"The warders smuggle them in. It is an understood thing, and there is no real objection to it, though they are very strict about bringing in spirits. Still we can get vodka if we have a mind to; it is only a question of bribery."
"How long are you here for, Alexis?"
"Fifteen years."
"I am supposed to be in for life," Godfrey said.
"Fifteen years is as bad as life," the young doctor said. "What is the use of your life after having been shut up here for fifteen years?"
"Well, I don't mean to stay, that is one thing," Godfrey said. "There can't be any difficulty in escaping from here."
"Not the least in the world," Alexis said quietly. "But where do you propose to go?"
"I have not settled yet. It seems to me that any one with pluck and energy ought to be able to make his way out of this country somehow; besides, from what I hear great numbers do get away, and take to the woods."
"Yes, but they have to give themselves up again."
"That may be; but I hear also that if they give themselves up a long way from the prison they escape from, and refuse to give any account whatever of themselves, they are simply sent to prison again as vagabonds. In that case they are treated as ordinary convicts. Now from what I hear, an ordinary convict is infinitely better off than a political one. Of course you have to associate with a bad lot; still that is better than almost solitary confinement. The work they have to do is not hard, and if they are well conducted they are let out after a time, whereas there is no hope for a political prisoner. At any rate, even if I knew that if I was retaken I should be hung at once, I should try it."