In the jail, Danner instantly unlocked the handcuffs, and as he jostled Archie a little in opening the door, he said:
"Oh, excuse me, Dutch."
What had got into Danner, anyway? Inside he wondered more. Danner said:
"You needn't lock this morning; you can stay in the corridor, and I'll have your breakfast sent in to you in a moment."
Then Danner put up his big hand and whispered in Archie's ear:
"I'll see the cook and get her to sneak in a little cream and sugar for your coffee."
Archie could not understand this, nor had he then time to wonder about it, for he was being turned into the prison, and there, he knew, his companions were waiting to know the news. Most of them were in their cells. Two of them, the English thief and Mosey--he could tell it was Mosey by the striped sweater--were standing in the far end of the corridor, but they did not even look. He caught a snatch of their conversation.
"What was the rap, the dip?"
"No, penny weightin'."
They appeared to be talking indifferently and were no more curious--so one would say--than they would have been if some dinge had been vagged. And yet Archie knew that every motion, every word, every gesture of his was important. He tried to walk just as he had always walked. They waited till Archie was at his cell door, and then some one called in a tone of suspense that could be withheld no longer: