"No doubt"

"And I only want to beg you to do what you can to soften his lot—a hard lot it is, too."

"I can do nothing, I tell you," said the porter; "I never see the prisoners."

"I thought—"

"At least, when I say never, I mean only when they are allowed to walk in the prison yard."

"That is here?"

"Yes."

"When is that?"

"Once a day; sometimes more than that, if the doctor orders it."

"The doctor must order it, then?" said the cripple to himself.