y man, tall, raw-boned,
singularly muscular-looking, who for all his fifty-seven years looked
as though he could give a splendid account of himself in a physical
contest. His hands were large and bony, his face more square than
either round or long, and his forehead high. He had a vigorous growth
of short-clipped, iron-gray hair, and a bristly iron-gray mustache,
very short, keen, intelligent blue-gray eyes; a florid complexion;
and even-edged, savage-looking teeth, which showed the least bit in
a slightly wolfish way when he smiled. However, he was not as cruel a
person as he looked to be; temperamental, to a certain extent hard, and
on occasions savage, but with kindly hours also. His greatest weakness
was that he was not quite mentally able to recognize that there were
mental and social differences between prisoners, and that now and then
one was apt to appear here who, with or without political influences,
was eminently worthy of special consideration. What he could recognize
was the differences pointed out to him by the politicians in special
cases, such as that of Stener--not Cowperwood. However, seeing that
the prison was a public institution apt to be visited at any time by
lawyers, detectives, doctors, preachers, propagandists, and the public
generally, and that certain rules and regulations had to be enforced (if
for no other reason than to keep a moral and administrative control over
his own help), it was necessary to maintain--and that even in the face
of the politician--a certain amount of discipline, system, and order,
and it was not possible to be too liberal with any one. There were,
however, exceptional cases--men of wealth and refinement, victims
of those occasional uprisings which so shocked the political leaders
generally--who had to be looked after in a friendly way.

Desmas was quite aware, of course, of the history of Cowperwood and
Stener. The politicians had already given him warning that Stener,
because of his past services to the community, was to be treated with
special consideration. Not so much was said about Cowperwood, although
they did admit that his lot was rather hard. Perhaps he might do a
little something for him but at his own risk.

"Butler is down on him," Strobik said to Desmas, on one occasion. "It's
that girl of his that's at the bottom of it all. If you listened to
Butler you'd feed him on bread and water, but he isn't a bad fellow.
As a matter of fact, if George had had any