“I know, but when you can’t get no more, what youse going to do? I tried to raise yours and mine. Now then, a hundred goes a long ways filling up seven hungry mouths like I have home.”
“Just so,” retorted the other, and they subsided into silence.
In a cell a young man was lying as quiet as a mouse, and his breath was coming in short pants, as if excitement was overcoming him.
He heard the tramp of feet, and soon a hand was shoved through his cell bars and a paper was extended to him.
“Here is the chart. Be careful, and don’t forget about the baby.”
The long fingers covered over the paper, and the youth lay down again, this time breathing easier, and he realized that there was much to do before the morning should dawn. Many a man had escaped from this place, only to again be taken by the guards before they could get into New York.
For a long time he lay thinking, and he could hear the guards talking in a low tone nearby, but his heart was even then quickening in its beating, for another thought had come into his mind.
Once he remembered doing a mean thing to a fellow being. Stealing from the rich was just in the sight of Jim, but to do a trick unjust and unkind was not his way. He knew that this baby killing was to be the meanest thing of his life. If it were not for blessed freedom he would back out in a moment.
Suddenly he sat up and whispered loudly:
“Tom Cooper.”