“Come, quick!”
It was Pat’s voice.
“Come quick! The fellow is talking himself to death. I have bate him for half an hour and he is still talking, and devil a bit does he care for my bating.”
“I will leave you and go with Pat.”
“You will have to do something quick. He has disturbed the whole prison and the bating I gave him helped to excite the other prisoners’ curiosity to know what the man was being baten for.”
“Right this way, I think, is the nearest, Pat. Avoid excitement as much as possible.”
“You will see the poor devil throwing his hands and telling that he is not the murderer. And he is mumbling something about not going to be punished for a crime he never committed.”
“You in trouble again? Not satisfied without disturbing the prisoners as well as the officials?”
“I beg your pardon, sir, I have been doing all I could do, and working, sir, since you placed me here. I felt a dizziness come over me. I don’t know how long I stood before I regained myself.”
“Do you feel as if you had had a good beating?”