El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-04-17
Behind the Wall
A short stnrr-

- Of a big river. Toward evening.
I when everything else is silent the
rushing waves alone break the silence
Of nature.
Inside the fortress all the floors were
full Of prisoners. During the day the
house was like a tomb, a catacomb in
which all the holes were full of living
! and sane people, asleep on their mat
, tresses or staring at some object or
other inside the cell until they were
on the verge of madness.
But when evening came the build
ing aWoke to life Everywhere pris-
Oners were rapping on the walls and
thanks TO a secret alphabet, they We're
able to carry on long conversations.
Occasionally the sound of heavy steps
! along the stone corridors plunged the
whole building into silence, sand when
the JailOr had passed life began again.
The prisoners became accustomed to
| their mute existence, they could only
talk with their fingers, and they even
! learned to form an opinion of the
character of their correspondent and
his social position from the way he
knocked. Sometimes, however, they
were seized with a desire to cry out
aloud, to talk a little, as if to ascer-
tain whether they really still pos
One night when the whole prison
was conVersing, strong, young, hearty
laughter was heard in the clear voice
OF a young girl. The prisoners were
scared. Surely something quite alb
normal had happened. The rappings
on the walls stopped; the whole prison
was silent. But a second time the
sunny laughter sounded through the
prison, strangely, as if a dead person
had suddenly spoken.
She who had laughed was. almost a
enid. When they had come to arrest
her at her mothers house she had not
understood how serious the affair
was, but had stood up proudly and
borrowed the oIfleers with the bearing
of heroine But once when she found
herself locked up inside four walls,
she had soon felt the loneliness and
the weight of the heavy hands of the
law. For hours she had cried in
silence, but then she began to feel
better and looked upon herself as the
heroine Of a romantic adventure. Sit
ting up in her bed she crossed her
arms over her bosom as if to receive
the bullets of the soldiers. But all at
once she remembered that she was
alone and she burst out sObbing like
a child.
The sentry came rushing up and
looked through the peephOle in the
door and the sudden appearance Of this
eye at the hole had made the young
girl laugh, and the good hearted SOL
der was touched and smiled, too, until
he remembered his duty and managed
to look stern and speak roughly as
Thus it happened that the discipline
90 % Ken for the first time inside
the dark prison. The news soon spread
IA GsJr mar there was young girl
prisoner in the building How did the
prisoners find out? They had not
been able to hear her voice when she
was first locked up in her cell, but
words in the secret alphabet ran
through the prison. They had not seen
her, for she took her daily walk in
the prison yard alone, but they had
recognized her light feminine step
along the corridors.
She was very musical and as she
missed her piano dreadfully she sat
down in a corner of her cell and be-
gan to tap the rhythm of her favOrite
tunes with her foot. The other pris-
oners in their dark holes heard her
overhead, recognized the rhythm and
began to hum the tunes to them
selves The whole sOmber building
was transformed by the presence Of
this woman.
In the cell next 10 hers was a young ,
man. The prison had already robbed
him of eight months Of his life, but il
had not been able to cool the ardOr OF
his young heart He felt as If it lay
dormant in his bosom, and in the
morning just after he had got up he
threw himself on his cot and spent
long hours thinking Of his childhood
After a while he had become indiffer-
ent to most things. he did not care
whether it was sunshine or rain out
side but it took only a sound, a
whisper to awaken his heart.
On the other side the wall he could
hear the light step Of a young girl
and when in the twilight she tapped
with her foot a nOcturne by Chopin
he felt happy as he had not felt for
a long time He saw before him a
young forest during the first days OF
autumn, here and there ray Of sun
light shot IN between the trees, an
abandoned castle was reflected in the
waters of the deep meats, a young girl |
was walking under the pine trees, /
silent and mysterious walking from a
strange world to a world Ear away.
He had tried to talk to her through I
the wall His fingers told her Of his
love. who are yOu2 I feel that you
are young and beautiful and I love
you am as strong as a lion and I
when night comes I will break down I
the wall and carry you off. I will hide
you at my bosom and fly far, far away !
with you"
She heard the sound Of his fingers, /
but did not understand, for she did /
not know the secret alphabet though !
she felt that beyond the wall there !
was q heart which belonged to her. a /
voice that called her. After that she |
pressed her ear against the wall to 1
language and sometimes she knocked, I
too, as if her fingers knew how to /
speak When night came she laid /
down On the floor close to the wall I!
and knocked to hear il he was there :
on the other side. They remained 0
thus and with her fingers she sang
songs to him and told him Of her love. /
Without knowing why, she felt that /
her SO1~s reached his heart, and she ]
pressed her forehead against the wall. |
one day something happened which |
terror. A prisoner had discovered |
that they were erecting the gallOWs ]
within the prison and all night the
knocking sent the horrible news from
cell to sell. Then the tape came faster, /
they ran through the walls, then from |
a floor TO a ceiling below. the prison.
ers gave one another advice They
cOnsOled one another, asked questions
and said goodbye. It was as if the |
angel of death Tapped his dark wings /
against the prison walls. At last the |
sounds died away and each prisoner [
was living over again in his agonized |
soul the story Of his past life.
That night the young girl felt some /
strange emotion in the knocking from
her neighbor's cell. His fingers
trembled as il with fever. Surely he
had something grave and important to |
tell her. His finger tips implored and |
cried and at last they died away as
if with a sigh She felt that he was |
pressing his face against the wall; !
that he was kissing the cold stone, but |
she did not understand the secret he
wanted to cOnfide to her
Outside the wind was signing in the /
tree tops and whistling through the |
chimneys and the gratings of the win |
dOWs- Never had her cell seemed SO |
dreadful to her. Several times she had !
knocked at the wall. but her neigh /
Dor was silent, as if he were angry
with her. Then she grew sad and !