Page 414 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

of bewildered horror.
‘Cheer up, man!’ said Dawes, touched with momentary
pity. ‘It’s no good being in the mopes, you know.’
‘What do they do if you try to bolt?’ whispered Kirkland.
‘Kill you,’ returned Dawes, in a tone of surprise at so pre-
posterous a question.
‘Thank God!’ said Kirkland.
‘Now then, Miss Nancy,’ said one of the men, ‘what’s the
matter with you!’ Kirkland shuddered, and his pale face
grew crimson.
‘Oh,’ he said, ‘that such a wretch as I should live!’
‘Silence!’ cried Troke. ‘No. 44, if you can’t hold your
tongue I’ll give you something to talk about. March!’
The work of the gang that afternoon was the carrying
of some heavy logs to the water-side, and Rufus Dawes ob-
served that Kirkland was exhausted long before the task
was accomplished. ‘They’ll kill you, you little beggar!’ said
he, not unkindly. ‘What have you been doing to get into
this scrape?’
‘Have you ever been in that—that place I was in last
night?’ asked Kirkland.
Rufus Dawes nodded.
‘Does the Commandant know what goes on there?’
‘I suppose so. What does he care?’
‘Care! Man, do you believe in a God?’ ‘No,’ said Dawes,
‘not here. Hold up, my lad. If you fall, we must fall over you,
and then you’re done for.’
He had hardly uttered the words, when the boy flung
himself beneath the log. In another instant the train would

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