Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Escape from the Tiger's Mouth

The situation is indeed extremely serious.What could Marcel do?He will not live much longer, and perhaps as the sun goes down, his last night will come. He didn't sleep for a while, not because he was afraid that, as Mr. Schultz said, he would not be able to wake up after falling asleep, but because he was always thinking about the imminent disaster in the city of France! "What to do?" he thought over and over again. "Destroy that gun? Blow up the turret that houses that gun? How can I do that? Run! Run! But there are those two giants guarding the door." Besides, even if I escape from Stahlstad before September thirteenth, how can I prevent the catastrophe? . . . Yes! Even if the dear city cannot be saved, but At least I can save the people in the city, and I can run and shout to them: 'Run away! Run away! You are going to be burnt to death! Run away, everyone!'"

For a moment Marcel's mind turned to another direction. "That bastard Schultz!" he was thinking, "even if he exaggerates the power of his shells, even if he can't burn down the whole city with fire, sure enough, he can burn down a large part of the city with fire at once Yes! He contrived a dreadful weapon, and that dreadful cannon would fire a ball into the city of France, though the two cities were far apart! Its muzzle velocity would be twenty times greater than hitherto attained. Almost 10,000 meters per second, two and a half miles! But that's almost a third of the speed of the earth in its own orbit! Is it possible? . . . possible, possible! . . . When the first shot was fired, his gun had to do without exploding! ... And it couldn't, because the metal material used for this gun was almost impossibly resistant to explosions! The bastard's position on the city of France Knowing it like the back of his hand! Without going out of his lair, he can aim his guns exactly on the target, and, as he says, the shells will fall straight into the center of the city! How can the unfortunate residents be spared from this? Flying disaster!"

Marcel did not close his eyes, it was already daylight.He tossed and turned in bed all night, when he got out of bed. "Well," he thought, "it will be tonight! The executioner, who does not want me to suffer, must have waited until I was so sleepy that I had no strength to fear, and fell asleep! What then! ... But what exactly does he want me to die! Does he want to wait for me to fall asleep and let me suck some hydrocyanic acid to die? Does he want to vent the carbon dioxide gas that he has stored so much? Into my room? He will probably use that liquid carbonic acid, like that contained in his glass cannonballs, which will plunge to minus one hundred degrees when it suddenly returns to gaseous state! And the next day, that body The strong, energetic 'I' is gone, replaced by a shriveled, cold, stiff mummy! . . . Ah! the bastard! Well, my heart, if I have to, I can be dried by the unbearable cold, my life can be frozen, but my friends, Dr. Sarazan, his family, Jeanne, my little Jeanne, must be rescued! For this, I am I must escape...I must escape!"

When Marcel uttered these last words, he instinctively put his hand on the doorknob, even though he knew he was locked in the house. To his great astonishment, the door opened, and he could go down, as usual, into the garden where he was accustomed to walk. "Ah!" he said, "I'm locked up in the headquarters, not in my room! There's something there!" However, as soon as Marcel came out, he saw clearly that although he was apparently free, those two people who took the names of ancient people, or prehistoric people-Arminius and Sijime—but was following him closely.

More than once, when he had met them on the road, he had wondered more than once how these two giants in gray uniforms, with necks as thick as bull's necks, of immense strength, and rumpled beards growing over their red faces What is it for? He knew now what they were doing.They were Mr. Schulz's executioners, and they were acting temporarily as his personal "guards". These two giants kept watch over him, and they slept by his door, and if he came into the garden they followed him.The two of them were in uniform and equipped with scary pistols and daggers, which further showed the strict surveillance.

Neither of them spoke a word while carrying out their mission.Marcel tried to use his diplomacy to talk to them, but in return they looked at him viciously.He even thought about buying them a beer, thinking it wouldn't be turned down, but he hit a snag.After fifteen hours of observation he found only one fault in them--the only one--that was their fondness for pipe smoking, which they smoked with ease when he followed him.Could Marcel have exploited their only flaw to save himself?He doesn't know, he still can't think of how to do it, but he has secretly determined to escape, and he should not ignore all opportunities that allow him to escape.

However, time is running out.What should we do? Marcel was convinced that as long as he had the slightest intention of resisting or fleeing, he would have two bullets in his head.Even though the bullet missed, he was still trapped in the three lines of defense, guarded by layers of sentinels, and it was impossible to escape. The former student of the Central Polytechnic School, according to his habit, tried to prove this problem correctly like a mathematician. "Suppose a man is guarded by several fierce men, each of whom is stronger than himself and armed to the teeth. For this man, the first thing is to escape from the guards. After the first step is completed, the Trying to escape from the fortress that is heavily guarded all around..."

Marcel pondered these two questions hundreds of times, but every time he hit a wall. In the end, was it the extreme severity of the situation that gave his creative genius the final blow?Or did sheer chance lead him to the answer?It's hard to say. At any rate, the next day, when Marcel was walking in the garden, his eyes fell on a bush at the edge of the flower-bed, the shape of which caught his attention. It was a herbaceous plant, not good-looking. The leaves were alternate, oval, pointed, and paired. The flowers were big and red, shaped like a single-petaled bell flower, with a peduncle supporting it.

