LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

him, and being a very strong man, saved him from a dangerous fall and seated him gently with his back to the wall. Water was sprinkled in his face. The chaplain went hastily to find the governor. He came to him pale and out of breath.

      “I found the turnkeys outraging a prisoner.”

      “Indeed!” said the governor. It was a new idea to him that anything could be an outrage on a prisoner.

      “They confessed they had not your authority, so I took upon me to undo their act.”

      “Humph!”

      “I now leave the matter in your hands, sir.”

      “I will see into it, sir.”

      The chaplain left Mr. Hawes abruptly, for he was seized with a sudden languor and nausea; he went to his own house and there he was violently sick. Shaking off as quickly as he could this weakness, he went at once to Robinson's cell. He found him coiled up like a snake. He came hastily into the cell with the natural effusion of a man who had taken another man's part.

      “I want to ask you one question: What had you done that they should use you like that?”

      No answer.

      “It is not from idle curiosity I ask you, but that I may be able to advise you, or intercede for you if the punishment should appear too severe for the offense.”

      No answer.

      “Come, I would wait here ever so long upon the chance of your speaking to me if you were the only prisoner, but there are others in their solitude longing for me; time is precious; will you speak to one who desires to be your friend?”

      No answer.

      A flush of impatience and anger crossed the chaplain's brow. In most men it would have found vent in words. This man but turned away to hide it from its object. He gulped his brief ire down and said only, “So then I am never to be any use to you,” and went sorrowfully away.

      Robinson coiled himself up a little tighter, and hugged his hatred of all mankind closer, like a treasure that some one had just tried to do him out of.

      As the chaplain came out of his cell he was met by Hawes, whose countenance wore a gloomy expression that soon found its way into words.

      “The chaplain is not allowed to interfere between me and the prisoners in this jail.”

      “Explain, Mr. Hawes.”

      “You have been and ordered my turnkeys to relax punishment.”

      “You forget, Mr. Hawes, I explained to you that they were acting without the requisite authority from you.”

      “That is all right, and I have called them to account, but then you are not to order them either; you should have applied to me.”

      “I see, I see! Forgive me this little breach of routine where a human being's sufferings would have been prolonged by etiquette.”

      “Ugh! Well, it must not occur again.”

      “I trust the occasion will not.”

      “For that matter, you will often see refractory prisoners punished in this jail. You had better mind your own business in the jail, it will find you work enough.”

      “I will, Mr. Hawes; to dissuade men from cruelty is a part of it.”

      “If you come between me and the prisoners, sir, you won't be long here.”

      The new chaplain smiled.

      “What does it matter whether I'm here or in Patagonia, so that I do my duty wherever I am?” said he with a fine mixture of good-humor and spirit.

      Hawes turned his back rudely and went and reduced Robinson's supper fifty per cent.

      “Evans, is that sort of punishment often inflicted here?”

      “Well, sir, yes. It is a common punishment of this jail.”

      “It must be very painful.”

      “No, sir, it's a little oncomfortable that is all; and then we've got such a lot here we are obliged to be down on 'em like a sledge-hammer, or they'd eat us up alive.”

      “Have you got the things, the jacket, collar, etc.?”

      “I know where to find them,” said Evans with a sly look.

      “Bring them to me directly to this empty cell.”

      “Well, sir,” higgled Evans, “in course I don't like to refuse your reverence.”

      “Then don't refuse me,” retorted the other, sharp as a needle.

      Evans went off directly and soon returned with the materials. The chaplain examined them a while; he then took off his coat.

      “Operate on me, Evans.”

      “Operate on you, sir!”

      “Yes! There, don't stand staring, my good man; hold up the waistcoat—now strap it tight—tighter—no nonsense—Robinson was strapped tighter than that yesterday. I want to know what we are doing to our fellow-creatures in this place. The collar now.”

      “But, sir, the collar will nip you. I tell you that beforehand.”

      “Not more than it nips my prisoners. Now strap me to the wall. Why do you hesitate?”

      “I don't know whether I am doing right, sir, you being a parson. Perhaps I shall have no luck after this.”

      “Don't be silly, Evans. Volenti non fit injuria—that means, you may torture a bishop if he bids you.”

      “There you are, sir.”

      “Yes! here I am. Now go away and come in half an hour.”

      “I think I had better stay, sir. You will soon be sick of it.”

      “Go, and come in half an hour,” was the firm reply.

      Our chaplain felt that if the man did not go he should not be five minutes before he asked to be released, and he was determined to know “what we are doing.”

      Evans had not been gone ten minutes before he bitterly repented letting him go, and when that worthy returned he found him muttering faintly, “It is in a good cause-it is in a good cause—”

      Evans wore a grin.

      “You shall pay for that grin,” said the chaplain to himself.

      “Well, sir, have you had enough of it?”

      “Yes, Evans; you may loose me,” said the other with affected nonchalance.

      “What is it like, sir? haw! haw!”

      “It is as you described it, oncomfortable; but the knowledge I have gained in it is invaluable. You shall share it.”

      “With all my heart, sir; you can tell me what it is like.”

      “Oh, no! such knowledge can never be imparted by description; you shall take your turn in the jacket.”

      “Not if I know it.”

      “What, not for the sake of knowledge?”

      “Oh! I can guess what it is like.”

      “But you will oblige me?”

      “Some other way, sir, if you please.”

      “Besides, I will give you a guinea.”

      “Oh! that alters the case, sir. But only for half an hour.”

      “Only for half an hour.”

      Evans was triced up and pinned to the wall; the chaplain took out a guinea and placed it in his sight, and walked out.

      In about ten minutes he returned, and there was Evans, his face drawn down by pain.

      “Well,

Скачать книгу