r the messenger returned and again summoned Ali to the
window.

"Kurshid Pasha sends thee this message," cried he. "If thou dost
surrender, it is well, and if thou dost not surrender, it is well
also. Thou hast still half an hour wherein thou mayest choose betwixt
life and death. After that thou mayest, if thou wilt, throw thy torch
into thy powder barrels and blow the fortress into the air. As to
thyself, Kurshid Pasha troubles himself but little. As to thy
treasures they will not remain in the air, and when they come to the
ground it will be easy to pick them up. If, however, thou dost delay
thy resolution beyond the half-hour, then Kurshid Pasha himself will
help thee in the matter, and will blow up thy tower for thee, to save
thee the trouble of blowing it up thyself. Do as thou wilt, then, and
hoist either the white or the red flag as seemeth best to thee, for in
half an hour the fortress of Janina shall see thee no more."

Ali listened solemnly to this ultimatum, and let the messenger depart
without an answer.

Eminah lay down on a sofa in a corner, all trembling. Ali paced the
vast chamber to and fro with long strides; but his strides became more
and more uncertain. If only this woman were not here! If only he might
be spared seeing her before him; might be spared half an hour's
deliberation as to what he was to do! Nevertheless minute after minute
sped away, and still Tepelenti could not make up his mind. Twice his
hand seized the burning torch; he had but to bend over the nearest
barrel of powder and all would be over; but on each occasion his eye
fell upon the trembling woman who lay there looking at him without a
word, and the death-bearing match fell from his hand. No, no; he was
incapable of doing the terrible deed. And now the hour struck; the
time had passed. Ali felt a pressure about his heart. Would Kurshid
accomplish his dreadful threat?

At that instant a report sounded outside the fortress, and half a
moment later a red-hot steel bullet burst through the metal roof and
the massive vault of the tower with a violent crash. Falling heavily
on the marble floor, it rebounded thence, and, passing between the
powder-barrels, describing a wide semicircle as it went, ricocheted
once more and struck the wall opposite, in which it bored a deep hole,
whence it flashed and gleamed with a strong red glare, forcing blue
sparks from the nitrous humidity of the walls.

Ali was now convinced that the enemy was q