IN PRISON
At high-noon the next day Lem Lutts was landed at Frankfort, a United
States prisoner. This dismal trip represented the first ride Lem had
ever made on a railroad. The terrible chagrin and consternation that
obsessed him, and the bullying presence of his furiously hated arch
enemy made it one that lingered long in his memory.
In the early hours of the trip the revenue officer and his deputy had
plied the boy with a torrent of questions in their vain attempt to break
him down. This cross-fire finally wearied Burton, as Lem acted like a
man deaf, dumb, and blind; and the surly officer desisted with a series
of dire predictions, mingled with some exquisite punctuations of choice
profanity.
A pall of far-stretching clouds obscured the sky and a film of drizzling
rain veiled the atmosphere. Through this thin downpour Burton walked his
shackled prisoner to the Federal Building.
After a wait of almost an hour--which added nervous agony to Lem's grim
speculations--he was led into the austere presence of the commissioner.
A row of ornate heavy chairs was lined up against the east wall of the
high-ceilinged room. Across the room on the west side, the commissioner
sat at a long claw-footed table, hemmed about with various other pieces
of massive office furniture, while to the left of him a pale, icy blonde
woman hammered a typewriter.
On the walls were the portraits of five men, presumably former
commissioners.
The whole atmosphere of the chamber was charged with a chill that went
to the heart of the prisoner. When they first entered the room the two
officers escorted Lem to one of the chairs against the wall. While the
deputy remained seated here with Lem, Burton swaggered his damp hulk
across the room and halted before the commissioner, his big shoulders
slumping awkwardly. Here he stood mopping his sweaty, heavy features.
Lem's eyes were fastened upon his blunt profile. When the commissioner
threw his pen down and looked up, Burton met his gaze with a leering
grin, the while wetting his thick lips with his tongue and jerking his
thumb toward Lem and the deputy with some words that were inaudible.
As Burton grinned now, Lem had seen his own dog grin, and, at this tense
moment, the analogy almost coaxed a smile to Lem's tight lips. Lem had
seen his own hound lay a limp, dead rabbit at his feet and look up, and
lick his lips with his tongue, and grin just as Burton grinned now.
A subdued and lengthy conversation followed between the commissioner and
Burton. From their expressions and gestures it was apparent that Burton
was describing the killing of old Cap Lutts. Finally Burton beckoned the
deputy, who led Lem across the great room and stood him before the
commissioner.
The latter leaned backward and slightly to one side, while with
curiously wrinkled brow he started at Lem's boots and glanced slowly and
critically up Lem's corduroy trousers, past his heavy belt, across his
gray flannel shirt front, and finally rested his keen eyes upon Lem's
face.
He did not see a hang-dog criminal.
He saw before him a young mountaineer, in height a good six feet; spare
of flesh, but with back-flung shoulders that promised to develop at
maturity into the frame of a mighty man. He saw a candid, open
countenance, though now a trifle pale, little short of handsome, and
absolutely free from any indications of dissipation.
He noted a well-shaped, firm mouth above a square chin; a thin, hawklike
nose leading to a wide vertical forehead.
Throughout this acute examination Lem's steady gray eyes never wandered
from the commissioner's face. He focused his own gaze upon the
commissioner's eye as intently as he would have watched a groundhog hole
in the hills. Then the commissioner leaned forward and, taking up his
pen, spoke softly:
"So you are old Lutts's boy?"
"He's a dangerous man, Cap'n," interposed Burton. "He ain't no boozer.
He makes the stuff, but he don't drink it himself so you can notice 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 got the nerve
of the old man, and that helps some, I reckon. He's the old man over and
over--he's fixin' to lead us a dog's life, Captain."
The commissioner studied Lem again.
"I knew your father, Lutts," he said. "In fact, I have a small piece of
lead inside me yet that your father put there." He paused again and,
oddly enough, the severe frown with which he had raked the prisoner at
first now vanished. He continued evenly:
"Do you see those portraits along the wall? They are men who worked
themselves up in the service during the thirty-five years that I can
remember. They all looked for your father; they all found him. But none
of them ever brought him in."
