ttle at a time--what you can stomach," Wagg urged. He passed
on.

But Vaniman did not obey; he was unable to comprehend what this sort of
fodder signified; he broke the cube into bits, thinking that a saw might
be hidden. It was only soap--common soap. He put the bits away in the
portfolio he was allow to have in his cell.

Wagg was a bit testy the next night when Vaniman confessed that he had
not eaten any of the soap.

"You've got to show absolute confidence in me--do what I tell you to
do," insisted the guard.

"I can't eat that soap. It will make me sick!"

"You've said it! But eat that soap--a little at a time--and see what the
prison doctor says. It isn't easy to fool prison doctors--but I've been
on this job long enough to know how."

That was Wagg's longest speech to date. His earnestness impressed the
young man. He managed to eat a bit of the soap after the guard had
departed. He ate more in the morning before his release from the cell.
He put some crumbs of the soap in his pockets and choked down the
hateful substance when he found an opportunity during the day.

That night Wagg had a few more words to say on the subject. "One of the
biggest birds they ever caged at Atlanta fooled the doctors and got his
pardon so that he could die outside the pen. Did he die? Bah-bah! Soap!
Just soap!"

"So you think the pardon plan can be worked in my case, do you?"

"Pardon your eyes!" scoffed Wagg. "That isn't the idea at all!"

He fed the soap to the prisoner for many nights, but he did not give any
information. However, Wagg had the air of a man who knew well what he
was about, and Vaniman was desperate enough to continue the horrible
diet, having found that Mr. Wagg was a very touchy person when his
policies were doubted or his good faith questioned.

Then, one day the prison doctor, who had been observing Vaniman for some
time, took the bookkeeper into his office and examined him thoroughly;
he gravely informed the warden that the young man had symptoms of
incipient kidney trouble and ought to be less closely confined.

When Vaniman found himself out in the sunshine, intrusted with the
sinecure of checking up barrow-loads of dirt which convicts wheeled past
him where he sat in an armchair provided by the warden from his office,
the prisoner perceived that the Wagg policies were effective in getting
results.

Having added respect for Mr. Wagg's ability in general, Vaniman was not
surprised to find the gu