For fifteen minutes now the wards of the Juvenile Department were allowed to talk and tell stories. Joshua, because he was new and might have something fresh to offer, was called upon for a yarn, story-telling being a favorite diversion of the inmates. So well did he acquit himself, drawing without reserve upon his vivid imagination because he was in total darkness and not obliged to face his listeners, that his effort was hailed with a round of applause. Later he became official story-teller of the department, and when he had learned more of astronomy from Clegg’s teachings, he evolved wondrous and fantastic tales of adventures in the planets, which were the delight of his fellow-inmates. A gong sounded at fifteen minutes after nine, and Joshua, in the middle of a story that had for its main characters a boy and a girl who traveled West in a converted boxcar, with a flatcar back yard coupled on next to it, was ordered to “dry up” by the head monitor. And soon after the soft, regular breathing of the very human little prisoners of the House of Refuge came from all quarters of the room.
But Fifty-six thirty-five lay awake, staring up into the blackness, and thought of a girl with reddish-golden hair and Oriental-topaz eyes. And he was sore of heart, and the stiff white pillow under his head was moist. Then a hand softly touched him and he heard the guarded words:
“Quiet, Joshua! Don’t make a sound. Get up softly and join me at the door. We’re going up on the roof to view the moon.”
Walking noiselessly in his new bed slippers, Joshua Cole found the entrance to the sleeping quarters, where Clegg awaited him. The instructor led him to a remote part of the building, where they passed through a door, and Joshua struck his toes against the foot of a flight of stairs. Clegg closed the door behind them and lighted a candle, the flickering blaze of which revealed a closed staircase leading to what in nautical parlance would be called a booby hatch in the flat roof.
The night was bright with stars, and a big half-moon rode in the heavens to guard them. Already Clegg had preceded his pupil with the telescope, and had adjusted it on its tripod.
“Joshua,” said Clegg, in tones a trifle below normal, “I want you to understand in the beginning that I am breaking the rules in taking you from your bed. But I have considered the matter carefully and have reached the decision that, in this case, I am entitled to make my own rules. So long as we shall be engaged in an undertaking that is praiseworthy, we shall be our own judges concerning what is right and wrong. But I want you to fully understand the confidence that I am placing in you and the risk that I am taking. Do you think you do?”
“Yes, sir,” the boy replied. “I won’t tell anybody.”
“And I think that I can safely trust you,” said the master. “I thought so from the first, or such an amazing idea never would have occurred to me. You have made an unprecedented impression on me, Joshua, and it seems unbelievable that I should bring you up here the night of your first day in the institution. But I have done so, and here you are. I perhaps should have waited until I know you better; but to-night, of all nights in the month, is the best for observing the moon. We have a nine-and-three-quarter-day moon to-night, Joshua, and I felt that the opportunity ought not to be put off for an entire month. But repetition of to-night’s—er—adventure, we’ll call it—will depend on how you conduct yourself in school and with the other boys. Do you understand that thoroughly?”
“Yes, sir,” said Joshua.
“You must study and learn things that are distasteful to you during regular class hours. That will be the price of your lessons in astronomy. Can you make that sacrifice?”