here, Bo." And you come. You
thrust your hand between the bars and have it filled with precious
tobacco. Then you give him a light.

Sometimes, however, a newcomer arrives, upon whom no grafts are to be
worked. The mysterious word is passed along that he is to be treated
decently. Where this word originated I could never learn. The one
thing patent is that the man has a "pull." It may be with one of the
superior hall-men; it may be with one of the guards in some other part
of the prison; it may be that good treatment has been purchased from
grafters higher up; but be it as it may, we know that it is up to us
to treat him decently if we want to avoid trouble.

We hall-men were middle-men and common carriers. We arranged trades
between convicts confined in different parts of the prison, and we put
through the exchange. Also, we took our commissions coming and going.
Sometimes the objects traded had to go through the hands of half a
dozen middle-men, each of whom took his whack, or in some way or
another was paid for his service.

Sometimes one was in debt for services, and sometimes one had others
in his debt. Thus, I entered the prison in debt to the convict who
smuggled in my things for me. A week or so afterward, one of the
firemen passed a letter into my hand. It had been given to him by a
barber. The barber had received it from the convict who had smuggled
in my things. Because of my debt to him I was to carry the letter on.
But he had not written the letter. The original sender was a
long-timer in his hall. The letter was for a woman prisoner in the
female department. But whether it was intended for her, or whether
she, in turn, was one of the chain of go-betweens, I did not know. All
that I knew was her description, and that it was up to me to get it
into her hands.

Two days passed, during which time I kept the letter in my possession;
then the opportunity came. The women did the mending of all the
clothes worn by the convicts. A number of our hall-men had to go to
the female department to bring back huge bundles of clothes. I fixed
it with the First Hall-man that I was to go along. Door after door was
unlocked for us as we threaded our way across the prison to the
women's quarters. We entered a large room where the women sat working
at their mending. My eyes were peeled for the woman who had been
described to me. I located her and worked near to her. Two eagle-eyed
matrons were on watch. I held the letter in