The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-03
} the triangles for a hot retort upon

to the triangles for a hot retort upon
a warden.
Fairfax then, instead of returning to
his own cell, was hailed away to "chokey."
Chokey the punishment CELL is no longer
the BLACK hole" of the old days, but it
is very still and dismal and twilight
reigns there through all the gaudy Moons
of summer. A deal plank is the only fur
niture, there is nothing to read, and
plain is a generous description of the
fare. Chokey was unusually full that day
(thanks, in the main, to "Old' Remnant s
eXample), or the apartment which had
been assigned to Fairfax might have been
sealed, for particular reasons.
AS he took in it's solid proportions, his
eye growing reconcifed to the murk, his
spirit within him did obeisance to the
genius of "Old' Remnant What man,
to have eluded such a fastness! Fairfax
examined the iron-plated door, sounded
the cement flooring with his hand. How
was it done? Had "Old" Remnant bribed
his warder after all? II not, then the
annals of prison-breaking held no feat
worthy of a place with this.
1t struck Fairfax as curious that the
wall facing the door, which appeared TO
be of granite, was not whitewashed like
the other walls, but he remembered that
these cells were scarcely out of the hands
of the convict builders.
A trap in the door fell inwards, and
dinner was served: One pound of bread
with water; the sybartes in the ordt-
nary cells were feasting on stewed NUT
ton and hot potatoes. Fairfax stretched
himself upon his plank, and contem-
plated the luxury of a noon days sleep.
He had eaten only half his bread, and
he was hungry; but he was also weerier
than he had supposed, and sleep came
easily.
As he slept he dreamed that voice
rose from beneath him, and even in mis-
dream he was conscious that he turned
over and strained his ear. Then the
voice grew clearer and it said, close 90
him and quite plainly: Remnant! Old
Remnant
Stin dreaming, he beheld "Old' Rem
nant lying in a swoon on narrow, spi-
raj stairway, between two walls, and 1t
was pitchy dark. Dreaming, he arose and
CROPPED his way downwards, touched Rem
nant and passed him, until, at bend n
the spiral passage, he saw, far below, a
point of light like pin hole He cried
aloud cheerily, and awoke.
He must have slept away ten hours or
his sentence, for the cell was as black as
the stairway of his dream, and he could
see the twinkle of the gas in the corridor.
Hearing the warder coming on his round,
he lay still upon his plank.
If he had known at that moment that
he was in the cell from which old Rem
nant had escaped the night before!
The warder passed and returned along
his beat.
Then Fairfax sat up and listened, GER
tain that call was coming. 1t came, ris-
ing as it had risen in his dream. from
some spot beneath him Scarcely audible
at first, it mounted higher, and became a
distinct cry Of
Remnant! old Remnant
Its the man himself! said Fairfax,
under his breath.
a pause and the cry was repeated:
Remnant! old Remnant
1t was no spook Fairfax knew the
voice; "Old" Remnant, alive, but still
imprisoned, lay somewhere underneath.
The warder had evidently heard moth
ing; the voice had made no sound be-
yond the ribbed and plated door of the
cell.
When the warder had passed second
time Fairfax slid down from his plank
bed, and went cautiously on hands and
knees over the narrow area of the floor,
pressing it closely, inch by inch. Then he
moved both hands slowly over the sur
face Of the granite wall. But what he
looked for he did not find.
He spent half an hour at this task,
creeping back to his plank at the sound
OF the warder's foot and twice again he
heard "Old" Remnant calling.
For a last move, when the felt shoes
had shuffied off a third time, Fairfax set
back close against the granite wall, and
edged his way inch by inch along it.
Midway beside the two side walls, the
wall at his back seemed to give. He laid
all his weight against it, and the granite
sank behind him like a cushion. Turnin.;
around he pressed one finger on the spot
that gave and the solid wall opened TO
his touch.
The mystery was solved; the two pris-
orers had happened on a secret spring
which no finger had found for 800 years.