The commissioner shifted his eyes to Burton.
"So it was left to you, eh? Well--well, of course, I rather
expected--that is, I hoped to get old Lutts alive, but----"
He broke off abruptly and added his signature to the blue printed blank
he had filled in, then handed the slip to Burton with:
"I'll continue the hearing for further evidence--take him over to the
jail, Burton."
He now looked at Lem.
"Have you anything to say for yourself?"
Throughout all this the boy had stood straight and unflinching. His
features were pale but his jaws were hard set. Friendless and moneyless,
he knew his chances were small. He knew 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 unafraid, he stood tense and determined, boding no
retreat, like a brave horse taking a deep, wide ditch in the dark, with
yawning depths beneath him, and the gush of waters in his ears.
"I said, have you got anything to say?" repeated the impatient
commissioner.
"I hain't got nothin' t' say--only--only----" he began, in a voice that
split and ruptured in crowding past the lump that choked him. He turned
his gray eyes and fixed them upon the bloated, triumphant visage of
Burton.
"Only," he struggled on, quaveringly, as he lifted his two cuffed hands
and leveled them at the revenuer, "he kilt my Maw--he ded--an' he kilt
my pap, he ded--an'--an'----"
[Illustration: "He kilt my maw--he ded--an' he kilt my pap."]
Burton grabbed one shoulder with a snort, the deputy the other, and they
led him out.
As the door closed, the blonde typist resumed her machine, and her
chilly eyes were moist. She glanced covertly at the commissioner. His
downward drawn mouth was ajar, and he was gazing blankly at a familiar
ink spot on his desk.
Once again Lem found himself marching through the rain between his
captors, and all the unknown strange noises of a city consolidated and
merged into a tumult that harried his very soul. His next distinct
impression came when he realized that Burton was unlocking his
handcuffs.
He was now inside of a jail. He stood before a desk and a man in uniform
was putting various questions to him in a curt and gruff voice,
concerning his age and residence, to which Lem answered in an apathetic,
dazed way. The man made a record of these responses in a book. While he
was thus occupied, Lem was eyeing his awesome surroundings.
Now for the first time, he was conscious that Burton and his deputy had
disappeared, and another man in uniform stood at his side. The desk-man
presently handed this officer a pink slip, 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 transferred him to the care of a second uniformed guard,
who proceeded to search Lem's clothes with a skill and deftness that
would have inspired envy in the bosom of a professional pickpocket.
The guard seated Lem on a bench which was already occupied by two men in
blue cotton shirts, and the perversely striped trousers of convict garb.
"Blinky," said the guard, "where's Last Time?" addressing a huge convict
with red hair, a mop and a bucket.
"He's over at the bath house."
"Send him front when he comes back. And you," turning to Lem, "sit there
till you're wanted."
Whereupon, with the pink slip in his hand, he walked to a small desk at
the farther side of the corridor and sat in an arm-chair with his back
toward the three now on the wooden bench, waiting for Lem knew not what.
In the meantime, Lem's eyes roved about making a grim inventory of this
great merciless cage that had engulfed his body. He was inside a mammoth
arcade-like structure that stretched its 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 iron. Wherever Lem perceived a spot of God's light, a
cold, forbidding hand lay across it like a blasphemy, spreading out its
unyielding, black, skeleton fingers to enmesh a human soul.
Moreover, this stupendous, invulnerable shell incased and jealously
protected a second structure equally strong and grisly, for as Lem
looked, he noted this other 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 interminable vista of small
iron-barred doors, some four feet apart, that diminished in perspective
toward the distant end until they shrank to the size of a newspaper.
The doors in this cunning edifice were accessible by means of a steel
skeleton-work forming lengthwise porches five stories high, where even a
sluggish imagination could visualize convenient gibbets stationed just
outside these black, mysterious doors, awaiting the condemned necks of
the inmates.
