The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1906-04-13
for The Term of His Natural Life
CHAPTER IT.
BY MARCUS CLARKE


heavy, and the sky brazen and cloud
less, the shadow of the Malabar lay
Dolitary on the surface Of the gIittering
sea.
The sun had just got low enough to
peep beneath an awning and awaken a
young man, in an undress military uni
form, who was DOING on a coil of rope.
Hang it!' said he, rising, with the
weary sigh Of a man who has nothing
TO do. II must have been asleep" and
then, holding by a stay. he turned about
and looked down into the waist of the
ship.
Save for the man at the wheel and
the guard at the quarter railing, he was
alone on the deck. On the forecastle,
some half-dozen soldiers were playing
at cards. or watching the fishing lines
hanging over the cat heads.
So far the appearance Of the vessel
differed In nowise from that of an ordi-
nary transport. But In the waist a
curious sight presented itself. 1t was
as though one had built cattle pen
there. At the foot of the foremost,
and at the quarter deck, strong bar
ricade, loop-holed and furnished with
doors for ingress and egress, ran across
the deck from bulwark to bulwark. Out
side this cattle pen an armed sentry
stood on guard; inside, standing, sitting
or walking m0n0tonOusly, within range
of the shining barrels in the arm-chest,
were some sixty men and boys, dressed
In uniform gray. The men and boys
were prisoners and the cattle pen was
their exercise ground. Their prison was
down the main hatchway, and the bar
ricade, continued down, made its side
walls.
1t was the fag-end of the two hours
exercise, graciously permitted each af-
ternoon, and the prisoners were enjoy
Ing themselves 1t was not, perhaps, so
pleasant as under the awnings, but that
sacred shade was only for such great
men as the captain and his officers, Sur
geon Pine, Lieut.. Maurice Frere and,
most important personages Of all, Cap
tain Viekers and his wife.
That the convict leaning against the
bulwarks would like to have been able
to get rid Of his enemy, the sun, for q
moment, was probable enough. His com
panions, sitting on the combings Of the
main hatch, or crouched In careless
fashion on the shady side Of the barri
cade, were laughing and talking, witt
merriment hideous to contemplate; bu
he, with. cap pulled over his brows, ant
hands thrust into the pockets of hi
coarse gray garments, held aloof from
their dismal joviality.
The low-browed, coarse-featured ruff
fans grouped about the deck cast man.
leer of contempt at the solitary figure
but their remarks were confined to ges
lures only. There are degrees in crime
and Rufus Dawes the convictad felor
who had but escaped the gallows to to-
for all his life in irons, was a man O
mark. He had been tried for the roll
berry and murder of Lord Bellasis. TIL
friendless vagabond's lame story Of fine
Ing on the Heath dying man woul
not have availed him but for the cur
GUS fact sworn to by the landlord Of tn
Spaniards' Inn, that the murdered nj
bleman had shaken his head when aske
II the prisoner was his assassin. Th
vagabond was acquitted of the murde
but condemned to death for the rol
berry, and London, which took some il
terest in the trial. considered him TO
tnnate when his sentence was commute
to transportation for life.
The young man ON the deck caugl
sight of the tall figure leaning again
the bulwarks. and it gave him an excus
to break the monotony of his emplo
ment.
Here, your he called out, "get OF
Of the gangway"
Rufus Dawes was not In the gan
way-was, in fact, a good two feet fro
it-but at the sound of Lieut.. Frede
voive he started, aud went obedient
toward the hatchway.
oT,ll maka soma of van fo1lav,,w s,,