Slowly, however, I began to grow habituated to the new hard life imposed upon me, and to think in my cell of the web of circumstance which had woven itself so irresistibly8 around me.
I had only one hope. Emily knew I was innocent. Emily suspected, like me, that the Wulfric had been stolen. Emily would do her best, I felt certain, to heap together fresh evidence, and unravel9 this mystery to its very bottom.
Meanwhile, I thanked Heaven for the hard mechanical daily toil10 of cutting stone in Portland prison. I was a strong athletic11 young fellow enough. I was glad now that I had always loved the river at Oxford12; my arms were stout13 and muscular. I was able to take my part in the regular work of the gang to which I belonged. Had it been otherwise—had I been set down to some quiet sedentary occupation, as first-class misdemeanants often are, I should have worn my heart out soon with thinking perpetually of poor Emily's terrible trouble.[Pg 94]
When I first came, the Deputy-Governor, knowing my case well (had there not been leaders about me in all the papers?), very kindly14 asked me whether I would wish to be given work in the book-keeping department, where many educated convicts were employed as clerks and assistants. But I begged particularly to be put into an outdoor gang, where I might have to use my limbs constantly, and so keep my mind from eating itself up with perpetual thinking. The Deputy-Governor immediately consented, and gave me work in a quarrying16 gang, at the west end of the island, near Deadman's Bay on the edge of the Chesil.
For three months I worked hard at learning the trade of a quarryman, and succeeded far better than any of the other new hands who were set to learn at the same time with me. Their heart was not in it; mine was. Anything to escape that gnawing17 agony.
The other men in the gang were not agreeable or congenial companions. They taught me their established modes of intercommunication, and told me several facts about themselves, which did not tend to endear them to me. One of them, 1247, was put in for the manslaughter of his wife by kicking; he was a low-browed, brutal18 London drayman, and he occupied the next cell to mine, where he disturbed me much in my sleepless19 nights by his loud snoring. Another, a much slighter and more intelligent-looking man, was a skilled burglar, sentenced to fourteen years for "cracking a crib" in the neighbourhood of Hampstead. A third was a sailor, convicted of gross cruelty to a defenceless Lascar. They all told me the nature of their crimes with a brutal frankness which fairly surprised me; but when I explained to them in return that I had been put in upon a false accusation20, they treated my remarks with a galling21 contempt that was absolutely unsupportable. After a short time I ceased to communicate with my fellow-prisoners in any way, and remained shut up with my own thoughts in utter isolation22.[Pg 95]
By-and-by I found that the other men in the same gang were beginning to dislike me strongly, and that some among them actually whispered to one another—what they seemed to consider a very strong point indeed against me—that I must really have been convicted by mistake, and that I was a regular stuck-up sneaking23 Methodist. They complained that I worked a great deal too hard, and so made the other felons24 seem lazy by comparison; and they also objected to my prompt obedience25 to our warder's commands, as tending to set up an exaggerated and impossible standard of discipline.
Between this warder and myself, on the other hand, there soon sprang up a feeling which I might almost describe as one of friendship. Though by the rules of the establishment we could not communicate with one another except upon matters of business, I liked him for his uniform courtesy, kindliness26, and forbearance; while I could easily see that he liked me in return, by contrast with the other men who were under his charge. He was one of those persons whom some experience of prisons then and since has led me to believe less rare than most people would imagine—men in whom the dreary27 life of a prison warder, instead of engendering28 hardness of heart and cold unsympathetic sternness, has engendered29 a certain profound tenderness and melancholy30 of spirit. I grew quite fond of that one honest warder, among so many coarse and criminal faces; and I found, on the other hand, that my fellow-prisoners hated me all the more because, as they expressed it in their own disgusting jargon31, I was sucking up to that confounded dog of a barker. It happened once, when I was left for a few minutes alone with the warder, that he made an attempt for a moment, contrary to regulations, to hold a little private conversation with me.
"1430," he said in a low voice, hardly moving his lips, for fear of being overlooked, "what is your outside name?"[Pg 96]
I answered quietly, without turning to look at him, "Harold Tait."
He gave a little involuntary start. "What!" he cried. "Not him that took a coin from the British Museum?"
I bridled32 up angrily. "I did not take it," I cried with all my soul. "I am innocent, and have been put in here by some terrible error."
He was silent for half a second. Then he said musingly33, "Sir, I believe you. You are speaking the truth. I will do all I can to make things easy for you."
That was all he said then. But from that day forth34 he always spoke35 to me in private as "Sir," and never again as "1430."
An incident arose at last out of this condition of things which had a very important effect upon my future position.
One day, about three months after I was committed to prison, we were all told off as usual to work in a small quarry15 on the cliff-side overhanging the long expanse of pebbly36 beach known as the Chesil. I had reason to believe afterwards that a large open fishing boat lying upon the beach below at the moment had been placed there as part of a concerted scheme by the friends of the Hampstead burglar; and that it contained ordinary clothing for all the men in our gang, except myself only. The idea was evidently that the gang should overpower the warder, seize the boat, change their clothes instantly, taking turns about meanwhile with the navigation, and make straight off for the shore at Lulworth, where they could easily disperse37 without much chance of being recaptured. But of all this I was of course quite ignorant at the time, for they had not thought well to intrust their secret to the ears of the sneaking virtuous38 Methodist.
