The _pandurs_ were snoring in the living room, for they were allowed to sleep till two o'clock.

Only Vamhidy kept watch with a single _pandur_ who was guarding the prisoners in the cellar.
"The Lord God bless thee!" a hushed voice suddenly resounded from among the brown bushes and Szilard distinguished by the light of the rising moon a tall dark shape approaching the mill path.

It was blind Juon.
"How did you know anyone was here ?" enquired Szilard suspiciously.
"I heard you sigh, sir, once or twice and I knew you were awake for I warned you beforehand to watch--to-night he will be upon you." "Who ?" "Who?
Why Fatia Negra." "So you think he will be bold enough ?" "I know that he is already on the way." "And where were you just now ?" "I was working in the mill-ditch." "At night! What were you doing there ?" "I have removed the supporting beam underneath the bridge leading across the reservoir! It was a hard bit of work but I had the strength to do it." "Why did you do that ?" "Because he will come from the opposite side and immediately he steps on the middle of the bridge the plank will give way beneath him and he will fall into the water like a mouse in a trap." "What is the good of that, he will only swim out again." "Yes, but his pistols will then be full of water and he will be unable to use them against you." Szilard began to perceive that he had a most determined ally with all sorts of ideas in his head that had never occurred to himself.
"But surely, my poor fellow, you do not imagine that anybody will be mad enough to face so many armed men alone." "I don't know, sir, but I also do not know whether you yourself may not be alone among so many armed men, for I hear snoring among the very guard you told off to watch the cellar." Szilard was startled.

He immediately hastened to the place indicated and there, sure enough, he saw the sentry stretched at full length across the cellar door.

He angrily hastened to arouse him and seized the sleeper by the arm; but all his efforts were powerless to awake the fellow,--he might just as well have been dead.
"Try to wake the others, sir," said Juon.
The pandurs lay in long rows stretched out upon the straw in the meal magazine.
Szilard spoke to them, first gently, then loudly, and at last angrily, calling them by name, one after the other; but not one of them awoke.