The police constable walked out of the cell with a greater show of delicacy than that with which he had entered it.
An hour afterwards he came in again carrying two basins of thick lukewarm gruel and a copy of the Christian Herald, two months out of date. He found the boy to be still on his knees in the precise attitude he was in when he entered before.
“Balmy!” growled the voice from the bench.
The police constable gave one basin of gruel to the speaker, and placed the other basin and the copy of the Christian Herald at the far end of the form, well out of the reach of its occupant.
The police constable touched the boy on the shoulder gently.
“Don’t want to disturb you, my lad,” he said, “but your supper’s waiting for you when you want it. And I’ve brought you the Christian Herald to cheer you up a bit.”
No sign came from the boy to suggest that he was conscious that he had been addressed.
The police constable walked out of the cell on tiptoe.
The occupant of the form devoured his basin of gruel ravenously. The sounds that he emitted in so doing were strongly reminiscent of the lower animals. He then rose and fetched the other basin of gruel from the end of the bench, together with the Christian Herald. He placed the Christian Herald on the floor, and wiped his boots on it with an odd kind of gusto. He then proceeded to devour the second basin of gruel. Afterwards he placed his legs up on the bench, went to sleep and snored lustily.