wretch into lying against me."

"Pray to the God, whose name you so lightly use, that the police you
fear may get you before I have done with you. In the police, strange as
it may sound to you, is your only hope; but they will have to come
quickly if they are to save you. Picard, you have lived, perhaps,
thirty-five years on this earth. The next hour of your life will be
longer to you than all these years."

Adolph put the percussion cap in its place and started the mechanism.
For a few moments its quiet tick-tick was the only sound heard in the
room, the two bound men staring with wide-open eyes at the dial of the
clock, while the whole horror of their position slowly broke upon them.

Tick-tick, tick-tick, tick-tick, tick-tick, tick-tick, tick-tick. Each
man's face paled, and rivulets of sweat ran down from their brows.
Suddenly Picard raised his voice in an unearthly shriek.

"I expected that," said Adolph, quietly. "I don't think anyone can
hear, but I will gag you both, so that no risks may be run." When this
was done, he said: "I have set the clockwork at sixty minutes; seven of
those are already spent. There is still time enough left for meditation
and repentance. I place the candle here so that its rays will shine
upon the dial. When you have made your own peace, pray for the souls of
any you have sent into eternity without time for preparation."

Delore left the room as softly as he had entered it, and the doomed men
tried ineffectually to cry out as they heard the key turning in the
door.