While Lem made further notations in undisguised wonderment, convicts
were constantly passing to and fro. They were "short time" men who had
their allotted duties, working about the tiers and corridors.
Presently, Lem became suddenly conscious that the two men at the other
end of the bench were eyeing him curiously. Their interchange of looks
and low words to each other made it obvious that Lem was a subject of
comment. Now that Lem was looking straight at them, the man nearest slid
along the bench, smiled good-humoredly, then whispered:
"What did ye draw, bo?" The man watched Lem's mute lips for response.
"What did they give ye, pal?" he repeated, while the second man slid
over and craned his neck for the answer. Lem still looked puzzled, but
finally answered.
"Nothin'."
The other started a laugh which was squelched with an elbow punch in the
ribs from his companion.
"I mean, pal," pursued Lem's inquisitor, "did ye git a sentence in this
jail, er did they bind ye over?"
"I air continued," replied the boy gloomily, "wherever thet takes me."
"Oh, yes--is this your first pinch?"
Lem risked a nod, with only a vague notion of what "pinch" meant.
Presently the man spoke again.
"Say, pal, you ain't never been in jail before, have ye?"
"Naw," responded Lem without hesitation, "an' I 'low I want out o' heah,
too."
He delivered this earnest sentiment with such guileless sincerity that
both men snickered.
"Don't you care. You'll feel dopy for a day er two--then ye won't mind
it. It'll git your nanny the first time. This is my fifth time in this
joint," he volunteered. "I got eight spots ahead of me. Say, pal, sneak
me th' makin's, will ye?"
Lem did not answer.
"Have ye got any tobacco on ye?"
"Ef I had, yo'd be welcome to hit--I never use hit."
The man looked disappointed.
"Say--when the bull frisked ye--did he git all your matches--ain't ye
got no matches either?"
"I haint got nary a match."
Here a big, husky fellow in stripes, who walked as if he had springs for
shoe-soles, passed by. Then he stopped, and turning back, looked keenly
into Lem's face. Lem met his gaze and noted that he wore a livid scar
from the right cheek-bone down to the chin. He did not appear to see the
other two men on the bench, but stood looking with open interest at Lem.
"Hello, Last Time," greeted the man next to Lem. Wherefore, the newcomer
shifted his gaze searchingly, then grinned. With a furtive backward
glance toward the guard's desk, he thrust his hand out.
"What did you draw, Rox?" he probed.
"Eight."
"A mere speck--I could stand on my head that long. I may see you
to-night." He hurried on with his elastic tread toward the guard's desk.
"I'm dead sure we'll git some tobacco now," predicted the man beside
Lem. "That's 'Last Time'--he's a time-lock expert--believe me,
gents--he's some cracker, too. I met him in Joliet, and I met him agin
in San Quinten. Say, Monk, do ye remember readin' about that back-track
stunt Last Time pulled off five years ago? No? Well, that was a funny
caper. You see, Last Time touched a big joint in Cincy and got four
thousand 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
winter in St. Louis and I was up aginst it good and strong, too, but
Last Time slipped me fifty as easy as dirt. He's got a heart as big as a
cow's. Don't you worry--we'll git tobacco now. I wonder how much longer
they'll keep us here," he faced about and addressed Lem. "I'm waiting to
git my top-knot clipped--I reckon ye wouldn't want to lose your hair,
would ye, pal?" he observed, regarding Lem's flowing locks.
"I reckon he will lose 'em, though," projected a raspy voice.
The three looked up. Blinky was standing over them with a pair of
clippers in his hand.
"What are you, anyhow," chided Blinky, sneeringly. "Are you a cowboy or
a preacher?"
Lem felt a warm sting rise to his cheeks, as he fixed his eyes
inquiringly upon Blinky's insolent face.
"What else could he be," interposed a new arrival, "but a preacher? He
ain't no convict--the Captain jest sent fer him. He's goin' to live here
amongst us and reform a lot of you bad guys."