A few minutes after we arrived at the quarry, I was working with two other men at putting a blast in, when I happened to look round quite accidentally, and to my great[Pg 97] horror, saw 1247, the brutal wife-kicker, standing39 behind with a huge block of stone in his hands, poised40 just above the warder's head, in a threatening attitude. The other men stood around waiting and watching. I had only just time to cry out in a tone of alarm, "Take care, warder, he'll murder you!" when the stone descended41 upon the warder's head, and he fell at once, bleeding and half senseless, upon the ground beside me. In a second, while he shrieked43 and struggled, the whole gang was pressing savagely44 and angrily around him.
There was no time to think or hesitate. Before I knew almost what I was doing, I had seized his gun and ammunition45, and, standing over his prostrate46 body, I held the men at bay for a single moment. Then 1247 advanced threateningly, and tried to put his foot upon the fallen warder.
I didn't wait or reflect one solitary47 second. I drew the trigger, and fired full upon him. The bang sounded fiercely in my ears, and for a moment I could see nothing through the smoke of the rifle.
With a terrible shriek42 he fell in front of me, not dead, but seriously wounded.
"The boat, the boat," the others cried loudly. "Knock him down! Kill him! Take the boat, all of you."
At that moment the report of my shot had brought another warder hastily to the top of the quarry.
"Help, help!" I cried. "Come quick, and save us. These brutes48 are trying to murder our warder!"
The man rushed back to call for aid; but the way down the zigzag49 path was steep and tortuous50, and it was some time before they could manage to get down and succour us.
Meanwhile the other convicts pressed savagely around us, trying to jump upon the warder's body and force their way past to the beach beneath us. I fired again, for the rifle was double-barrelled; but it was impossible to reload[Pg 98] in such a tumult51, so, after the next shot, which hit no one, I laid about me fiercely with the butt52 end of the gun, and succeeded in knocking down four of the savages53, one after another. By that time the warders from above had safely reached us, and formed a circle of fixed54 bayonets around the rebellious55 prisoners.
"Thank God!" I cried, flinging down the rifle, and rushing up to the prostrate warder. "He is still alive. He is breathing! He is breathing!"
"Yes," he murmured in a faint voice, "I am alive, and I thank you for it. But for you, sir, these fellows here would certainly have murdered me."
"You are badly wounded yourself, 1430," one of the other warders said to me, as the rebels were rapidly secured and marched off sullenly56 back to prison. "Look, your own arm is bleeding fiercely."
Then for the first time I was aware that I was one mass of wounds from head to foot, and that I was growing faint from loss of blood. In defending the fallen warder I had got punched and pummelled on every side, just the same as one used to get long ago in a bully57 at football when I was a boy at Rugby, only much more seriously.
The warders brought down seven stretchers: one for me; one for the wounded warder; one for 1247, whom I had shot; and four for the convicts whom I had knocked over with the butt end of the rifle. They carried us up on them, strongly guarded, in a long procession.
At the door of the infirmary the Governor met us. "1430," he said to me, in a very kind voice, "you have behaved most admirably. I saw you myself quite distinctly from my drawing-room windows. Your bravery and intrepidity58 are well deserving of the highest recognition."
"Sir," I answered, "I have only tried to do my duty. I couldn't stand by and see an innocent man murdered by such a pack of bloodthirsty ruffians."[Pg 99]
The Governor turned aside a little surprised. "Who is 1430?" he asked quietly.
A subordinate, consulting a book, whispered my name and supposed crime to him confidentially59. The Governor nodded twice, and seemed to be satisfied.
"Sir," the wounded warder said faintly from his stretcher, "1430 is an innocent man unjustly condemned60, if ever there was one."
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1
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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accustom
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| vt.使适应，使习惯 | |
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isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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discomforts
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| n.不舒适( discomfort的名词复数 )；不愉快，苦恼 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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felon
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| n.重罪犯；adj.残忍的 | |
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rehabilitation
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| n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位 | |
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irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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9
unravel
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| v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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quarrying
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| v.采石；从采石场采得( quarry的现在分词 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石 | |
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gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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galling
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| adj.难堪的,使烦恼的,使焦躁的 | |
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isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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sneaking
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| a.秘密的，不公开的 | |
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felons
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| n.重罪犯( felon的名词复数 )；瘭疽；甲沟炎；指头脓炎 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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engendering
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的现在分词 ) | |
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engendered
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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jargon
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| n.术语，行话 | |
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bridled
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| 给…套龙头( bridle的过去式和过去分词 )； 控制； 昂首表示轻蔑（或怨忿等）； 动怒，生气 | |
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musingly
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| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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pebbly
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| 多卵石的，有卵石花纹的 | |
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disperse
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| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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41
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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42
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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43
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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45
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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49
zigzag
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| n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行 | |
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50
tortuous
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| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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51
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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52
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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53
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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rebellious
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| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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56
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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57
bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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58
intrepidity
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| n.大胆，刚勇；大胆的行为 | |
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59
confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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60
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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