The Red Thumb Mark

by R. Austin Freeman

  CHAPTER IX

  THE PRISONER

  On the following morning, as I emerged from my room, I met Polton comingup with a tray (our bedrooms were on the attic floor above thelaboratory and workshop), and I accordingly followed him into myfriend's chamber.

  "I shan't go out to-day," said Thorndyke, "though I shall come downpresently. It is very inconvenient, but one must accept the inevitable.I have had a knock on the head, and, although I feel none the worse, Imust take the proper precautions--rest and a low diet--until I see thatno results are going to follow. You can attend to the scalp wound andsend round the necessary letters, can't you?"

  I expressed my willingness to do all that was required and applauded myfriend's self-control and good sense; indeed, I could not helpcontrasting the conduct of this busy, indefatigable man, cheerfullyresigning himself to most distasteful inaction, with the fussy behaviourof the ordinary patient who, with nothing of importance to do, canhardly be prevailed upon to rest, no matter how urgent the necessity.Accordingly, I breakfasted alone, and spent the morning in writing anddespatching letters to the various persons who were expecting visitsfrom my colleague.

  Shortly after lunch (a very spare one, by the way, for Polton appearedto include me in the scheme of reduced diet) my expectant ear caughtthe tinkle of a hansom approaching down Crown Office Row.

  "Here comes your fair companion," said Thorndyke, whom I had acquaintedwith my arrangements, "Tell Hornby, from me, to keep up his courage,and, for yourself, bear my warning in mind. I should be sorry indeed ifyou ever had cause to regret that you had rendered me the very valuableservices for which I am now indebted to you. Good-bye; don't keep herwaiting."

  I ran down the stairs and came out of the entry just as the cabman hadpulled up and flung open the doors.

  "Holloway Prison--main entrance," I said, as I stepped up on to thefootboard.

  "There ain't no back door there, sir," the man responded, with a grin;and I was glad that neither the answer nor the grin was conveyed to myfellow-passenger.

  "You are very punctual, Miss Gibson," I said. "It is not half-past oneyet."

  "Yes; I thought I should like to get there by two, so as to have as longa time with him as is possible without shortening your interview."

  I looked at my companion critically. She was dressed with rather morethan her usual care, and looked, in fact, a very fine lady indeed. Thiscircumstance, which I noted at first with surprise and then with decidedapprobation, caused me some inward discomfort, for I had in my mind avery distinct and highly disagreeable picture of the visitingarrangements at a local prison in one of the provinces, at which I hadacted temporarily as medical officer.

  "I suppose," I said at length, "it is of no use for me to re-open thequestion of the advisability of this visit on your part?"

  "Not the least," she replied resolutely, "though I understand andappreciate your motive in wishing to do so."

  "Then," said I, "if you are really decided, it will be as well for me toprepare you for the ordeal. I am afraid it will give you a terribleshock."

  "Indeed?" said she. "Is it so bad? Tell me what it will be like."

  "In the first place," I replied, "you must keep in your mind the purposeof a prison like Holloway. We are going to see an innocent man--acultivated and honourable gentleman. But the ordinary inmates ofHolloway are not innocent men; for the most part, the remand cases onthe male side are professional criminals, while the women are eitherpetty offenders or chronic inebriates. Most of them are regularcustomers at the prison--such is the idiotic state of the law--who comeinto the reception-room like travellers entering a familiar hostelry,address the prison officers by name and demand the usual privileges andextra comforts--the 'drunks,' for instance, generally ask for a dose ofbromide to steady their nerves and a light in the cell to keep away thehorrors. And such being the character of the inmates, their friends whovisit them are naturally of the same type--the lowest outpourings of theslums; and it is not surprising to find that the arrangements of theprison are made to fit its ordinary inmates. The innocent man is anegligible quantity, and no arrangements are made for him or hisvisitors."

  "But shall we not be taken to Reuben's cell?" asked Miss Gibson.

