The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1897-04-10
THE QUEENS PARDON.
ny Give HOLLAND.

where heNefal sillpS OF the channel
squadron lay at anchor, and also from
the struggling row of houses at the
base of the northwest slope. In the
prison itself there was no light as yet
save in the corridors,u and down which
the ever-alert war1ers paced monot-
onously to and fro. In most OF the cells
the prisoners slept, tired out with the
previous days hewing of stone and un-
congenial tasks; but in one the Occur
pant, a man of IS, good looking in
spite OF prison garb, close-cropped hair,
and the ravages of toll and despair, lay
on his bed awake.
A little more than ten years ago he
lad stood in the dock of west of Eng
land city listening TO a judge with a
hard voice, though with kindly eyes,
pronouncing sentence OF 10 years pc
nal servitude. All that an eloquent
counsel could do had been done for him,
but TO no avail. The evidence seemed
conclusively damnatory, and the fore
man of the jury, after an absence Of half
an hour, answered guilty" to the usual
question with n ring Of conviction in
his voice. The judges words TO Thomas
Harborde fell on deaf ears. He stood
stupidity gazing at a young girl sitting
at the back of the court in the com
pany of sweet-faced old lady, as
though he saw nothing. AT last a ward
er touched him on the shoulder, and
the same instant a piteous cry Of 20,
Toni Tom! They're going to take you
away from me-" rang out in the court,
over which the dusk of late afternoon
was creeping. gradually blotting out
the features OF those who sat at all in
shadow. The prisoner turned round as
though about to say something to the
judge on the bench, and then, led by
the warder, he vanished down the dock
stairs to the cells, TO be known no long
er as Thomas Harborde, but by various
numbers: at Portland convict prison as
"No. 81"
The sense OF innocence brought him
contrary TO all preconceived notions
of writers of fiction-no need of sat
isfaction; IL merely filed him with
desperate wrath and blacklist despair.
In the early period of his solitary con-
fnement he found himself confronted
day in and out with the crushing sense
of the legions of hours, minutes and
seconds before he could hope TO be
free man--if ever he were to be one
again. BY good conduct-against the
very thought of which he at first re-
belled, refusing to accept any boon at
the hands OF fate--he might reduce
these years TO two-thirds maybe. What
&hor u,;Ili0na 30 eacnn1s zach ono ~
him, prisoner, an appreciable part Of
life; hundreds of thousands of leaden-
footed minutes, each one filed with
poignant despair, must pass ere the
time OF release drew near. At work.
under the scorching sun or in the
keen air of winter, in the quarries II
was nil the same. These hours and
minutes became embodied in the per-
sons of the warders and fellow pris-
oners, in the presence of his chains.
From possibly dangerous man he be-
came almost an Illuminate machine;
a mere cogwheel in the round OF daily
toll and prison discipline. At first he
attacked the stone as though he were
reyenging his wrongs upon human flesh
and blood, at last he fooled IL with the
unthinking regularity of an automaton.
IL takes year or two to trample the
human element out of a man of Hnr-
borde's type; but the effect of stone
walls, silence and brutalized compan-
ions. II slow, Is none the less sure. Only
in his case he became an automaton i'm
stead of AN animal.
Through the long December night,
while the mist enshrouded Portland
and restricted the range OF the lights
at the Bill TO half mile or less, and
while the sirens sounded from the
lighthouse gallery almost continuously,
answered family by others from YES
sells far out TO sea, or booming
harshly from others near at hand,
Harborde lay awake reckoning the
weeks, days, hours and minutes
which comprised the remaining two
years Of his term. He had just dropped
off into n housekeeping condition when
his cell door opened, and instead of the
hard face OF the warder come to tell him
20 tidy up, he saw the governor and
chaplain, with the warder in the back
ground.
What could ~ meanE lie sprang up,
rubbing his eyes, and almost before he
knew what was happening the gov
ernor had told him in few words that
hc had received the queens pardon,
and then proceeded 10 read the same
What did IL all mean? No other thought
terminated In his dulled brain. Free!
Free TO go where hewilledl Free towalk
out of the gnol gatesl Never 70 return
within the stone walls which had shut
him in from the outside world. as surely
as though no other world than that con-
tanned within them existed. The prison
bell changed, startling him into n state
of walxcfulness. The governor had An
ished reading the ofiicial-loolSing paper,
and with the conclusion of the formal
part of his duty he added few words
OF congratulation. Harborde seemed 20
have no comprehension OF their mean
IL ~.r,otrcH ofnpItner -, A., -.