“Pardon, doctor! but I have orders to have the death certified without delay,” answered the jailer, humbly, standing yet at the door. “Merry Christmas, doctor!”
The doctor snarled, and hurried through the empty streets to his warm bed. It was biting cold, a keen blast from the north came in from the sea.
Meanwhile the moon took possession, bit by bit, of the town and the country, scrutinized it all with her cold, indifferent eye, first on one side and then on the other; and when she had done, she laid a dark shadow over it and took hold upon the next.
In this way she came also to the prison, stole in aslant through a grated window, and there found Loppen on a cot by the wall.
Her gown stood open at the breast, because the doctor had listened for the beating of her heart, and one arm hung down toward the floor.
Her mouth was half open and the blood on her lips made it look black and large. She was ugly—hideously ugly—as she lay there withered and limp in the cold light of the moon.
She had lost her beauty and the rest with it. Beside it, she had not much to lose in life; and now when she went away, neither was she any loss to life. To be sure, there was somewhere a dish of scorched rice-porridge for her; but beyond that there was not a thing nor a place in life that belonged to her; so she could go away without disturbing anything.
It was very still in the big, cold, stone building. Only now and then, during the night, there was a slamming of doors, rattling of keys, steps and voices which lost themselves through the long halls, every time one of “the gang” was caught and brought in. For the chief of police had in a spasm of energy decided to seize the whole gang which had so long been a disgrace to the righteous town.
However, they did not get hold of those they most wished to have. The mechanic to whom the police had a clue, was and remained as if sunk in the earth. And Puppelena they could get no excuse to lock up; for at seven o’clock she was found already sleeping, the sleep of the just in her bed.
When Svend was brought in, he asked about Elsie.