The Clio messenger., 1913-10-24
CHAPTER TX.
The Great Silence.

The Great Silence.
Percy Darrow sat quite calmly,
though little hungrily, through the
first of the two hours OF the Great
Silence. As II 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 q sudden
idea, arose, walked down the corridor
outside. and quite deliberately set to
work to force the light door. Az 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 q 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 corroborative than not;
1t is more often used to identify the
source of the alarm that has been COM
municated through other channels.
When we are told of the hero-or the
villain-that he stood with every
sense alert" our mental picture. in
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 few of the prisoners a
small proportion OF the time. But
through those massive and silent cor
ridors sound stands watchdog for
them. The minute scratch OF file,
the vibrations attendant on the most
cautious attempts against the stone
structure, the most muffied football re-
ports to the jailer that mischief is
afoot.
Now the watchdog was asleep. Percy
Darrow reflected that, were it not for
the terror of these unexplainable
hours, the prisoners within or their
friends without could assail their con-
fines boldly and formidably, even with
dynamite, and no one would be the wi
ser If only none happened to be within
actual visual range of the operations.
He himself quite coolly used the iron
side piece of his bed as battering-
ram to break the locks of the door.
Then he walked down the long corri-
dor and out through the police station,
bowling politely to the bewildered Of
ficers. The latter did not attempt to
stop him.
The people in the streets were, for
the most part, either standing stock
STILL or moving slowly forward in a
cropping sort of fashion. Darrow. for
the second time, noticed how anal
ogous to the deprivation of sight was
the total deprivation of hearing and
feeling vibration.
Traffic was at standstill. Peoples
faces were bewildered, for the most
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 aural effect.
Ills COHlpiete oeNeTduCc VI oue
cause and effect was sufficient to dis
credit all natural laws. No other
cause and effect was certain. Every
where people we're 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 1t
would not be greatly serious to jump
off the top of any building into the
street.
Darrow swung confidently enough
down the street. He was the only per-
son who moved forward at natural
and easy gait. The effect was star
tling. 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 sllhouetted forms
of activity. Evidently, the newspaper