyes to the right, and he immediately found something special here, so he looked carefully.Near the window, a slender iron bar stretched down from the roof and went deep into the ground.Every certain distance, there is a strong iron hook to buckle it, and the iron hook is deeply embedded in the wall.The thin iron bar looked likely to be the wire of the building's lightning rod.If he could hold on to this iron bar, he could easily descend to the ground. In fact, it is not difficult to do this.At the height of the floor of his cell, there is a waistline built against the wall as a decoration. This decorative building protrudes 20 to 25 centimeters from the wall. As long as he is calm and brave, he can completely step on his waist Xian Xian moved his body slowly and grabbed the wire of the lightning rod. What's worse is that even if he has the ability to complete such a thrilling action that is almost desperate, the outer walls around the prison are still so high and unattainable.Locked up in cells or on patrol lanes, prisoners are not free from captivity either. Radko observed the structure of the wall with unprecedented care and caution, and finally found that on the upper part of the wall, not far from the top of the wall, there was a row of decorative reliefs inside and outside. Square gravel, half embedded in the wall, half falling out of the wall.Radko stared at these architectural decorations for a long time, then slowly slid back to the window sill, re-entered the cell, and then erased any clues that might arouse others' suspicion. He has made up his mind, determined to fight for freedom at all costs, and the way to freedom has been found.Despite the great risks involved, the approach should be feasible and must be successful.Furthermore, instead of continuing to be so worried, it is better to fight to pieces. He waited patiently for the second round of guards to pass.When he was sure that nothing would happen for another period of time, he started to make preparations.He cut the sleeping blanket into more than fifty strips a few centimeters wide with the remains of a table knife.In order not to attract the attention of the guards, he left enough quilts on purpose to keep the original appearance of the bed. As for the inside, it was obvious that no one would think of lifting the quilts to have a look. He twisted the cut cloth strips together four by four like twisting hemp rope, and then connected them piece by piece.When the strips of cloth were cut down one by one, the rope became longer and longer.Radko spent all day doing this.On October 1st, at a few minutes to twelve o'clock at noon, Radko finally had a strong and thick rope, fourteen or fifteen meters long.He carefully hid it under the bedding. Everything is ready.He decided to escape that very evening, to act at nine o'clock. This is the last day in prison.Radko carefully considered even the smallest details of this operation, speculating on the possibilities of success and failure.What will be the final result?Freedom or life lost?It will be known in the near future.All in all, he will give it his all. However, before the time for action came, fate arranged for him one last test.At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the door latch of the cell was suddenly pulled open with a click.What did they want him to do?Could it be Yizar again?Mr. Rona wants to interrogate the prisoner?But the regular arraignment time has passed. No, it wasn't the judge who called him this time. Looking through the open door, Radko caught a glimpse of three strangers standing in the aisle besides the usual guard.One of them was a woman, a young woman in her late twenties who looked very gentle and kind.One of the two men who came with her was apparently her husband.Judging from what the guard said and his respectful attitude, the other man should be the warden of this prison. It turned out to be a visit.The couple received extremely courteous reception from the whole prison. It is not difficult to see that they are very important figures, maybe they are princes and aristocrats who are traveling in the country.The warden was there to guide them. The prisoner in this cell, the warden said to the guests, is the famous Radko, the leader of the Danube gang, you have probably heard of him. The young woman gave the notorious villain a timid look.But the famous villain's appearance is not scary.No one could have imagined that the fierce and vicious bandit leader in the legend was born so thin, thin, pale and frail, with deep pain and such sadness in his eyes. True, he stubbornly insisted on his innocence, added the warden dismissively, but we are all used to that tone. Then, he hastily pointed out to the visitors how clean and orderly the cell was.He spoke so vigorously that he even crossed the threshold into the cell and leaned against the wall under the window so as to face his audience. Radko's heart suddenly tightened, as if it had stopped beating.The orator gestured too much, and unconsciously touched the place where the prisoner had dug, and some cement powder rustled down.The warden's arm moved again, shaking the ash lump made of bread crumbs and cement powder, and the ash lump fell off in one piece and fell on the