Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1907-08-23

CHAPTER XIII.

4S.I
CHAPTER XXI.
"NHE stockade smoldered In the
midst of hard baked plain
that was as brown as shoe
leather and as devoid Of my
sort or kind of vegetation, as though 1t
were shaved every morning with some
monstrous razor. Trees there were III
the distance, marking more than half
the skyline, as though the place had
been shaved especially for the stock
ade, but not solitary bush was with
In reach. And the sight of the trees
whose leaves they never heard and
whose shade they never felt. was one
more torment to those of the eighty
prisoners who still lifted their heads to
look SO far. The majority, however.
let their dull eyes redden by the day
together on those few hard and blind
Ing yards which might chance to oc-
cupy their picks and shovels from In
the morning till the going down Of the
sun.
All day they labored in chains be-
meath the barrels and bayonets of the
military. In the evening when they
returned to the stockade loaded mus
kets and fixed bayonets showed them
the. way. Even In the stockade itself
fixed bayonets and loaded muskets
gave them their supper. Thereafter
they We're locked up for the night in
SO many small boxes lined with lodges
something more spacious than book
shelves. On these lodges they lay
down. as close as mummies In cata-
combs, until 1t should be s o'clock once
more, and perhaps after a time the
only sound would be the ciank of his
letters as this man or that turned over
In the magnificent space Of eighteen
inches that was allotted to each.
1t wns the same stockade of which
Erichsen had seen the outside on his
way to Castle Sullivan in the early
part of December. He saw the inside
by the end Of February when Strachan
gave him six months of 1t for abb
sconding and by SO doing made open
enemies of the Sullivans. They want
ed to have the breaking of Toms spirit
all to themselves and tried to dictate
another fifty lashes and the convict's
return to service, but this time
Strachan was firm, passing, indeed, the
! most merclful sentence possible in the
circumstances.
4 The six months began on Wednesday,
| the last of February. in the year 1898.
4 First they took his name and made
| an inventory of his marks, scars aud
I the color of his eyes and hair. Then
they cropped the latter and shaved of
I the yellow stubble which had lately
I hidden the hollow cheeks and softened
] the haggard jaw. and It was an old
mans face that saw itself with sunken
I eyes In the BARRIERS glass.
| Next they took away his farm labor
er's clothes, which were not branded
and put him In Parramatta frock and
trousers, which were. And now they
clasped around his body a green hide
belt, from which depended In front O
heavy chain that became two heavy
chains at about the level of the knees
and the two chains ended in still heav.
1 Ter rings around either ankle, and the
whole made capital upside down
In this harness 1t was impossible to
walk, though with practice you might
waddle, and 1t was never struck Off for
a single instant on any pretext whatso.
ever.
They now presented him with q
spoon NIL to himself His knife and
fork. his pannlkin and his mess kid be
i was to share with five. other felons.
Lastly they showed him his eighteen
\ inches, where he passed the intolerable
night in wondering why he had moi
4 given himself up as the Italian's un.
derstudy and In wondering even more
4 why he still would not do SO II it were
all to come over again. for he knew he
4 would not. Indeed, one of the most
dreadful features of this present phase
was the tenacity with which the pool
wretch found himself clinging to life
in each emergency despite an his cool
err longings for the end. He longed
for that more sthin ever, but he saw
now that death must come to him
1 He might sink to murder; to self muir
der he. could never stoop.
Or so he thought at the beginning Of
this term of broiling days and fetid
nights, with foul company aud heavy
irons common to both. Meanwhile
SUCH feelings as We're left him were
still tolerably keen, and It was a rea
thrill that toward the end Of the frs,
week he woke up at his work to Leal
the Others hooting and turned round Il
see Nat Sullivan pnce MORE riding
down the line. U.
The thrill became shiyer. The blue
eyes We're fixed on Tom, the great III
was thrust out at him. and before Ton
the rider refined up.
You yillainw said MIR. Nat, with In
expresslIjle malignancy of voice ant
look. you villain-I've found yor
out!''
A line OF red eyes blinked and wa
Tered In the sun, then fell with gllm
mer Of interest from the scowlinl
horseman to the prisoner accosted
Tom had already piqued such atten
ton as his new companions were ii
the habit Of bestowing upon my fel
low creature, fol, few there were VIII,
joined that morose nnd fierce crey
.. with the stamp Of such lnorosenes
1 and ferocity already OH them. Thos'
J few were Grabbed old hands, but her,
was raw youth, and yet III three lon,