Suddenly the cell door opened, the chief inspector entered, said a few words to the guard, and she was led through a number of poorly lit corridors and into a small room, where an oil-lamp was feebly flickering. “Listen attentively, and you will understand!” said the guard rudely as he left the room and bolted the door. A deathly silence reigned in the room. She tried to catch the least sound, the least motion to discern the least token of life, but all was still as the grave. Suddenly she heard some voices in the adjacent room, and through the thin partition she could distinctly hear all that was spoken there. She felt her heart sink within her, as among many other voices she recognized her brother’s voice. Then there was a sound of a heavy blow, a thud from the falling of a human body, and her brother’s outcry. Her heart was beating fast. She understood that she was alongside of the torture-chamber, where her brother was brought in to be tortured, and that she was put there in order to be tortured by the pangs and sufferings of her dearly beloved brother. Then fell in quick succession a number of heavy blows, followed by his desperate outcries. The pain must have been unbearable--he seemed to be gasping for breath. His tormentors did not stop, however, but continued beating him for a long time. The blows fell thick and heavy, and his outcries turned into desperate screams, into wild heartbreaking sounds of one losing his reason under the influence of terrible pain. And the poor girl had to hear it all, and to know that she was powerless to stay the hands of his tormentors. Finally the cries ceased. Were the hangmen tired, or was her brother dead? Her heart full of anguish, she pressed her ear against the partition in an effort to catch the least sound of his voice. At that moment one of the executioners entered the room and she began begging him to tell her what had become of her brother. Was he alive? Why was he tortured? What for? But it was in vain to expect human feeling in a hangman. Could the suffering of a young girl touch his heart? To her beseeching he replied rudely, laughing: “If you will not inform us all about your brother and the rest of your friends, the same will be done to you. Then you will find out what became of him and whether he is still alive.” He then ordered her to follow him and she was led back into her former cell, where she was left to pass the night on the bare floor. But she did not close her eyes the whole night. In a dull stupor, thoughtless, motionless, she sat in a corner till morning.