Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-23

| Wardtr Slater, Suppose we try another"
He tried another, the next; the same result
| followed-the door was opened with the
greatest of ease.
"What's the meaning of this?" spluttered
the Major. "who's been playing this tom
foolery? I don't believe there's anything
the matter with lock In the place.
There did not seem to be, just then.
| For when the officers tried again they
found no difficulty in unlocking the doors
and setting the prisoners free.
III.
Major Hardinge remained in the Jail that
night He stayed in the governors house
as Mr.. Paley's guest. He expressed him.
self very strongly about the events of the
day.
'T'll see the thing through if 1t takes me
a week. The whole affair Is incredible to
me. 1t strikes me, Paley, that they've been
making fool of you"
The governor combed his hair with his
| fingers. HIS official manner had temporar-
| lily gone. He seemed depressed.
ST assure you the doors were locked"
"Of course the doors were locked, and
they used the wrong keys to open them!
| 1t was got-up thing"
"Not by the oficers.''
"By whom then? don't see how the
prisoners could have lent haud.'' .
81 know the officers and will answer for
| them every man. As tor the wrong keys
being used, know the keys as we'll as any
| one tried them, and not lock would
yield to me-"
s'But they did yield. What explanation
! have you to give OF that?"
81 wish I could explain" And again
the governor combed his hair.
'I'll have an explanation tomorrow-you
| see if I don't!" But the Major never did.
On the morrow, punctually at A. M, an
imposing procession started to unlock.
There were the inspector, governor, chief
warder, second warder, and the warder who
carries the keys.
ST don't think we shall have much diff
Guilty in getting the men out OF their cells
! this time" remarked the Major. They
did not. "Good-good Godr he spluttered,
when they reached the corridor; ':what-
what on earth's the meaning of this?" He
had predicted rightly. They would have
NO difficulty in getting the men out of their
cells; they were out already-men, and bed
ding and planks, and all. There was man
fast asleep in bed in front of each cell door.
81 though had given instructions that a
special watch was to be kept all night, the
Major roared.
$50 there has been," answered the chief
warder, whose head and face and neck were
purple. "Warder Slater here has only just
gone off duty. Now, then, Slater, what's
the meaning of this?"
81 don't know" protested Slater, whose
mountain Of flesh seemed quivering like
jelly. "It's not minute ago since went
to get my keys, and they was all inside their
cells when I went down."
HWbo LET fbou, ont than0D
The Major glared at him, incredulity in
every line of his countenance.
''I don't know. I'll swear it wasn't me-"
81 suppose they let themselves out, then.
You menl"
Although this short dialogue had been
conducted by no means soto voce, the noise
did not seem to have had the slightest effect
in rousing the prisoners out Of slumber.
Even when the Major called to them they
gave no sign.
"You menP' he shouted again; "it's no
good shamming Abraham with me" He
stopped to shake the man who was lying on
the plank at bis feet "Good-good Godl
The-the-man's not dead?''
"DeadP' cried the governor, kneeling by
the Majors side upon the stones.
The sleeper was very still. He was a
man of some 40 years of age. with nut
brown tangled hair and beard. If not a
short-sentence man, he was still in the early
stages of his term-for he lay on the bare
boards of the plank with the rug, blanket
and sheet wrapped closely round him, so
that they might take, as far as possible, the
place of the coir mattress, which was not
tssrf Hss Els Ths Iesb bss Was sound
IF he breathed at all, it was so lightly as to
be inaudible. On his face was that dazed,
strained expression which we sometimes see
on the faces of those who, without mo-
ment's warning, have been suddenly visited
by death.
'I don't think he's dead," the governor
said. HE seems to be in some sort of
trance. What's the mans name?"
I" 'Itchcock. He's one of the 'op-pickers.
He's got q month.
1t was Warder Slater who gave the infor-
nation. The governor took the man by the
shoulder and tried to rouse him out of
sleep.
"Hitc6cockl Hitchcock Come. wake up.
my man! It's all right; he's coming to-he's
waking up"
He did wake up, and that so suddenly as
to take the party by surprise. He sprang
upright on the plank, nothing on but an
attenuated prison shirt, and glared at the
officials with looks of unmistakable sur
prise.
'Holloal What's up! What's the mean
ing of this?"
Major Hardinge replied, suspicion peep.
ing from his eyes
"That is what we want to know, and what
we intend to know-what does it mean?
WHY aren't you in your cell?" sf
The man seemed for the first time to per-
ceive where he was.
GECtx;Ga luokv if r oinSf
Somebody must have took me out when
was asleep" Then, realizing in whose
presence he was: II beg your pardon, sir,
but someone's took me out"
'The one who took you out took all the
others too"
The MAJOR gave side glance at Warden
Slater. That intelligent officer seemed to
be suffering agonies. The prisoner glanced
along the corridor. 'If all the blessed lot
of 'em ain't out too!'
They were not only all out, but they
were all in the same ouriouslyitrance-like |
sleep. Each man had to be separately |
reused, and each woke with the same
startling, sudden bound. No one seemed
more surprised to find themselves where they
were than the men themselves. And this |
was not the case in one ward only, but in all
the wards in the prison. No wonder the of |
ficials felt bewildered by the time they had
gone the round.
''There's one thing CERTAIN" remarked
Warder Slater to Warder Putin, wiping |
the perspiration from his-Warder Slster's |
brow, 'if let them out in one ward, I |
couldn't 'ardly let them out in all. Not to
mention that don't see how a man of my
builds going to carry eight-and-forty men,
bed. bedding. and all, out bodily, and that
without disturbing one of them from Sleep"
As the official party was returning through |