Page:Famous stories from foreign countries.djvu/57



was midnight. Oppressive silence reigned in the prison. Occasionally one caught the sound of the heavy, even tread of the watchman. The little round holes in the tower of cells looked very black against the space about them. They looked like great eyes of the dead.

In the room of the prison superintendent there was a light. There two men sat opposite each other at a table upon which a piece of paper was outspread. They were the superintendent and his helper. They pointed with pencils to names of prisoners who in the morning would be brought out to be sentenced.

''Kli-r-r! Kli-rr-rr''—

“There it is again!” said the superintendent, throwing down his pencil.

“What’s the trouble?” inquired his companion.

“A new prisoner. With those confounded chains he disturbs me day and night.”

“Why does he make such a noise?”

“Why? How should I know? All the time that dog of a giaour walks about and gives me no rest. The devil take a business like mine! In all the years I have been here I have never got used to it—that accursed sound.”