The question brought no change of expression, and Mercer answered readily: “I put him off by himself, where he sees no one and hears nothing. I read a good deal about prisons and the most effectual way of taming men, and solitary confinement is recommended by all the authorities. His meals are handed to him by—by a mechanical device. He has electric light some of the time, turned on from the outside. He has a comfortable room and his own shower-bath. He has comfortable meals. And he is supplied with reading.”
“Reading?” repeated the colonel, his surprise in his voice.
For the first time he saw Mercer smile, but it was hardly a pleasant smile. “Yes, suh, reading,” he said. “I have had type-written copies made of all the cases which I discovered in regard to his stealing our company. I reasoned that when he would get absolutely tired of himself and his own thoughts he would just naturally be obliged to read, and that would be ready for him. He tore up one copy.”
“Hmn—I can’t say I wonder. What did you do?”
“I sent him another. I expected he would do that way. After a while he will go back to it, because it will draw him. He’ll hate it, but he will want to know them all. I know his nature, you see.”
“What are you going to do with him?”
“Let him go, after he does what we want and promises never to molest any of us.”
“But can you trust him?”
“He never breaks his word,” replied Mercer indifferently, “and besides, he knows he will be killed if he should. He isn’t given to being scared, but he’s scared of me, all right.”
“What do you want him to do?”