Page:Triangles of life, and other stories.djvu/251

 so Ginger sticks to Bill through Sal. The money is from thievish hearts and thievish hands; but the hearts o' men are there all the same.

Ginger, by the way, gets two black eyes, and a blue, swollen nose, from a bigger "bloke," in an argument concerning Sal, and is hurt about it. But wait till Bill comes out!

Hearts o' men are kind to Sal in other places. The warder inside the gaol gate lays a kindly hand on her shoulder, and says, "Come along, my girl." But Sal has no use for sympathy, and little for kindness. "Blarst their eyes!" she says. "They can always ketch and gaol better men than themselves. If it wasn't for the likes of poor Bill they'd have to go to work themselves, from the Guv'nor down, blarst 'em!"

Let's have a look where Bill is, and, though I might seem to be on branch tracks from my subject, the red thread is running all through.

If you go in " under the Government," and not as a visitor, you might be the Duke of All-That-Is, and yet little Cooney, who is finishing a sentence for breakin' 'n' enterin', and is "on tobacco," is a greater man than you. Because he is on tobacco, which is worth twice its weight in gold in gaol, and can lend bits to his mates.

In gaol the initiated help the awkward newcomers all they can. There is much sympathy and practical human kindness cramped and cooped up in gaol. A good-conduct prisoner with a "billet"—say, warder or pantry-man in the hospital or observation ward, or