The Red Debt

sented the first ride Lem had ever made on a railroad. The terrible chagrin and consternation that obsessed h

ain attempt to break him down. This cross-fire finally wearied Burton, as Lem acted like a man deaf, dumb, and blind; and

drizzling rain veiled the atmosphere. Through this thin downp

ous agony to Lem's grim speculations-he was led

om on the west side, the commissioner sat at a long claw-footed table, hemmed about with various other pi

traits of five men, presu

o officers escorted Lem to one of the chairs against the wall. While the deputy remained seated here with Lem, Burton swaggered his damp hul

looked up, Burton met his gaze with a leering grin, the while wetting his thick lips with hi

lmost coaxed a smile to Lem's tight lips. Lem had seen his own hound lay a limp, dead rabbit a

ions and gestures it was apparent that Burton was describing the killing of old Cap Lutts. Finally

rted at Lem's boots and glanced slowly and critically up Lem's corduroy trousers, past his hea

see a hang-

ers that promised to develop at maturity into the frame of a mighty man. He saw a candid, open countenance,

ve a square chin; a thin, hawklike nos

ce. He focused his own gaze upon the commissioner's eye as intently as he would have watched a gro

re old Lu

ce it; and that makes him more dangerous. I can hook seventeen rummy-shiners before I can get half-way to a sober one. Then again, he's

ioner studi

me yet that your father put there." He paused again and, oddly enough, the severe fr

up in the service during the thirty-five years that I can remember. They all lo

er shifted his

of course, I rather expected-that is,

ure to the blue printed blank he had fille

for further evidence-take h

looked

thing to say

that he stood on the perilous brink of some dire happening. He understood the import of the commissioner's order to hold him for additional evidence, and while he was not wholly una

thing to say?" repeated t

it and ruptured in crowding past the lump that choked him. He turned hi

two cuffed hands and leveled them at the revenuer, "he

w-he ded-an' h

with a snort, the deputy the

es were moist. She glanced covertly at the commissioner. His downward drawn

own strange noises of a city consolidated and merged into a tumult that harried his very sou

a curt and gruff voice, concerning his age and residence, to which Lem answered in an apathetic, dazed way. The m

and he in turn told Lem to follow, leading the way across a big rotunda of concrete to a huge iron-barred gate which he unlocked. He ushered the prisoner into a long corridor, and trans

y occupied by two men in blue cotton shirts, and

Last Time?" addressing a huge convi

at the ba

ack. And you," turning to Lem,

the farther side of the corridor and sat in an arm-chair with his back

s repellent length out a thousand feet and more to a blind, sinister end. Along its sides, equi-distant, appeared high arched double windows, bolted and barred with a lattice-work of i

r structure occupying the center of the arcade. It was a tomb within a tomb, and the boy's already heavy heart sickened as his eyes slid down the seemingly inter

ise porches five stories high, where even a sluggish imagination could visualize convenient gibbets

s were constantly passing to and fro. They were "short time" men wh

. Their interchange of looks and low words to each other made it obvious that Lem was a subject of comment. Now t

The man watched Lem's

second man slid over and craned his neck for the an

thi

was squelched with an elbow punc

sitor, "did ye git a sentence in t

ied the boy gloomily, "

this your

h only a vague notion

the man sp

t never been in jai

ut hesitation, "an' I 'low

iment with such guileless sinc

git your nanny the first time. This is my fifth time in this joint," he volunt

d not

ot any tob

e welcome to hit-

ooked dis

did he git all your matches-ai

got nary

ning back, looked keenly into Lem's face. Lem met his gaze and noted that he wore a livid scar from the right cheek-bone

ewcomer shifted his gaze searchingly, then grinned. With a furtiv

u draw, Rox?

ig

ong. I may see you to-night." He hurried on w

ousand bucks. Then he beat it west. Two days later he got stewed in Chi-then he boarded a train with a bottle of booze, thinkin' he was bound fer Omaha; but he woke up that night and walked smack into the arms of the fly cops in Cincy. What do ye think of that? They didn't prove it on him very strong, but he drawed two spots at Columbus on general principles. I wonder what he turned this time. I met him last

se 'em, though," pro

as standing over them with a

ed Blinky, sneeringly. "Are

cheeks, as he fixed his eyes inqui

cher? He ain't no convict-the Captain jest sent fer him. He's

came up, bearing a blue cotton shirt and

e new duck?

? I'm ashamed of ye-ain't ye got no respect for a pr

and this fancy shirt on your arm when Last Time comes to escort you to t

h, all eyes turned upon Lem, as though he were some strange animal. And al

twixt this and sun-down. Say, Shorty, you been bellerin' for a mattress ever since I knowed ye-now's yer chance-rake this pretty hair up as

aunch, crowded in and took the clippers out of Blinky

on extensive, don'

resentment was rapidly amounting to real anger under these unkin

t comes to mowin'-come here young feller," he urged with a business-like f

, Lem rose up, his jaws set, his muscles te

he said, low and steady, "I'll take em

was taking it all in. When Lem stood up and showed fight, a chorus of low derisive laughter rippled around the circle which

n' to do, Briz

ghly to the head of the man who had been seated next to Lem, that the unlucky fellow protested loudly. Last Time

, eh?" Last Time shot a quick look across the corridor at the guard's back. Then he reached out and took a clutching handful of Bl

ime I get at you I'll take your jaw off-I'll send you across the lot for

Lem, they faded noiselessly away like so many rats. All except Shorty

lowing Blinky with a belligerent look. "He's got 'em

n' on?" he dema

dicating Lem with a jerk of his head. La

side-he keeps his own clothes. Take them things back to the dud-cubboard, and put 'em back where you got 'em from. Let's see-you're Lutts,

ap Lutts' boy o'

hot a curious