Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/31

 A yail Adventure. 21

��"In a word, 1 lost my courage. "The c^liief — I have forgotten h

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��The old fear came upon me with add- name — was a man of wide experience ed force. Prison walls and cell bars, and wise discrimination. He had not hard task-masters and scanty food, been long enoiigli in the business to stared me in the face and thrilled me be calloused. In a word, he took me with terror, such terror as I had never in at a glfvnce, and somehow reassur- before experienced, and which 1 pray ed me that all would come out right. I may never again experience. Faint- I began to see silver linings in the ness, weakness, and nauseating sick- dark clouds. Said he, — ness followed. T moaned and cried " 'Young man, you are under arrest piteously. Presently I was a raving on a very serious charge, which, if maniac, and, although conscious that proven against you, is at the minimum I was making a fool of myself, passed five years in prison. I will say to through the trials that beset me be- you, however, that from the" best in- fore my dream. It was terrible, I formation I can ol)tain, and after a assure vou. After a while I became searching examination of the ffentle- active again ; and shortly after, a voice man who claimed to have been robbed, at my cell door aroused me and par- but who was not, I have come to the tially restored my mental equilibrium, conclusion that you should be dis- I staggered to the now open cell door, charged from custody at once, and I shall never forget my feelings or my personal assurance given that the the look of [)ity which the officer gave officer making the arrest exceeded his me, as I inquired what was wanted. duty. He should have used his judg-

" ' You are wanted at the chief's raent rather than have acted upon the

office,' replied the man in blue and request of an excited complainant. I

bright buttons emphatically, his voice regret exceedingly the annoyance to

and manner robbing me of the last which you have been subjected, and

ray of hope to which, like a drowning sincerely hope the circumstance will

man who seizes upon a straw, I had not work to your disadvantage among

tenaciously clung. your companions, or cause you trouble

" I followed him mechanically, with with your employers. You may go.'

trembling body and feeble step, with "It was exceedingly cold comfort,

such dread of consequences as I have but I took it without murmur or argu-

siuce imagined must possess the mind ment, and suddenly, 3'es, hurriedly,

of a condemned man when ascending put that city jail behind my back. I

the scaffold from which he is to be suppose I ought to have thanked him,

launched into eternity. How I man- but I did not. At least I have no

aged to pilot myself through several memory to that effect. The truth is,

dark passage-ways and up a flight of my anxiety to get into the sunlight,

winding stairs I shall never be able to regain my freedom, to demonstrate

to make clear to myself. It must be, to my satisfaction that I was not in-

I think, that the officer assisted me, sane or dieaming, was such that I

for somehow I have an indistinct rec- had no thought of anything else, and

oUection that his hand was upon ray was therefore completely off my guard

arm. in the matter of the manners, which

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