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Gurn was walking quickly and alone round the exercise yard, when a breathless voice sounded in his ear. "'Gad, Gurn, you know how to march! I was going to join you for a bit, but I could not keep up with you." Gurn turned and saw old Siegenthal, the warder in charge of his division, in whose custody he was particularly placed.
"You acted on impulse, in a fit of jealousy, eh?" "No," Gurn answered with sudden bluntness, "I may as well own up that I did it in anger, because I wanted money for the sake of robbery." "I'm sorry," said the old warder simply. "You must have been desperately hard up." "No I wasn't." Siegenthal stared at his prisoner. The man must be utterly callous to talk like that, he thought.
"Yes," said Nibet, sipping the wine Gurn had offered him. "I have asked for the berth no end of times, but it never came; I was always told to wait because the place was not free, and another berth must be found first for Siegenthal, who was my senior. But the old beast would never make any application.
"That's all right, that's all right," Siegenthal muttered, not attempting to hide his emotion; "let us hope that everything will turn out well," and he left Gurn alone in the cell to his meditations.
He had heard the story of the battle of Saint-Privat a dozen times already, but he was quite willing to let Siegenthal tell it again. The warder, however, wandered to another point. "By the way, I heard you were promoted sergeant out in the Transvaal: is that so?" and as Gurn nodded assent, he went on: "I never rose above the rank of corporal, but at any rate I have always led an honest life."
However, three days ago, I was sent for to the Ministry, and one of the staff told me that some one in the Embassy, or the Government, or somewhere, was taking an interest in me, and they asked me a lot of questions and I told them all about it. And then, all of a sudden, Siegenthal was promoted to Poissy and I was given his billet here." Gurn nodded: he saw light. "And what about the money?"
Just fancy, I have been appointed head warder at Poissy; I go on leave to-night, and take up my new post in a week." Both halted before the door of cell number 127. "In with you," said Siegenthal, and when Gurn had obeyed he turned to go. Then he wheeled round again quickly, and put out his hand hurriedly, as if half afraid of being seen.
A sudden compassion for his prisoner seized the old man, and he laid a kindly hand on Gurn's shoulder. "Is it really possible that an old soldier like you, who seem to be such a steady, serious, kind of man, can have committed such a crime?" Gurn dropped his eyes and did not reply. "I suppose there was a woman at the bottom of it?" Siegenthal said tentatively.
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