The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-07

structed from q fruit crate and covered l with a crimson cloth, and over this was a shelf bearing various tin boxes and bottles of foreign appearance, suggest ing macoaroni and olive oil Above, on
 a small black board had been chalked | the number 25S0 243, evidently period l of days passed and days to come Pozzi the Italian counterfeiter, was l sitting in his camp chair, with paper | shielf over his one eye. On his shoulder perched the little bird in high content
 obivous of the contrast between his
 bright hues and the sullen jaundiced face. The mans shirt was open at the
 neck, and his sleeves were rolled up, and the colonel noticed that there was bullet hole the size of fist in his chest and that his fore-arms were crossed and
 afternoon under the auspices of the
 recrossed with ghastly white scars. | His whole appearance denoted dull' | heavy resolution, the immobility of evil, 1 as that of the little bird might well
 bring to mind the fact that innocence | has wings superior to it's environments. At the sound of the footsteps Pozzi raised his head in a slow ominous way and looked out from under the shield. Then he sprang to his feet and came close to the bars, with the little bird | hopping from one shoulder to the other, My, Colonel" he cried eagerly ''Es cet still there, ze cash, ze mon, in ze
 bank, at centerest?'
 Why no" replied the colonel, "As l
 recollect it. your man-what do you call
 him? Gardini drew it out long ago.
 "Ah" fairig screamed Pozzi "Ze
 scoundrell Ze robbaire! Ze villain!
 He talk my wife, sposa mia, Colonel.
 He lie before ze judge, and bury me,
 here, here, here! He break his prom eese, he rob me. Mark my worts, Col
 onel, I will feex Gardini, assassin, sor- cerer, jettatore that he ees! l will feex
 zat Caiabrian brigand!"
 Hist! Histn' came from below that
 peculiar prison warning used alike by
 watchman and ward. stow that chat
 ter with the Dago," called up the fat keeper Do you want the old man to
 come down on you like q thousand Of
 bricks?" And the colonel hurried away,
 bearng with him a singularly disquiet-
 ing vision of man shaken and torn by
 passion, with lip bleeding and eye
 flashing like a ponard while the canary on his shoulder poured forth an ecstasy of song.
 It was with more than his usual in terest in such intelligence that the colo nel in the following month read in To- cal newspaper, considerably smuggled in to him by the fat keeper, that among the New York prisoners sentenced by recent term of the United States court tn r,iI at tho inctitntinn was one Gardini, an Italian counterfeit CT. A few mornings later Shorty him. self brought confirmation that this was Pozzi's former partner and present en- emy in these words:
 Things is comin up a bilin' sure, Colonel" he began. Now, who dye suppose is waltin his turn down in the barber shop to git into trim for a five year bit but a fat little Dago named Gardini. the identical cuss that turned old Pozzy down on the last job, and then skipped the tra-la loo with the Irish gal he had for a wife. l heerd the marshal tellin the deputy about 1t, and when I got a chanct I axed the bloke how it was, and he srinned like chimpanzy, and said, says he, Liv- ing or dead I kin git away with that peasant of Pozzy. And jest tell him for me, he went on a blinkin' with his bright little eyes, that if he ain't nigh ty keerful with one glanct I'll put an ager on him tllatll shake his teet out Now, what do you suppose he meant by that, Colonel?"
 "Oh, some Latin braggadocio," said the colonel carelessly.
 ;t oil q tba jet of it" reflected Shorty; but he's the freshest thing that ever mounted the stripes in the last twinty year off and on, to my certing knowledge. Ye'd think to see him a smirkin' and astrok- in his fat sides that he was putin an wddin garmints instid of disilgurin' hisself for the next forty monts. And that ain't all Colonel, needer. No liv- in man in his senses would have sent sech a suicide message 10 old Pozzy, unless he kin make his words good in some mysterious, soopernateral way
 The colonel, being a man of peace in his latter days, felt himself constrained to venture to suggest to the warden the next time that functionary saw fit to speak with him that it might be pru- dent to keep Pozzi and Gardini apart as far as it was practicable. The warden, having a keen appreciation of his early experience with Pozzi, took the hint in good part, with the result that Gardini was assigned to cell in the north wing and to work in the shoe shop, disposi tion which rendered it almost impossi ble for him to meet his enemy face to face.
 The little fat Dago" as Gardini was generally called soon became great | favorite. He was mischievous ligh,- hearted and constituencies; he was lav- | ish with the few luxures which the | rules permitted him to purchase | through the deputy; he displayed on | all occasions which caution would al | low exceptional powers of imitation, a l gift dear to the convict heart Evident | ly he had made up his mind to make the best of circumstances. He wore all the | clothing he could beg, borrow and steal 1 and thus kept warm. He worked not | at all, bribing his associates to do his tasks for him. When in his cell he either slept or ate, and he did both l heartily. The old timers looked with to zee him putin on fesh," ani boasted that he was taking his bit like man. Above all he expressed the utmost contempt for the dread in which Pozzi was held, and when he saw him at Sunday service would droop his eye