The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-30

I
for the future
Down to the very bowels of the building
Lillian was taken. along obscure corridors
lighted dimly by tiny jets of gas, into sort
OF ante-chamber which was not lighted at
all. Through a mere slit which had been
fashioned high up in the thick wall a feeble
CLEAN of daylight struggled down. and was
just sufficient to enable Mother Jane to
find an end of candle and box of matches
placed ready for her in a niche.
Having lighted the candle. the opened
a low, massive door, which Lillian had not
hitherto preeeived in the wall, and revealed
a cell about six feet square. 1t contained
no furniture whatever. not even bench;
nothing but a pitcher of water and piece
Of bread put down upon the stone floor
Mother Jane, standing the entrance
with the light raised so as to illuminate the
bare walls. turned with a look of satisfied
tyranny in her small eyes. and told Lillian
| to walk in.
The girl obeyed. The door closed on her
with a reverberating slam.
No one who has not lived through even
/ half an hour OF the dark cell can form any
idea of the agony of the experience. The
more sensitive the mind, the more horribly
il suffers There are cases in which this
| suffering is so acute, so beyond all human
endurance, that nature comes TO the VIC
TINS aid, a cord snaps in the brain, and
henceforth the poor wretch is mad. But
until that happy contamination Is reached,
a second seems a year; five minutes an
eternity.
Lillian stood for a moment feeling the
| darkness with her hands, so to speak,
drawing it in with every breath. Then the
| horror overcame her, and she flung herself
| against the door. She would worship In
| the way they required, she would do any
thing i'm the world if they would but let
her out. Her piteous appeals woke the
| echoes of her cell, but brought no other
| response.
Her brain reeled. She caught her head
between her hands and wondered IL she
| could keep sane. She said the Lord S
| prayer; she tried to repeat by heart all
| the poetry she knew; she set herself the
task of counting up to thousand; some
| thing. anything to calm her mind. And
| she had not got into the second hundred
before her endurance broke down. She
could not remember whether it was day
or night, whether she had been shut up
herself, she rushed from side to side of her
| cell like a trapped wild creature. over
set the water pitcher and broke ii,
trampled the bread underfoot, and finally
| fell into a swoon on the floor.
When she came to herself she was the
occupant of one of the many bed cells in a
| huge whitewashed room, the infrmary or
| the prison. She felt faint and weak. and
| covered with linen bandages.
She heard as from a great distance, two
| persons talking about her.
How did it happen?" said one.
"she must have fallen and cut her head
open on a piece of the pitcher which she
had broken" said the other, whom Lillian
recognized by the voice, as being Mother
| Jane.
How long had she been in?"
| mot more than quarter of an hour at
| the very most, for l was waiting In the
| ante-room just to hear how she enjoyed
| il, and when she tired of begging and pray
ing to be let out. and bowling like mad
| thing, there came the crash of the pitcher.
| All right, my dear, you can just go thirs-
| ty,' said i to myself, and then 1 heard the
| thud of her fall. l guessed she had tainted,
| they generally do at first, so 1 lighted the
| candle again, thinking I would take a
| peep at her, but L saw Immediately dark
stream running out from under the door,
| and discovered that the little idiot was I'M
| conscious and bleeding like a pig. / ran
| up to tell Reverend Mother, and she sent
| the doctor down, and he, being a soft
hearted nincompoop, had my young lady
| brought up here. But, so soon as she is
| sufficiently recovered, back she goes into
| the darkness again to live her punish
ment through; of that you may be sure
Never, never.'' cried Lillian to herself.
| 81 will die sooner"
| Yet how to avoid it?
I, There was one way only. She must
| escape from the prison, and now, while
she enjoyed the comparative freedom Of
the infrmary. was her only chance.
| Though feeling physically weak her wits
were singularly alert. Her half-shut eyes
| noticed every detail in the room. There
were twenty beds In the infirmary ranged
| ten along either wall. OF these only seven
or eight were occupied. At either end of
the room was bed completely screened
| in by curtains one for each of the two
nuns who nursed and guarded the prison.
| ers.
| The screened bed furthest from Lillian be-
longed to Mother Tersa of the holy sepul-
| chre, the elderly nun she had heard talk
| ing with Mother Jane. The other, which
| stood nearest the door. belonged to Sister
Veronica, the young nun whom Lillian had
| first seen in the wardrobe room on the day
| of her entrance into st. Genevieve. Sister
Veronica aided Mother Teresa in the work
| The infirmary had eight windows, Sc
curely barred on the outside. The door
| locked itself automatically as it closed,
and could only be opened by a passe-par-
| tout key, such as each of the gaoler nuns
possessed. But even supposing that she
managed to purloin one of these keys, Lii
| ian knew that her difficulties would only
| then begin, for she would have to get
l down the big staircase unperceved past