Marcel had never studied botany, it was just a hobby, but he recognized the characteristics of pre-family plants from this small shrub.He randomly picked a small leaf and chewed it lightly in his mouth as he walked. He guessed right.There was a sudden heaviness in his limbs, accompanied by a little nausea, and he understood at once that what he had before him was a natural factory of belladonna—that is to say, one of the most powerful narcotics. He was still walking until he came to a small artificial lake on the south side of the garden.The water from the lake was used to feed the waterfall at one end of the garden, which was modeled exactly on the waterfall.

"Where does the water from this waterfall go?" Marcel wondered. It emptied into the bed of a small river and then, after a dozen turns or so, disappeared at the end of the garden. There must be a drainage hole there.On the surface, the stream appears to flow from a drainage hole, one of the underground waterways that irrigate the plain outside the city of Stalstadt. Marcel vaguely saw an exit there. Of course, it was not a road, but it was a way out. "If that waterway is blocked by iron bars!" A cautious voice rang in his head. "If you don't enter the tiger's lair, how can you catch tiger cubs!"

"There are quite a few good files in the lab, they couldn't have been made to file bottle corks!" retorted sarcastically, another voice, and this one decided to take bold action. In two minutes Marcel had made his decision.He had an idea—what an idea! —Maybe it won't happen, but if he doesn't die before then, try to make it happen. So he deliberately walked back to the little red flower bush and picked off two or three leaves. The two guards clearly saw his action. Then, once back in his room, he roasted the leaves over the fire, all the while without concealment, before crushing them in his hand and mixing them with his tobacco. For the next six days: Marcel was always surprised to find himself waking up each morning.Had Mr. Schultz, whom he had never seen again, and whom he had never met in his walks, abandoned the plan to get rid of?No, certainly not, just as he would not give up destroying Dr. Sarrazan's city. So Marcel picked some of those leaves every day while he was still alive.Of course, he was very careful not to smoke belladonna himself. For this reason, he prepared two packs of tobacco leaves, one for his own use and the other for daily belladonna.His purpose is very simple, that is to arouse the curiosity of Arminius and Sijime.These two fools were heavy smokers, and would soon notice the little bush Marcel had plucked leaves from, and would imitate him and taste the tobacco mixture. He was right in his estimate, and the expected result was, so to speak, produced exactly. From the sixth day—the day before the evil day of September thirteenth—Marcel glanced behind him nonchalantly out of the corner of his eye, and saw with satisfaction that two guards were picking a little of the green leaves. An hour later, he figured they were drying the leaves over the fire, crushing them in their large, callused hands, and mixing them into their tobacco.They even seem to be salivating! Did Marcel just want Arminius and Sidhime to fall asleep?no.It's not enough to escape their surveillance.You have to find a way to get through that waterway, swim across that large expanse of water, and escape from there even if the waterway is several kilometers long.And this method, Marcel has already considered.Indeed, that was a narrow escape, but he was already prepared to sacrifice his life, not to mention that he had already been sentenced to death. As dusk fell, supper was over, and it was time for a last walk, the three, never to be parted, set out for the garden. Without hesitation, without delay for a minute, Marcel walked straight towards a building standing on the hill.There is the model workshop.He picked a stool that was set aside, sat down, filled his pipe, lit it, and smoked. Arminius and Sigime, who had already prepared their pipes, immediately sat down on a bench next to them and began to smoke their pipes. The effect of the medicine was produced immediately. In less than five minutes, the two big men were like bears in a cage, yawning and stretching each other.Their eyes were covered with clouds and mist, their ears were buzzing, their faces turned from light red to deep red, their arms drooped feebly, and their heads leaned back on the back of the chair. Their pipes fell to the ground. Finally, the two snored loudly, rhythmically intertwined with the birdsong of the perennial Stalstadt garden. Marcel was only waiting for this moment to come.As you can imagine, he had a hard time waiting, because at eleven or forty-five the next night, the city of France, which Mr. Schultz sentenced to death, would cease to exist. Marcel rushes into the model workshop.The huge factory building hides various models, just like a big museum.Small and medium-sized machinery, locomotives, steam engines, mobile internal combustion engines, water pumps, turbines, drilling machines, marine machinery, ship hulls... there are millions of masterpieces.This is a wooden model of everything the Schulz factory has produced since its inception.As you can imagine, there are of course models of cannons, torpedoes, and shells. The night was dark, and it was a godsend for the daring plan that the young Alsatians were about to carry out.While preparing his daring escape plan, he also wants to destroy the model museum in Stahlstad.what!If only he could destroy the bunkers in the huge and impenetrable Bull Tower and the cannon all at once!But that is absolutely impossible. Marcel's first thought was to take a small hacksaw from the tool rack and put it in his pocket.Then, he took out a match from the matchbox to strike, and without hesitation for a moment, he used the polished match to light the blueprints and light pine models piled up in a corner of the factory building. Then, he