ard following the favored prisoner into the new
field of operations. The young man was quite sure that the guard had not
opened up on his principal plan.

One morning Wagg came with a stool and a rifle and located himself close
beside the armchair; he sat on the stool and rested the rifle across
his knees and smoked a corncob pipe placidly. And there was plenty of
opportunity for talk, though Wagg obtrusively kept his face turned from
Vaniman's and talked through the corner of his mouth.

"Now you see, I hope! In a prison you've got to step light and go the
other way around to get to a thing. I'm favored here, and I'm supposed
to be nursing rheumatism." He leaned forward to knock out his pipe
dottle and found an opportunity to give Vaniman a wink. "I arranged to
come off the wall--knowing all about your case. I could ask to come out
here, having found that night work didn't help me! Sunshine is good. But
you couldn't ask for sunshine. When a prisoner asks for a thing, they go
on the plan of doing exactly opposite to what he seems to want. From now
on, having seen how I can operate, I expect you to do just what I tell
you to do."

Vaniman looked at the rifle. Wagg waved it, commanding a convict to
hurry past.

"Yes, sir! You've got to do just as I say!" insisted the guard when the
convict had gone out of earshot.

"How can I help myself?"

"Oh, I don't mean that I'm going to team you around with this rifle! I
want you to co-operate."

"Don't you think I can co-operate better if you give me a line on what
all this means?" pleaded the prisoner.

"Sure and slow is my policy. I'm not just certain that I have you sized
up right, as yet. I'm of a suspicious nature. But I'm finding this
sunshine softening." Mr. Wagg rambled on, squinting up at the sky.
"Seven years is a long while to wait for a good time to come. Figuring
that your time will be paid for at the rate of about ten thousand
dollars a year, while you're in here, helps to smooth the feelings
somewhat, of course. But now that you're in here you're counting
days instead of years--and every day seems a year when you're looking
forward. The newspapers said it was about seventy-five thousand dollars
in good, solid gold."

Wagg bored Vaniman with a side glance that was prolonged until a toiling
convict had passed to a safe distance. The young man was eyeing
the guard with a demeanor which indicated that the tractable spirit
commended by Mr. Wagg was no longer u