built for tees, and
his name, Favre, should have been carved into the stone.

However, time passed, Andrea gained money, experience, and strength. He
never went to Goeschenen, but once a year he went to the "sacred wood" to
contemplate the devastation, as he said.

He never saw Gertrude, never sent her a letter; there was no need for
it, he was always with her is his thoughts, and he felt that her will
was his.

In the seventh year the magistrate died, in poverty.

"What a lucky thing that he died a poor man," thought Andrea; and there
are not many sons-in-law who would think like that.

In the eighth year something extraordinary happened; Andrea, foremost
man on the Italian side of the tunnel, was hard at work, beating on his
jumper. There was scarcely any air; he felt suffocated, and suffered
from a disagreeable buzzing in his ears. Suddenly he heard a ticking,
which sounded like the ticking of a wood-worm, whom people call "the
death-watch."

"Has my last hour come?" he said, thinking aloud.

"Your last hour!" replied a voice; he did not know whether it was within
or without him, but he felt afraid.

On the next day he again heard the ticking, but more distinctly, so that
he came to the conclusion that it must be his watch.

But on the third day, which was a holiday, he heard nothing; and now he
believed that it must have been something supernatural; he was afraid
and went to mass, and in his heart he deplored the futility of life. He
would never see the great day, never win the prize offered to the man
who would first walk through the dividing wall, never win Gertrude.

On the Monday, however, he was again the foremost of the men in the
tunnel, but he felt despondent, for he no longer believed that they
would meet the Germans in the mountain.

He beat and hammered, but without enthusiasm, slowly, as his weakened
heart was beating after the tunnel-sickness. All of a sudden he heard
something like a shot and a tremendous crashing noise inside the
mountain on the other side.

And now a light burst on him; they had met.

He fell on his knees and thanked God. And then he arose and began to
work. He worked during breakfast, during dinner, during recreation time,
and during supper. When his right arm was lame with exertion, he worked
with the left one. He thought of the engineer-in-chief, who had been
struck down before the wall of rock; he sang the song of the three men
in the fiery furnace, for it seemed