walked out. In an instant, everything that was combustible was on fire, and the fire burst out from the windows of the factory building.The alarm bell rang immediately, and a surge of electricity caused all the electric alarm bells in all districts of Starstad to ring, and firefighters pulled on the steam fire engine and rushed over from all directions. At the same time, Mr. Schultz appeared, and he came just in time to encourage all the crews to fight the fire. In a few minutes, the steam boiler has increased the pressure, and the high-pressure water pump will soon spray water.The water pump sprayed out a thick column of water, pouring on the walls and roof of the model museum.However, the fire was stronger than the water column. It can be said that when it touched the water, instead of being extinguished, it burned even more vigorously, and soon all parts of the building were set on fire.In five minutes the fire had grown so great that any hope of keeping it under control had been given up.The fire was both spectacular and terrifying. Marcel hid in a corner, staring at Mr. Schultz, watching him urging his subordinates, as if he was directing a siege.However, there was no need to evacuate the other houses, since the model museum was a solitary building in the garden.It is now certain that it will all be reduced to ashes. At this time, Mr. Schultz saw that the building could not be kept, and he shouted loudly: "Who can rescue the model 3175 placed under the middle window, the bounty is 10,000!" This model is that of the famous cannon invented by Schulz, and it is more precious to him than any other model in the museum. However, if you want to save this model, you have to throw yourself into the sea of ​​fire and pass through the suffocating thick black smoke, which is a narrow escape!So, despite the allure of a 10,000 bounty, no one heeded Mr. Schultz's call. At this time, suddenly a person came forward. It was Marcel. "I'll go," he said. "You!" shouted Mr. Schultz. "I!" "You must be clear that this will not exempt you from the death sentence!" "I don't expect to escape death, I just don't want that precious model to be destroyed!" "Then you go," Mr. Schultz replied, "I swear to you, if you succeed, the ten thousand bounty will be given to your heirs in full." "I fully believe it." Someone has brought in several garibe gas-boxes, which are always ready for fire, and which can be worn into smoky choking places.Marcel had already used it when rescuing Mrs. Bauer's son Karl Jr. Marcel immediately carried an air tank filled with several atmospheres of pressure.He put his nose in a clip, the mouthpiece of the pipe in his mouth, and rushed into the smoke. "Finally what I wanted to do!" he thought to himself. "I have enough air to breathe for a quarter of an hour! . . . God forbid it will be enough!" It is easy to imagine that Marcel had no desire to salvage the model of the Schulz cannon at all.At the risk of his life, he passed through the hall filled with smoke, and saw the burning materials and charred beams raining down like a heavy rain, but, strange to say, it didn't hit him.Suddenly, the wind blows, the fire blows up, the roof collapses, but Marcel escapes through a door on the opposite side that opens into the garden. He ran for the creek, and without hesitation jumped down from the bank to the strange drainage hole that would take him out of Stalstadt.All this took only a few seconds for Marcel. A rapid current rushed him into a deep water seven or eight feet deep.He didn't have to know the direction because the current was guiding him like he was pulling a string.Almost immediately he found himself entering a narrow channel, shaped like a pipe, almost full of water. "How long is this pipe?" Marcel wondered. "That's the point! If I can't get through this waterway in a quarter of an hour, there won't be enough air, and I'm finished!" Marcel remained calm.The water flowed against him like this for ten minutes before it encountered an obstacle. This is an openable iron fence door blocking the exit of the waterway. "I'm just worried about having such a thing!" Marcel said simply in his heart. So, without losing a second, he took the saw out of his pocket and began sawing the bolt up to the head of the bolt. He had been sawing for five minutes and hadn't broken the lock, and the iron bars were still tightly closed.It was already extremely difficult for Marcel to breathe.The air in the airbox was so thin that he could only draw a tiny bit.His ears were buzzing, his eyes were bloodshot, and his head was dizzy, all of which indicated that he was about to suffocate to death!However, he was holding on, holding his breath, in order to reduce the oxygen consumption in his lungs as much as possible. The oxygen in his lungs really couldn't escape! ... However, the deadbolt just keeps going, even though a deep gap has been sawed out! But at this time, the saw fell off. "God can't be against me!" he thought. So, he shook the iron fence desperately with both hands, and his survival instinct gave him infinite strength. The iron fence was opened.The deadbolt is broken.The current carried poor Marcel, who was almost suffocated, with all his might trying to inhale the last particles of air in the tank! When Mr. Schultz's men entered the engulfed building the next day, they found no sign of a single burnt person, either among the broken bricks or among the smoldering embers. any trace.So it is safe to say that there was nothing left of that brave worker who was burned for his loyalty.This did not surprise anyone who knew him in the workshops of the factory. The precious model could not be rescued, but the man who held the secret of the Iron King was dead after all. "For God's sake, I would have spared him pain," said Mr. Schultz to himself, with all his heart, "and it saved me ten thousand dollars, anyway!" Such a eulogy for the young Alsatian!

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