sneering
delight that he took on his last night in jail in calling Joe out of his
sleep, or pretended sleep, to hear his description of the terrors
waiting a man condemned to prison for life.

Now that he was gone, Joe felt that his words lived after him, like mold
upon the walls, or a chilling damp between the stones. The recollection
of them could not be denied his abnormally sharpened senses, nor the
undoubted truth of their terrifying picture shut out of his imagination
by any door of reasoning that he had the strength to close. Condemnation
to prison would mean the suspension of all his young hopes and healthy
desires; it would bring him to the end of his activities in the world as
suddenly as death. Considering ambition, love, happiness, men in prison
were already dead. They lived only in their faculty for suffering.

Would Morgan come to save him from that fate? That was his sole
speculation upon a solution of his pressing trouble. Without Morgan, Joe
did not consider any other way.

Colonel Price had received lately a commission for a corn picture from a
St. Louis hotel, upon which he was working without pause. He had reached
that state of exalted certainty in relation to corn that he never was
obliged to put aside his colors and wait the charge of inspiration. His
inspirational tide always was setting in when corn was the subject. Work
with the colonel in such case was a matter of daylight.

On account of the order, the colonel had no time for Joe, for art with
him, especially corn art, was above the worries and concerns of all men.
He did not forget the prisoner in the white heat of his commission. For
several days he had it in his mind to ask Alice to visit him, and carry
to him the assurance of the continuance of the family interest and
regard. But it was an unconventional thing to request of a young lady; a
week slipped past before the colonel realized it while he temporized in
his mind.

At last he approached it circuitously and with a great deal of
diplomatic concealment of his purpose, leaving ample room for retreat
without unmasking his intention, in case he should discern indications
of unwillingness.

By that time the election was over and the country regularly insured
against anarchy, devastation, and ruin for two years longer. The
prosecuting attorney and the sheriff had been reelected; the machinery
of the law was ready to turn at the grist.

The colonel was pleased to see that Alice secon