At this juncture, still another convict came up, bearing a blue cotton
shirt and a pair of prison trousers over his arm.
"Is this the new duck?" he queried.
"Duck--duck," echoed Blinky. "Ain't ye got no manners? I'm ashamed of
ye--ain't ye got no respect for a preacher? This is Brother Silsand--he
got a call--here."
"Oh, excuse me. Well, Brother Silsand, you'll carry these elegant pants
and this fancy shirt on your arm when Last Time comes to escort you to
the beach. When you come back, you'll feel like a gentleman sure
enough."
Other men were attracted, and now a little group clustered around the
bench, all eyes turned upon Lem, as though he were some strange animal.
And all in turn contributed their jest calculated to furnish fun for the
others.
"Here comes Brizz now," announced Blinky. "Ha, there, Brizz--I brought
your clippers down. Pipe this guy's hair--you'll never git that reaped
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
fast as Brizz mows it, and feed it to that hungry tick of yourn. I'll
bet my plug Saturday to three matches that the bell won't wake ye up."
At this moment, Brizz, a heavy man with a ponderous paunch, crowded in
and took the clippers out of Blinky's hand. Brizz was the official
reception room barber.
"It do look uncommon extensive, don't it?" said Brizz.
All this while, Lem had grown more and more uneasy, and his first
resentment was rapidly amounting to real anger under these unkind
criticisms, and the jeering faces that now encircled the bench.
"I'll swear it do," reiterated Brizz. "Still, I'm a regular old rip when
it comes to mowin'--come here young feller," he urged with a
business-like flourish of the clippers. "Let's start early so's we'll
get done for supper."
He laid a hand on Lem's shoulder. Whereupon, Lem rose up, his jaws set,
his muscles tense, while a steady light shot his gray eyes.
"Ef yo'-all tech me with them things," he said, low and steady, "I'll
take em away from yo' an,'--an' hit yo' with 'em."
The men were so enthralled with these festive proceedings that they
failed to notice Last Time sneak up from behind, where he was taking it
all in. When Lem stood up and showed fight, a chorus of low derisive
laughter rippled around the circle which was instantly disrupted as Last
Time burst ruthlessly into their midst, throwing one of the convicts
completely off his feet.
"What you fixin' to do, Brizz?" he growled.
"Who--me?--I'm here to cut this man's hair," wherefore, the barber
applied the clippers so unexpectedly and so roughly to the head of the
man who had been seated next to Lem, that the unlucky fellow protested
loudly. Last Time turned upon Blinky. He scowled at him for a second,
his lips curled away fiercely, emphasizing an under-shot jaw.
"You old clothes thief," he hissed, "you rod-ridin', cheap, ugly
leather-snatcher--you forgot the hammerin' I handed you last month, 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 Blinky's
shirt-front, and thrust his right fist close to Blinky's nose. Blinky,
who was a head taller, now hung away, white and dumb.
"You let this new man alone--do you get me? You let him alone. The next
time I get at you I'll take your jaw off--I'll send you across the lot
for many a day--get away--get," he snarled, with a violent, contemptuous
push.
The minute the other onlookers had noted Last Time's attitude toward
Lem, they faded noiselessly away like so many rats. All except Shorty.
He stood meekly, holding the shirt and the trousers across his arm.
"That's the bully of the jail," said the convict, following Blinky with
a belligerent look. "He's got 'em all bluffed--but one," he added with a
scornful laugh.
"What you waitin' on?" he demanded of Shorty.
"Here's his clothes," replied Shorty, indicating Lem with a jerk of his
head. Last Time scathed him with a withering look.
"Say, I had a trained cockroach once that could learn things quicker
than you--you get dumber and dumber day by day. This man is on the court
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, ain't you?" he broke off, producing from his pocket the pink slip
Lem had seen the guard have when he was first brought into the cell
house.
"Yes--I air ole Cap Lutts' boy o' Moon mountain."
The convict shot a curious look at Lem.