ur intention or desire
either to give you relief or to make your case harder for you. There
are fifteen hundred human beings in this prison, and they are under the
absolute control of one man. If a serious wrong is practised upon one,
it may be upon others. I ask you in the name of common humanity, and as
one man of another, to put us in the way of working justice in this
prison. If you have the instincts of a man within you, you will comply
with my request. Speak out, therefore, like a man, and have no fear of
anything."

The convict was touched and stung. He looked up steadily into the
chairman's face, and firmly said, "There is nothing in this world that
I fear." Then he hung his head, and presently he raised it and added,
"I will tell you all about it."

At that moment he shifted his position so as to bring the beam of light
perpendicularly across his face and chest, and it seemed to split him
in twain. He saw it, and feasted his gaze upon it as it lay upon his
breast. After a time he thus proceeded, speaking very slowly, and in a
strangely monotonous voice:

"I was sent up for twenty years for killing a man. I hadn't been a
criminal: I killed him without thinking, for he had robbed me and
wronged me. I came here thirteen years ago. I had trouble at first--it
galled me to be a convict; but I got over that, because the warden that
was here then understood me and was kind to me, and he made me one of
the best men in the prison. I don't say this to make you think I'm
complaining about the present warden, or that he didn't treat me
kindly: I can take care of myself with him. I am not making any
complaint. I ask no man's favor, and I fear no man's power."

"That is all right. Proceed."

"After the warden had made a good man out of me I worked faithfully,
sir; I did everything they told me to do; I worked willingly and like a
slave. It did me good to work, and I worked hard. I never violated any
of the rules after I was broken in. And then the law was passed giving
credits to the men for good conduct. My term was twenty years, but I
did so well that my credits piled up, and after I had been here ten
years I could begin to see my way out. There were only about three
years left. And, sir, I worked faithfully to make those years good. I
knew that if I did anything against the rules I should lose my credits
and have to stay nearly ten years longer. I knew all about that, sir: I
never forgot it. I wanted to be a free man