Page 155 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

seen something of convicts—though, to be sure, my fellows
were not so bad as yours—and there’s only one way. Keep
‘em down, sir. Make ‘em feel what they are. They’re there to
work, sir. If they won’t work, flog ‘em until they will. If they
work well—why a taste of the cat now and then keeps ‘em
in mind of what they may expect if they get lazy.’ They had
reached the verandah now. The rising moon shone softly on
the bay beneath them, and touched with her white light the
summit of the Grummet Rock.
‘That is the general opinion, I know,’ returned Vickers.
‘But consider the life they lead. Good God!’ he added, with
sudden vehemence, as Frere paused to look at the bay. ‘I’m
not a cruel man, and never, I believe, inflicted an unmerited
punishment, but since I have been here ten prisoners have
drowned themselves from yonder rock, rather than live
on in their misery. Only three weeks ago, two men, with
a wood-cutting party in the hills, having had some words
with the overseer, shook hands with the gang, and then,
hand in hand, flung themselves over the cliff. It’s horrible
to think of!’
‘They shouldn’t get sent here,’ said practical Frere. ‘They
knew what they had to expect. Serve ‘em right.’
‘But imagine an innocent man condemned to this place!’
‘I can’t,’ said Frere, with a laugh. ‘Innocent man be
hanged! They’re all innocent, if you’d believe their own sto-
ries. Hallo! what’s that red light there?’
‘Dawes’s fire, on Grummet Rock,’ says Vickers, going in;
‘the man I told you about. Come in and have some brandy-
and-water, and we’ll shut the door in place.’

1 For the Term of His Natural Life