“You can have a candle a day,” said a guard as he blew out the one he carried, laying it, with a tinder-box, on a shelf in the wall of rock beside me.  Then they filed out, and the narrow door shut with a loud bang.  We peered through at the fading flicker of the candles.  They threw wavering, ghostly shadows on every wall of the dark passage, and suddenly went out of sight.  We both stood listening a moment.

“Curse the luck!” I whispered presently.

“Jest as helpless es if we was hung up by the heels,” said D’ri, groping his way to the straw pile.  “Ain’ no use gittin’ wrathy.”

“What ’ll we do?” I whispered.

“Dunno,” said he; “an’ when ye dunno whut t’ dew, don’ dew nuthin’.  Jest stan’ still; thet’s whut I b’lieve in.”

He lighted the candle, and went about, pouring its glow upon every wall and into every crack and corner of our cell—­a small chamber set firm in masonry, with a ceiling so far above our heads we could see it but dimly, the candle lifted arm’s-length.

“Judas Priest!” said D’ri, as he stopped the light with thumb and finger.  “I ‘m goin’ t’ set here ‘n th’ straw luk an ol’ hen ‘n’ ile up m’ thinker ‘n’ set ‘er goin’.  One o’ them kind hes t’ keep ‘is mouth shet er he can’t never dew ho thinkin’.  Bymby, like es not, I ‘ll hev suthin’ t1 say et ’ll ‘mount t’ suthin’.”

We lay back on the straw in silence.  I did a lot of thinking that brought me little hope.  Thoughts of Louison and Louise soon led me out of prison.  After a little time I went philandering in the groves of the baroness with the two incomparable young ladies.  I would willingly have stood for another bullet if I could have had another month of their company.  The next thought of my troubles came with the opening of the iron door.  I had been sound asleep.  A guard came in with water and a pot of stewed beef and potatoes.

“Thet air’s all right,” said D’ri, dipping into it with a spoon.

We ate with a fine relish, the guard, a sullen, silent man with a rough voice that came out of a bristling mustache, standing by the door.

“Luk a-here,” said D’ri to the guard as we finished eating, “I want t’ ast you a question.  Ef you hed a purty comf’table hum on t’other side, ‘n’ few thousan’ dollars ’n the bank, ‘n’ bosses ‘n’ everything fixed fer a good time, ‘n’ all uv a sudden ye found yerself ’n sech a gol-dum dungeon es this here, what ’u’d you dew?”

The guard was fixing the wick of his candle, and made no answer.

“Want ye t’ think it all over,” said D’ri.  “See ef ye can’t think o’ suthin’ soothin’ t’ say.  God knows we need it.”

The guard went away without answering.

“Got him thinkin’,” said D’ri, as he lighted the candle.  “He can help us some, mebbe.  Would n’t wonder ef he was good et cipherin’.”

“If he offered to take the two thousand, I don’t see how we’d give it to him,” said I.  “He would n’t take our promise for it.”