A few minutes sufficed to take in these general features.  Then my attention was riveted upon the floor, and this told a silent, poignant story which it would be difficult to parallel.  The promenade was less than nine feet—­in fact, it was only two full paces—­and barely twelve inches in width.  Consequently the occupant, as he paced to and fro, trod always upon the same spots.  And the patterings of the feet in that short walk had worn the board into hollows at the treads.  I felt those hollows with my hands, traced their formation, and despite my unhappy plight could not refrain from musing upon the stories which those hollows could relate—­stories of abandoned hope, frenzy, madness, resignation, suppressed fury, and pathetic awaiting of the doom which could not be averted.

Those hollows exercised an irresistible fascination for me, and when I started to walk they drew my feet as certainly as the magnet attracts the iron filings.  I would strive to avoid the hollows and for a few seconds would succeed, but within a short time my feet fell into them.  Later I learned from one of my wardens that the pacings of the criminals condemned to this and the other cells is so persistent and ceaseless as to demand the renewal of the boards at frequent intervals.

In the United States the third degree has attained a revolting ill-fame.  But the American third degree must be paradise in comparison with what can only be described as its equivalent in Germany.  The Teuton method is far more effective and brutal.  The man is not badgered, coaxed, and threatened in the hope of extorting a signed confession, but he is condemned to loneliness, silence and solitude amid a gloom which can be felt, and which within a short time eats into your very soul.  Add to this complete deprivation of exercise and insufficient, un-nourishing, food, and one can gather some faint idea of the effect which is wrought upon the human body.  The German idea is to wear down a man physically as well as mentally, until at last he is brought to the verge of insanity and collapse.  By breaking the bodily strength and undermining the mind he is reduced to such a deplorable condition as to render him as pliable as putty in the hands of his accusers.  He is rendered absolutely incapable of defending himself.  He fails to realise what is said against him or the significance of his own words.

His brain is the first to succumb to the strain, utter loneliness speedily conducing to this result, aggravated by a sensation which is produced by walking the cell, and which I will describe later.  Consequently he invariably achieves with his own mouth what his persecutors desire—­his own condemnation.  To make their devilry complete German justice resorts to a final phase which seals the fate of the poor wretch irrevocably, as I will narrate.