square bricks.Radko shuddered when he saw that the hollowed-out end of the grate was exposed deep in the notch. Did anyone see it?Yes, someone saw it.While her husband and the warden were mulling over the broken table as if it were a treasure, and the guard was turning his back respectfully, as if examining something in the corridor, the lady's eyes Staring at the gap in the wall, the expression on her face showed that she fully understood the mysterious language. She was about to speak, just one word, and all Radko's heart and soul would be in vain. Radko waited, waited, feeling that his life was passing away bit by bit. The young woman's face turned pale slightly, and she raised her eyes to look at the prisoner, looking at him with clear eyes.Did she see the great tears rolling slowly from the poor man's eyelids?Did she understand his silent pleading?Did she feel his utter despair? Ten tragic seconds passed before she turned around suddenly and let out a cry of pain.The two men accompanying her ran towards her.What's up with her?It's nothing, she said, with a slight tremor in her voice and a forced smile.She said that she accidentally twisted her foot just now, it was as simple as that. While her husband, the warden, and the guards tended to her, Radko, unnoticed, went to the window and blocked the opening.Her husband and the warden helped the so-called wounded man out of the cell, and the guard hastily closed the door, leaving Radko alone in the room. How grateful he was to this gentle and kind woman!Thanks to her mercy, he was saved.She gave him his life, not only that, she also gave him freedom! Radko was so exhausted that he fell on the bed.The emotional shock he experienced just now was too sudden, and his heart was still trembling under the final test of fate. The day finally passed without any further incidents.The bell from the outskirts of the city came from far away, and it struck nine o'clock in the evening.Night had already enveloped the earth tightly.Large chunks of dark clouds piled up in the sky, making the night look extraordinarily dark. There was a sound of footsteps coming from far and near in the corridor, indicating that someone had come to inspect.The footsteps stopped in front of the door, and a guard put his eyes close to the peephole and walked away satisfied.The prisoner lay on the bed with the quilt covered up to his chin.The inspector left, and the sound of footsteps gradually faded away and finally disappeared. The time for action has come. Radko immediately jumped out of bed, made the quilt loose, and in the dark cell, it looked like a person was sleeping inside.After disguising.He put on the rope on his back, got out of the window grille again, used the strength of his arms to hang himself up like last time, got out of the ventilation hood, and then straddled the board wall of the ventilation hood with his legs. The height of the girdle that adorns the house is just at the same level as the floors of the floors.Radko is now about four meters from the lower waistline where he can land.He had already considered this difficulty.I saw him wrap a rope around an iron rod of the window grille, then hold both ends of the rope in his hands, and let his body slide down slowly, landing lightly on the waistline. The fugitive leaned against the wall, holding the rope that hung him with his left hand, and took a short rest.With such a narrow waistline, how can you keep your body balanced?As soon as he let go of the rope, he would fall to the patrol road and be smashed. Very carefully, very slowly, he switched the rope to his right hand, and with his left he groped around the outer wall of the fume hood.It is impossible for the ventilation hood to hang out of the window like this, there must be some mechanism to support its weight.He groped with all his heart, and soon found a solid object. After hesitating for a while, he finally figured out that it was an iron hook embedded in the wall. No matter how weak the iron hook might be, he could only be satisfied with this small support.Radko clasped the hook tightly with his fingers, and then slowly pulled one end of the rope, so that the whole rope came back to his shoulder little by little.He had no way out, even if he wanted to retreat to the cell at this time, it was impossible.In any case, he must carry out his escape plan to the end. At the risk of falling, Radko turned his head slightly to the wire of the miraculous needle, which was his life-saving crutch, with the help of which Radko was able to climb down.This sight made his hair stand on end. He found that the ventilation hood he was climbing on was about two meters away from the iron bar. If he left his current position for a moment, he would fall downstairs and die. But he had to make a decision.Standing on this narrow waistline, with your back against the wall, and your fingertips struggling to hook this unreliable iron hook, how long can you last in this posture?Stay a few more minutes, and his fingers will ache and tire, and he will inevitably fall downstairs as soon as he lets go.Before you fall to your death, you might as well make one last effort. The fugitive leaned his body towards the window, retracted his left arm like a compressed