United States or Fiji ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He did it purely because he could not tone down his mighty strength and energy to stay even with his fellows. To-day Sprigley, the guard in first command of the gang, had placed him opposite Judy, the burly negro, but the latter was being driven straight toward absolute exhaustion.
"If not to you, who can I talk to? There are a few points that might help to clear up " Ordering his men to their work, Melville and Sprigley stood apart, and for nearly an hour engaged in the most earnest conversation.
Frank got away, but they got him, you remember, three weeks later. After some kind of a trial Kinney was sent down here." Sprigley paused and shifted his gun from his right to his left shoulder. "You'll say that's all common enough," he went on. "Now let me tell you another queer thing.
It came about, from the same cause, that a noted alienist, Forest, of Seattle, visited Ben Darby in his cell; and finally that the prisoner himself, under the strict guard of Sprigley, was taken to the capital at Olympia. The brief inquisition that followed, changing the entire current of Ben Darby's life, occurred in the private office of McNamara, the Governor.
"That's the queerest case we ever had here at Walla Walla," Sprigley told his fellow guard, as they watched the man's pick swing in the air. "Sometimes I wonder whether he ought to be here or not. Look at that face he hasn't any more of a criminal face than I have." The other guard, Howard, scanned his companion's face with mock care. "That ain't sayin' so much for him," he observed.
"I honestly don't remember you I feel that I ought to, but I don't. I honestly didn't remember my name was Darby until a minute ago then just as soon as you spoke it, I knew the truth. Nothing can surprise me, any more. I suppose you're kin of mine ?" Melville gazed at him in incredulous astonishment, then turned to Sprigley. "May I talk to you about this case?" he asked quietly.
The afternoon was shadow-flaked and paling when they had finished, and before Sprigley led his men back within the gray walls he had arranged for Melville to come to the prison after the dinner hour and confer with Mitchell, the warden. Many and important were the developments arising from this latter conference.
Sprigley, whose beliefs in regard to Ben had been strengthened by the little episode, stepped quickly to Melville's side. "He's suffering loss of memory," he explained swiftly. "At least, he's either lost his memory or he's doing a powerful lot of faking. This is the first time he ever recalled his own name." "I'm not faking," Ben told them quietly.
I suppose if every man was set free who wasn't, in the last analysis, responsible for his crimes, we wouldn't have anybody left in the penitentiary. He's in for five years considering what he'll pick up here, it might as well be for life. Amnesia that's what the doctors call it amnesia following some sort of a mental trouble. In the end you'll see that I'm right." Sprigley was right.
But as Sprigley had said, that night had marked a change. It was true that so far as facts went he was no better off: when he had come to himself he had found his mind a blank regarding not only his career of crime, but all the years that had gone before. Even his own name eluded him. That of Kinney had an alien sound in his ears.
Word Of The Day