The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-05-20
CHAPTER 4.

Piaiitcd III His S1e''
 CHAPTER 4.
 Throughout most of the weary night l lay thinking. A part of the time l was trying to reach a decision as to the best course of action. Most of the time. however. my thoughts were turning backward-and ever with remorse and self-reproach-to- ward the days of what was then to me the long ago.
 Again and again I went over the years spent in my childhood home in the foothills of the Ozark mountains. l could see my parents and two sis ters al they all were in my early childhood. My father, typical, earnest and honest farmer of the bot toms and upland of the southern hills; man whose Virginia ances- tors had in early statehood days of Missouri moved westward with the tide of immigration; and one who had not only in these trying days of the sixties responded to Lincoln's call, but had in after years settled down to the life of a quiet and in dustrious citizen, who had faith in most men and was ever ready to lend a helping hand to the weak and the needy.
 And my mother. Oh, the wave of agony that would sweep my whole being at thought of heri-lCving, pa tient, prayerful and hopeful-all that it is possible for a mother to be.
 The sisters, too-both older than had their part in the procession of days and events thus passing before me. l could see them at play, at school. when we three and other schotlmates would trudge happily along the narrow pathway leading through the trees and among the friendly mess-eovered stones, each of which to us always had a kind of comrade-like personalitv, and l could see them as they then were, with re- responsibilities of families and the everyday affairs of life, yet upper most in their thoughts much of the r time a hope that I might yet return home to make amends in some meas ure for the grief that my cratic life and wanderfnes had brought to our parents, who were then rapidly ap- preaching old age.
 What of Those At Homef
 Such was the main trend of thought. along with many broken and tormenting threads, which kept me company on that sectpd night after the coming of that inevitable craSn Tn my restless ana cofnplek ule And as I lay there, in troubled half dreams, broken by the strange nut terings and sounds that may be heard only in a prison in the dead of night, l would ever reach the seeming end of my repeated train of thought with a heart breaking and questioning climax: what will tidngs of this mean to my loved ones at home?
 Somewhere not far from the end of <;1 nf lat nd h q f It was on the floor above--an officer pn duty would occasionally operate buzzing kind of instrument, and etraghtway after each peculiar sound he would speak over phone: "All right" Once after he had so reported I heard what l knew was his end of a telephone conversation.
 Among other things I heard him say that. so far as he could tell, both my partner and l were sleeping soundly Then. perhaps in answer to an inquiry: My clock here shows s:40." I knew that but a couple hours of that night remained, and the last remember was q land of half sleeping computation of the number of hours that I had then been with put either sleep or food. l had not vlept for almost 4S hours. and I had been about 36 hours without food,
 was aroused from sleep by the ringing of a gong. A moment later a ventricose parsonage in the uniform of prison guard peeped through the bars at me. I.Tegarded him in si- lence.
 Enter a Cheerful Guard
 "Well, Kane" he addressed me, you can count yourself mighty lucky; if that crowd had got hold of - you last night your neck would "a been three feet long this mornin.
 "Is that so?" l inquired, taking his measure in the meantime. Well, I'm mighty glad they didn't get me-if they'd have made my neck that j. iong.'
 "Oh, they'd a done it, by golly," E he assured me. stepping back and vpreading his feet wide apart. And F If was in your place I'd just as ,oon they'd "a got me a to face what E you're goin' to-
 "What would "a done?" He slightly squinted his popped-out pyes. wy, I'd "a just faced that mob and give 'em all one grand J .ussin'. and then I'd "a told 'em l was ready to die like man."
 In modern slang, I had his number; knew he was merely a blow-hard, who, like some other prison guards. would impress prisoners with a be- lief that he feared neither man nor ievil I knew even then, without my former jail experience, that 1T had seen fit to report what he had yaid to me, he would at least have been told to mind his own business. But I merely explained to him that i'll men were not so careless of death. And after squinting his pop-out and | rusty looking eyes at ms again, ne !, ,trutted away in evident satisfac- Hon.
 t ITlI O o o
 \ Hhe Lock-Step
 Perhaps 10 minutes elapsed when l Aeard the gong again, and with its hst stroke came the sound of many feet in rhythmical cadence along a lorridLr on the far side of that cell flock. Clug! Clug! Clug! l peered through the bars and at the entrance Ind of the corridor I saw something mat caused a peculiarly creepy feel nc to come over me.
 1t was a long line of striped forms. vinding slowly and serpent-like, in he Iock-step-each one with his Iands upon the shoulders Of the next han in front. They were on their