THE PRISON TELEGRAPH.
But had JenA' held no communication with his brother Richard before his
death? Yes; Richard was a prisoner in the same building, and it was
fitted with a telegraph which communicated with all the cells and was
never idle. It could not be silenced; the prisoners could not be
prevented from making use of it at all hours of the day and night. It
consisted simply of the prison walls.
No wall is so thick that a knocking on one side cannot be heard on the
other. One rap stood for A, two for B, three for C, and so on through
the alphabet. The rapping went on continually all over the building,
and each new prisoner learned its meaning on the very day of his
arrival, and became a telegraph operator himself. A message sent out
from one cell was passed along until it reached its destination, when
an answer was returned by the same route.
On the day which was destined to be JenA''s last on earth, the
following questions and answers passed from cell to cell.
"What news?"
"Death sentence."
"Who?"
"Baradlay."
"Which one?"
"The oldest."
Through Richard's cell, too, passed this cryptogram, and he asked
again:
"First name?"
But the only reply he could elicit was a repetition of the above: "The
oldest."