“i am going to leave you in charge of this place and i am going to investigate. i shall don a suit of one of the guards and follow this man around from morning until night and see if i will have any trouble with him.
“come along, pat. find me a club. that is about the first thing i shall have to do—use it on goodness knows whom. but someone is going to get a punishment from me.”
“if you find a job with the last fellow i had to bate, you will have a good job.”
“now, pat, did you notice any strange actions about this mutt, mr. pearson? i did, and i am under the impression that some secret lies there, and the old saying is, ‘murder will out.’”
“you are not of the opinion that he is guilty of murder?”
“i see, pat, that you do not understand me. i believe that mr. pearson knows this convict, in some way that he does not care to tell. there is a mystery there.”
“now, here is a club i have carried, and i[98] know a good one. and if you want two, here is another.”
“what would i do with two, pat? one is all you can use at one time.”
“well, i’m thinking that if he had two clubs in his hands, as he was throwing them, i would never have been able to give him the bating i did.”
“i hope that i shall not have to use one, pat, much less two. now, i am going to take charge of the prisoner, and, pat, as i shall be close to him all of the time, you had better drop around to the office quite often and see how mr. pearson is getting along.”
“i will do that, your honor.”
“you may go—no, i will go alone, as i will then be less liable to be noticed.”
“very well. good luck to you and your new job.”
“now for the mystery to be solved,” said the superintendent. “i shall follow that fellow until i satisfy myself who is right and who is wrong. and i shall find out if pat is as faithful as he has been supposed to be. i feel that the accused man has someone to help him in all of this work, but who the helper is, that i should like to know.”
[99]
as he approached the prisoner the superintendent said: “i thought that i would take care of you for a while—or, at least, try to. i see that you are doing very nicely, and i am glad. i hope that you will try and live up to the rules. you may speak to me when spoken to, but do not speak without being spoken to.”
“i am going to pass by and take a peep at our new officer, and see how he likes his job,” said pat. “well, be jabers, he is not here! where in the deuce has he gone? say, do you hear me? shake this door if you do. spake, and if you don’t spake, spake anyway.
“well, i’ll have to find out if he has drew his wages and quit his job, without giving the firm notice. hello! hello! well, the only thing i can do is to go for the other fellow. i think he has got a key. perhaps the next fellow that gets the job will be me.
“what in the deuce do i see, away back in the corner? as sure as i am alive, it is him. well, well, wake up! you have got a easy job, i know, but i don’t think you need to lay down and go to sleep by the side of it.
“well, i can’t wake the poor devil, but i know someone who can. and i would hate to be in the poor devil’s shoes if that one comes in[100] and finds him slapin’. so here’s to the office and report, as i promised to do, if i lose my job by doing so. someone is sure going to lose his job here, and that very shortly.”
“well, pat, what are you doing around here?” said the superintendent. “why are you looking so excited? i am getting along fine here.”
“well, i am not getting along fine there.”
“what is wrong, pat?”
“the fellow that you left in your office has laid down and gone to sleep on the job. and he locked the door before he did so. he was very careful that no one could get in or out.”
“gone to sleep? and the door locked? here, you watch this man and i will see what is the meaning of this.”
“if he don’t get his nap out before the officer gets there, it will be a pity.”
“here! what is wrong, mr. pearson?”
“wrong? nothing is wrong.”
“where have you been?”
“i have been here, sir, and very busy.”
“now, mr. pearson, were you not asleep with the door locked on the inside?”
“i am not guilty. pat has been giving you some more reports—and false ones, if he has told you that i was sleeping. i have not felt[101] well, in the last thirty minutes. i felt a dizziness come over me, but i feel all right now.”
“do you know if you were asleep at any time, or in a faint, while you were feeling dizzy?”
“i was not, sir. i was sitting at this desk, as you see me.”
“and i am being deceived by one in whom i have placed confidence. pat is a good fellow. i can not believe that he would deceive me. perhaps, after all, i had better watch him, as well as the other one,” thought the superintendent. “i need help. i have too many to watch. i can not be here and there too, but i will stay by the prisoner until i have satisfied myself that he is right or wrong.”
“come quick! help! help! the fellow has turned into a woman and it looks as if there were half a dozen people where he is,” called pat; “and he spakes like a woman. all he would have to do would be to put on a woman’s clothes and you would let him pass out on her voice, be jabers! she might be cultivating the voice to make her get away, but when they get by pat they will have to go when i am aslape, for i am not here to let anyone get away without their papers of freedom. you will have to come,[102] as the prisoners are killing time, listening to the lady speaking.”
“now, office superior,” said mr. pearson, “you have so much confidence in pat, leave him in charge of the office, and i will go with you to see what is wrong with the prisoner—78.”
“i will do that.”
“pat, take care of this office until we return. come along, pearson. make haste, this way.”
“well, i felt all along i would be the man to fill this place, and some day this irishman will be called the ‘supperior officer’ around this prison. i hope they will succeed in finding the lady still talking—or the gentleman, whichever it is.”
“well, officer, do you see anything wrong? the fellow is working.”
“i do not understand this, and no excitement among the prisoners.”
“well, i say the trouble is in the false reports made by pat.”
“we will go back to the office and i shall ask pat to explain what he meant by causing all this excitement by false reports. now that we are on the way back to the office, i want to talk to you about those mysterious voices. how do you account for them? well, i was in hopes[103] you would be able to tell me something. what have you heard, pearson?”
“i have heard more than i care to hear again.”
“you are not frightened, are you?”
“well, i am not praying to hear any more of it.”
“i am going to say to pat that he is not fooling anyone any more; the next time he comes with such stories, he will be sent back to take care of his own trouble. what, the office door open? what does that mean? where is pat?”
