American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-10-23

will be here directly. It's close on lock
ing-up time.''
With these second gates, as they closed,
there seemed to fall another barrier be-
tween me and freedom nor did my new
escort encourage me to hope for much con-
sideration.
Through more gates and doors, all of
which were first unlocked, then locked,
then relocked, then locked again, till il
seemed as if | was now as safe as the
crown jewels, or a toad entombcd alive in
granite rock. AT length we reached a
block of buildings a little apart, with
double doors, through which we passed
as we had the others, and l found myself
on the ground floor of an unmistakable
prison. There were three rows of cells,
tier above tier, the upper with narrow
landing and bright steel railing. As
we entered, another warder met us; he
was in slippers, and walked noiselessly,
like ghost. In sepulchral voice he said
" Forty six, sir, all correct"
This will make forty-seven, MIR. Noun
sey," said my conductor; its that
Raschkoff"
"Shall I put him in the dark cell, sir?"
was the eager query.
'No; in an ordinary cell; but keep an
eye on the trap, and watch him carefully
or he'll break prison again; he's clever
| enough"
1 was introduced forthwith into an " or
binary cell''-four bare walls, with a loop
hole window well barred, and wired over.
There was nothing in the place but gut
| ta-percha pint pot, and bed of smooth,
bare plank, a little raised from the floor.
keep silence, will you ~ said, for the
thousandth time, the superior warder as
for the thousandth time l tried to protest
that was not Raschkoff
mind, MIR. Mounsey, you don't let
him talk to you in the night; he'll be
trying it on again, you may depend. Give
| him his bed and fill his cup-there;" and
they left me.
| Alone at last, and in solitary cell in
Portland Prison The dreadful truth was
difficult to realize; but bars and bolts and
| iron doors are solid facts not easily eX-
planned away. l felt as miserable now as
| if | was doomed to be hanged the next
morning. AS 1 have said, from the first
moment of my capture l had treated the
mishap as an unpleasant joke-no more !;
and all along l had buOyed myself up
with the knowledge that at the prison it.
self the mistake would be discovered. Of
course, had said to myself, the officials
there will know 1 am not the real Rasch-
koff, the runaway. But it seemed as if
no one knew anything of the sort. l had
| already passed through the hands of three
and, though all had scanned my features
closely, no syllable of doubt of my iden-
tity had followed their inspection. What
if l should be kept to serve out the real
convict's time, seeking vainly from day
| to day and year to year to make my pro-
| test plain? This would be too severe a
dose indeed. Yes was most miserable.
Cold, wretched and nearly starved, for no
gathered myself together, and, sinking
utterly detected upon the hard pallet, tried
to groan myself to sleep.
l must have slept; but the slumber at
first was fitful and often disturbed by the
click of a latch at my cell door and a flash
of bright light through narrow slit
turned on to where l lay. 1t was the
warder on the alert to prevent another es-
cape. Even the strangeness of this wore
off and became thoroughly unconscious,
to be reused at last by deafening peal of
bells rung just above my head. The
dawn was struggling, in pale, sickly tones,
through the wire-wOrk of the tiny win
dow, and / guessed that this was the
prison-bell, the signal to begin the labors
of the day. 1 was hardly at all refreshed
by my sleep, and terribly faint from want
of food.
"Can I see doctor ?" 1 asked, as two
new wardens came into my cell and told
me peremptorily to stand up and strip.
"Of course you can. But first of all we
must search you; it ought to have been
done last night, only you took US all by
surprise-as you did, too, when you
hooked it. How did you get away, Rasch
koff?'
az tell you I'm not Raschkoffp'
Both the officers laughed heartily.
You'll be the death of us, RaschkOff! But
there-wash yourself; it's close on break
fast time, and after that you may see the
young dOctOrn
They brought me pan of scalding- hot
cocoa, and a small loaf, which 1 devoured
eagerly. They were capital; there was
milk in the cocoa and the bread was fresh
and white. got new courage from the
food. Surely, said l to myself, there must
be some one here who will confess that 1
am right; some one who can swear to the
real Raschkoff. And then it occurred to
me that would let matters take their
course, and desist from speaking another
word in my own defense. / wondered
only how long the farce would continue.
l had plenty of visitors in the next hour
or two. First, the young doctor, as he
had been styled, though he was old enough
to have gray hair and a corporation. He
was an airy, off-hand gentleman, wearing
a stethOscope, like flower, in his button
hole f'4i
'tThere's nothing wrong with YOU" he
said. angrily. 'tWhy did you send for
me?'
81 feel faint"
"Faintr' The utter contempt of these
words made my blood boil Were you
faint yesterday morning when you ran
four miles and jumped the dyke, in the
fog?"
1 sank back, almost in despair. Happi-
1y, nine o'clock was now approaching and
preparations for my trial began in the
Governors office. was again stripped
and searched, my boots were taken from
me and l got pair of list slippers. Then
all at once, echoing along the passage,
came cry for &C Raschkoff;' and Rasch-
koff-that is to say /, John Wray, of
Criticized Friars -shambled up two flights
of narrow stairs and entered little dock,
on the further side of which stood
warder, with baton, while in front, some
way off, was seated a portly, imposing per-
sonage at a high desk, and, surrounding
him, a group of officials, among whom
were my friends, the coastguard sailor
and the policeman.
"5, 755, Raschkoffl charged with max
ing his escape, resisting the police, inso-
lence to the gate-keeper, and giving the
assistant surgeon unnecessary trouble"
All this the aforesaid portly gentleman
read aloud, and then, without waiting to
hear me plead, called upon my captors to
give their story.
This has already been told. 1t was a
little embellished, no doubt, to glorify
their courage. Next came Dunkley, the
father of seven children, whom 1, in my
character of Raschkoff, was about to rob
of their bread. Dunkley was about TO
pluu into 6afaiIs of tho laripU manner