“Is a shipwrecked sailor glad when a rope is flung him? I hold on to life and reason by you!”

“Is not this better than sleeping?—Did you speak?”

“No! I am thinking! I am trying to make you out. Were you ever a p——(hum)?”

“Was I ever what? the door is so thick!”

“Oh! nothing, sir; you seem to know what a poor fellow suffers in the dark cell.”

“I have been in it!”

“Whee-ugh-whee!—what a shame! what did they put you in for?”

“They didn't put me in. I went in.”

“The devil you did!” muttered the immured.

“What? Speak out.”