“Something’s up,” he murmured to himself; “I wonder what it can be?”
He was mistaken, however; the warders were only using necessary precaution.
On reaching his own cell he found that some one had been placing everything in “admired disorder;” books were thrown in one corner, bedding was unrolled—everything in his cell had been displaced, and a very close inspection had been made of each separate article.
His first impression was that some suspicion attached to him.
Possibly the warders were under the impression that he had concealed some instrument. He did not care for this, as any such supposition was altogether erroneous. He deemed it expedient to take no notice of the overhauling of the articles in his cell.
He learned afterwards that it was by no means an uncommon practice for the warders to institute a rigid search in the cell in the presence of the prisoner, who also had to undergo a personal inspection.
This was generally done after the following fashion. Two officers would enter a prisoner’s cell—one stands before and the other behind the culprit, who is made to strip off every article of clothing he may have on.
The one in front examines each article, and throws them one by one on the floor of the cell.
The warder behind watches intently to see that the prisoner does not “palm” anything—in other words, to conceal by sleight of hand any contraband article he might wish to conceal.
Such a thing as a rusty nail being found on a prisoner would excite suspicion, and get him into serious trouble.