Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1913-05-14
CHAPTER XIV.
The Torture.

he Iorture.
He'll is a place of unsatisied desires, |
and in its lowest depths are those, |
who, writhing In the agony Of their |
decaying nerves, Shrek for their be-
loved morphine and shrek in vain
Many times in my life / have seen
the souls of men, and women, too, put
to hard and bitter tests.
Once / saw a motorman whose car
had crushed a lovely child. Around
him pressed a bowling, angry mob,
led by the babys father, who would
have had his life. With bold daring,
he stood on his platform as on a
throne, with his controller bar for his
only weapon, and defled them all.
Yet, even as he stood there outwardly
so bold, l saw in his eyes a misery as
great as man could bear and live.
For days and months doubt not that
his nightly dreams brought him con-
slant horror-pictures of the child he
had killed.
Once, too, had to be the bearer
of the news when a workman's mis-
step on a frame of steel sent him
plunging down eighteen stories to
death. In the foul tenement where
told my news saw a tired, gaunt
woman walk the floor and scream and
moan. three frightened little children
clinging to her skirts.
Often, too, in my practice in the
courts, l have seen men in dreadful
misery-a ruffian bold and defiant de-
spite the blood-guilt on his soul, face
all the world courageously until the
jury's foreman said the word that
brought the death-chalr's horror to
his heart and crumpled him weeping
to the floor,
Yet all the concepts that my brain
had formed Of the utmost In pain and
shame and misery faded into insig
, niflcance before the things saw in
that rude cottage in the Jersey hills
!, where for two long days Davis and
. myself kept watch on the fetteret
J master Misunderstanding waiting
4 waiting till his drug-tortured nerves
a should make him tell Us the secret o
+ his yellow letters.
q Shackled hand and foot though h
q had found himself when he came on
a Of his stupor, his self-control was a
first wonderful. For a few minute
= after Davis had fastened his bonds h
v lay there tossing and twitching, the
y suddenly opened his eyes-piercing
II devilish, uncanny black eyes the
4 were-and tried to sit up.
4. The rope through the manacles b.
=. hind him stopped him short an
a. threw him back on his couch. At tn
!, same time he caught sight of Davi
At sitting near the foot Of his couch.
"a silence they eyed each other, neithe
q of them saying a word. Stealthil
,s Young shifted, first mis- hands and the
4 his feet as If to ascertain the exter
n. of his bonds. Finding himself secur
70 ly fastened, he let his eyes roy
m around the room, and discovered m
10 He studied my face sharply, as If
h, read my mission, but quickly turne
ne his gaze to Davis again, as If reco
n. nizing in him his master captor.
OF Then he laughed-a hideOus, CHI
so ling, defiant laugh, that ended in {
ne unhealthy gurgle in his throat
,r. "Wen?" he asked inquiringly.
af. I looked for Davis to seize on II
ms propitious moment, when Young, ju
Id aroused from drug-slumber, would
weak and nervous, to ply him wi
ut questions about the things we wish
re to know, but the inspector was t
I'D much a master Of his craft for thj
On AS L he had not heard his prisone
DID question, he sat there staring fixed
nd at the man before him.
in One minute passed. two minutes
ess three, and still Davis sat silent a
unanswering. The cumulative fol
aid of prolonged silence began to or,
ex- on my nerves. This waiting, waltz
hat was torture. II only one Of tn,
led would speak. To Young It must ha
,ot- been far worse.
Still they kept at It, Davis starr
ties straight into Young's eyes and You