"For instance," suggested another man, "if a soldier has enlisted for four years and deserts at the end of six months, if they should catch him they would bring him back and make him serve three years and six months more without pay, would they?"
"That's it," said the first prisoner. "Sometimes they send the deserters off to Dry Tortugas."
"They might as well banish them from everywhere as to send them there."
"That's right."
"Where is this Dry Tortugas you're talking about?" inquired another.
"It's a group of islands that belong to the United States down near the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. It's about one hundred and twenty miles southwest of Cape Sable."
"And where is Cape Sable?"
"That's the southern part of Florida. Where is your geography, man? These islands of the Dry Tortugas are very low and swampy, and they are covered with mangrove bushes."
"What are they?"
"Oh, they are something like the banana. Sometimes the deserters there are made to serve a term of years with ball and chain."