'Complaints by one prisoner about another can only be considered when substantiated by the evidence of a warder or of two other prisoners, said the Chief Warder.
'Quite right, said the Governor. 'I never heard a more ridiculous complaint. All crime is a form of insanity. I myself chose the prisoner with whom you exercise. I chose him for his peculiar suitability. Let me hear no more on this subject, please.
That afternoon Paul spent another disquieting half-hour on the square.
'I've had another vision, said the mystical homicide. 'But I don't yet know quite what it portends. No doubt I shall be told.
'Was it a very beautiful vision? asked Paul.
'No words can describe the splendour of it. It was all crimson and wet like blood. I saw the whole prison as if it were carved of ruby, hard and glittering, and the warders and the prisoners creeping in and out like little red ladybirds. And then as I watched all the ruby became soft and wet, like a great sponge soaked in wine, and it was dripping and melting into a great lake of scarlet. Then I woke up. I don't know the meaning of it yet, but I feel that the hand of the Lord is hanging over this prison. D'you ever feel like that, as though it were built in the jaws of a beast? I sometimes dream of a great red tunnel like the throat of a beast and men running down it, sometimes one by one and sometimes in great crowds, running town the throat of the beast, and the breath of the beast is like the blast of a furnace. D'you ever feel like that?
'I'm afraid not, said Paul. 'Have they given you an interesting library book?
'Lady Almina's Secret, said the lion of the Lord's elect. 'Pretty soft stuff, old‑fashioned, too. But I keep reading the Bible. There's a lot of killing in that.
'Dear me, you seem to think about killing a great deal.
'I do. It's my mission, you see, said the big man simply.