Bisbee daily review., 1913-10-19
CHAPTER K.
The Great Silence.

| Percy DarTOw sat quite calmly,
 though a little hungrily. through the | first of the two hours of the Great l Silence. As it fell. he looked at his watch; then went on reading. Strange | ly terrified faces fitted by the open ' door of his little room. About seven o'clock Darrow, struck by a sudden | idea, arose, walked down the corridor outside. and quite deliberately set to
 work to force the light door, As has been intimated, either by direct order of Mccarthy or because of same vague ness of the orders, the young man had been confined, not in the Jail proper, but in one of the living apartments of the wing.
 Few realize how important role sound plays in what might be called the defensives of our everyday life. Sight is important, to be sure. but it IS more often corroboratiye than not;
 it is more often used to identify the
 source of the alarm that has been com municated thBough other channels. When we are told of the hero-or the viIlain-that he stood with every SEltEb GltEls Oll LlChAGl plNluACu III spite of the phrasing. is that of a man listening intently for the first intima- tions of what may threaten.
 So it is in prison. The warders can. of necessity, remain within actual view of but a few of the prisoners a small proportion of the time. But ! through those massive and silent COT. rfHpra gnrrnH gf1pHc ! them. The minute scratch of a file, the vibrations attendant on the most cautious attempts against the stone structure. the most mufled footfaIl re- ports to the jailer that mischief Is afoot. Instantly he Is on the spot to ! corroborate by his other faculties the
 warningR of the watchdog of the senses.
 Now the watchdog was asleep. Percy i Darrow reflected that, were it not for the terror of these unexplainable
 hours. the prisoners within or their l friends without could assail their con 1 fines boldly and fOTmldably, even with 1 dynamite, and nc one would be the wi. ! ser if only none happened to be within actual visual range Of the operations. ! He himself quite coolIy used the irop | side piece of his bed as 8 battertng 1 ram to break the locks of the door ] Then he walked down the long corrt ! dor and out through the police station | lowing politely to the bewildered ot | fcers. The latter did not attempt to 1 stop him.
 ! The people in the streets were, for 1 the most part. either standing stock.
 still, or moving slowly forward in a ] groping sort of fashion. Darrow, for | the second time, noticed how anal ! ogous to the deprivation of sight was l the total deprivation of hearing and | feeling vibration.
 Traffic was at a standstill. Peoples faces were bewildered, for the most i part; though here and there one show.
 ed contorted with the hysteria of | fright or exalted with some other, ! probably religious. emotion. The ! same impression of ghostliness came | to Darrow here as in the Atlas Build | ing. Visual causes were not producing their wonted auraI effect. This complete severance of one cause and effect was sufficient to dis credit all natural laws. No other
 cause and effect was certain. Every.
 where people were touching things to see if they were solid. or wet, or soft or hard, as the case might be. Even Darrow felt, absurdly enough, that it
 would not be greatly serious to jump of the top of any building into the street
 Darrow swung confidently enough down the street. He was the only per. SOD who moved forward at a natural
 and easy gait The effect was star.
 ting. Darrow seemed to be the only
 real human being of the lot. All the rest were phantasmagoric.
 But as he proceeded downtown the spell was beginning to break People
 were communicating with one another by means of pencil and paper Darrow
 was amused, on crossing the park, to
 see against the lighted windows on
 Newspaper Row the silhouetted forms
 of activity. Evidently, the newspaper