again, and I planned to go
away somewhere and make the fight all over,--to be a man in the world
once more."

"We know all about your record in the prison. Proceed."

"Well, it was this way. You know they were doing some heavy work in the
quarries and on the grades, and they wanted the strongest men in the
prison. There weren't very many: there never are very many strong men
in a prison. And I was one of 'em that they put on the heavy work, and
I did it faithfully. They used to pay the men for extra work,--not pay
'em money, but the value of the money in candles, tobacco, extra
clothes, and things like that. I loved to work, and I loved to work
extra, and so did some of the other men. On Saturdays the men who had
done extra work would fall in and go up to the captain of the guard,
and he would give to each man what was coming to him. He had it all
down in a book, and when a man would come up and call for what was due
him the captain would give it to him, whatever he wanted that the rules
allowed.

"One Saturday I fell in with the others. A good many were ahead of me
in the line, and when they got what they wanted they fell into a new
line, waiting to be marched to the cells. When my turn in the line came
I went up to the captain and said I would take mine in tobacco. He
looked at me pretty sharply, and said, 'How did you get back in that
line?' I told him I belonged there,--that I had come to get my extra.
He looked at his book, and he said, 'You've had your extra: you got
tobacco.' And he told me to fall into the new line. I told him I hadn't
received any tobacco; I said I hadn't got my extra, and hadn't been up
before. He said, 'Don't spoil your record by trying to steal a little
tobacco. Fall in.' ... It hurt me, sir. I hadn't been up; I hadn't got
my extra; and I wasn't a thief, and I never had been a thief, and no
living man had a right to call me a thief. I said to him, straight, 'I
won't fall in till I get my extra, and I'm not a thief, and no man can
call me one, and no man can rob me of my just dues.' He turned pale,
and said, 'Fall in, there.' I said, 'I won't fall in till I get my
dues.'

"With that he raised his hand as a signal, and the two guards behind
him covered me with their rifles, and a guard on the west wall, and one
on the north wall, and one on the portico in front of the arsenal, all
covered me with rifles. The captain turned to a trusty and told him to
call the warden. The warden came out,