spring, then snapped off his hand and jumped out, leaping to the right. He slumped straight down, his shoulders brushing against his raised waistline.However, fortunately, he jumped far enough, and his outstretched hands finally caught the wire of the target's lightning rod. The first difficulty has been overcome, now it is time to deal with the second difficulty. Radko slid down the iron rod of the lightning rod and stopped on an iron hook used to fix the lightning rod, taking a breath.He used the moment to think about what to do next. In the dark night, the road below was invisible to the eyes, but there were regular footsteps from below, obviously a soldier on patrol.Judging from the sound of footsteps moving from far to near and then from near to far, the soldiers walked around the prison's patrol route, then went around to the other side of the prison, and then came back, in a continuous cycle.Radko estimated that it took about three or four minutes for the soldiers to leave this area, that is to say, the distance from here to the outside of the parapet had to be crossed within three to four minutes. The whiteness of the ridge of the parapet wall was vaguely discernible in the dark, and Radko could barely make out the position of the ridge, but the convex square bricks on the top of the decorative wall were not at all clear. Radko slid down again and landed on another hook.The place where they stand is still two or three meters higher than the top of the parapet wall. Now that he was standing more securely, he could move faster.In a moment he untied the rope, looped it behind the lightning-rod conduit, and tied a knot at both ends so that the rope formed a circle.He estimated that the rope was almost long enough, so he threw it on the parapet, and then slowly pulled the looped end of the rope towards his chest like a lasso, letting it buckle A certain decorative tile on top of a wall somewhere. This attempt is very difficult.In the darkness, he couldn't see the target clearly, so he could only try his luck again and again. Radko threw the rope more than a dozen times without success; at last the noose hit an obstacle and caught.Radko tugged and tugged vigorously, but did not let go, proving that the rope was secure.The attempt finally worked.The loop at the end of the rope was looped around a relief on the outside of the wall, and now there was a sky bridge over the Patrol Path. Of course, the flyover is loose and loose.Will it break?Or will it break free from the masonry that encases it?If the flyover breaks, he will fall from a height of about ten meters, and he will definitely die; if the flyover breaks off, he will hit the wall of the prison building like a pendulum, and the pendulum he made will be smashed into meat paste. In the face of all possible accidents, Radko did not hesitate.The rope was taut, but he drew it tighter at both ends.Then he listened for the footsteps of the patrol and prepared to climb the bridge. At this moment, the patrolman just passed under the fugitive, and gradually moved away; he turned the corner of the building, and the footsteps were no longer heard.You must go there while the soldiers are away, every second counts! Radko climbed the overpass and moved forward.He hangs between the sky and the earth, advancing at a uniform speed in a coordinated and flexible manner, not at all afraid of the precarious feeling brought about by the bending of the rope.The closer to the center of the bridge, the greater the curvature of the rope.He will cross the bridge, he can cross the bridge. He really passed.In less than a minute he had crossed the dizzying abyss to the top of the wall. Inspired by the belief in victory, he didn't care about resting on the wall for a while, so he accelerated his action.It has been less than ten minutes since he left the cell, but these ten minutes are longer than an hour to him.He was really afraid that the night guards would go in and check his cell.Although he had disguised the bed a little, it was hard to guarantee that no one would notice that he had absconded at this moment.He must leave this place of right and wrong as soon as possible. The boat was on the shore, only a few steps away from him.With a few sharp strokes of the oars, he could escape the clutches of his persecutors. Every time a patrol passed below, Radko had to stop.As soon as the patrolmen moved away, he moved with frantic speed.He untied the knot, took one end of the rope, drew it all back to him, then twisted it in two again, made a loop, and fastened it to the relief on the inside of the parapet.When he was sure that there was no one on the street, he slipped down the rope. He finally descended to the ground safe and sound, so he immediately tore the rope off and balled it up, and it was a success!He was free, and not a trace was left of this daring escape. But just as he turned to look for the boat, a voice suddenly sounded in the night. how!Ten paces away from him, someone said, This is not Ilya.Mr. Brush? Serge.Radko couldn't help shuddering with joy.Fate must have begun to favor him, and sent him the help of a friend. Mr. Jager!He let out a cry of joy.At the same time, a figure flashed out of the darkness and walked towards him.