Mr. Dingley's buggy was standing in front of
the house, though it was but a few blocks down Washington Street to the
prison on Kearney.

But we did not drive as I had expected straight down Washington, making
instead a detour of several blocks, and finally, by means of a little
alleyway, coming to the back door of the prison.

The only people in sight were a couple of policemen, but, Mr. Dingley
on one side and father on the other, fairly lifted me out by the arms,
and hurried me into the building, as if they were afraid of being
caught by some one. The first thing I was aware of was the cold gray
light falling on us from high overhead, and a faint sickly odor, very
faint but very penetrating, the like of which I had never breathed
before. We were standing in a flagged hall, looking up through a great
well, past gallery after gallery, to a skylight covering the top of the
roof. It was the sunshine filtering through the dull, thick, greenish
glass which gave that cold, sad-colored light. Within the galleries I
caught glimpses of men at work at desks; and over the railings lounged
figures, peered faces, disheveled, sodden, disreputable; and sometimes
near these a policeman's star twinkled. I saw it all in one upward
glance, for I was hurried on. Our steps clattered over the flags of
the hall, and then, turning to the right, we began to go down-stairs.
I took tighter hold on father's arm, for we seemed to be descending
into a dungeon. That sickly, acrid odor grew heavier, making me think
of caged animals, and yet, what made it worse, it wasn't quite like an
animal either.

The hall we came out into was smaller and darker than the one above it,
and empty except for a policeman standing by a door. To him Mr.
Dingley handed his card, and, after a few minutes, we were admitted to
a small office. It was divided in half by a railing; on the inner side
was a desk, at which a man with a star on his coat was writing under
the light of a green-shaded lamp. He came forward, opened a gate in
the railing for us to enter, shook hands with Mr. Dingley and father,
and then was introduced to me. His name did not reach me, but I
understood the words "Chief of Police." Then all three talked together
in low voices, while I sat where I had been bidden, in a chair close to
the railing. Once or twice the man with the star glanced at me, and
then, presently, they all looked at me, and I couldn't distinguish one
face from another.