  "Bless you! no," I answered; and, determined to give her everyinducement to change her mind, I continued: "I will describe theprocedure as I have seen it--and a very dreadful and shocking sight Ifound it, I can tell you. It was while I was acting as a prison doctorin the Midlands that I had this experience. I was going my round onemorning when, passing along a passage, I became aware of a strange,muffled roar from the other side of the wall.

  "'What is that noise?' I asked the warder who was with me.

  "'Prisoners seeing their friends,' he answered. 'Like to have a look atthem, sir?'

  "He unlocked a small door and, as he threw it open, the distant, muffledsound swelled into a deafening roar. I passed through the door and foundmyself in a narrow alley at one end of which a warder was sitting. Thesides of the alley were formed by two immense cages with stout wirebars, one for the prisoners and the other for the visitors; and eachcage was lined with faces and hands, all in incessant movement, thefaces mouthing and grimacing, and the hands clawing restlessly at thebars. The uproar was so terrific that no single voice could bedistinguished, though every one present was shouting his loudest to makehimself heard above the universal din. The result was a very strange andhorrid illusion, for it seemed as if no one was speaking at all, butthat the noise came from outside, and that each one of the faces--low,vicious faces, mostly--was silently grimacing and gibbering, snappingits jaws and glaring furiously at the occupants of the opposite cage. Itwas a frightful spectacle. I could think of nothing but themonkey-house at the Zoo. It seemed as if one ought to walk up the alleyand offer nuts and pieces of paper to be torn to pieces."

  "Horrible!" exclaimed Miss Gibson. "And do you mean to say that we shallbe turned loose into one of these cages with a herd of other visitors?"

  "No. You are not turned loose anywhere in a prison. The arrangement isthis: each cage is divided by partitions into a number of small boxes orapartments, which are numbered. The prisoner is locked in one box andhis visitor in the corresponding box opposite. They are thus confronted,with the width of the alley between them; they can see one another andtalk but cannot pass any forbidden articles across--a very necessaryprecaution, I need hardly say."

  "Yes, I suppose it is necessary, but it is horrible for decent people.Surely they ought to be able to discriminate."

  "Why not give it up and let me take a message to Reuben? He wouldunderstand and be thankful to me for dissuading you."

  "No, no," she said quickly; "the more repulsive it is the greater thenecessity for me to go. He must not be allowed to think that a triflinginconvenience or indignity is enough to scare his friends away. Whatbuilding is that ahead?"

  We had just swung round from Caledonian Road into a quiet andprosperous-looking suburban street, at the end of which rose the towerof a castellated building.

  "That is the prison," I replied. "We are looking at it from the mostadvantageous point of view; seen from the back, and especially from theinside, it is a good deal less attractive." Nothing more was saiduntil the cab drove into the courtyard and set us down outside the greatfront gates. Having directed the cabman to wait for us, I rang the belland we were speedily admitted through a wicket (which was immediatelyclosed and locked) into a covered court closed in by a second gate,through the bars of which we could see across an inner courtyard to theactual entrance to the prison. Here, while the necessary formalitieswere gone through, we found ourselves part of a numerous and very motleycompany, for a considerable assemblage of the prisoners' friends wasawaiting the moment of admission. I noticed that my companion wasobserving our fellow-visitors with a kind of horrified curiosity, whichshe strove, however, and not unsuccessfully, to conceal; and certainlythe appearance of the majority furnished eloquent testimony to thefailure of crime as a means of worldly adv
ancement. Their presentposition was productive of very varied emotions; some were silent andevidently stricken with grief; a larger number were voluble and excited,while a considerable proportion were quite cheerful and even inclined tobe facetious.

  At length the great iron gate was unlocked and our party taken in chargeby a warder, who conducted us to that part of the building known as "thewing"; and, in the course of our progress, I could not help observingthe profound impression made upon my companion by the circumstance thatevery door had to be unlocked to admit us and was locked again as soonas we had passed through.

  "It seems to me," I said, as we neared our destination, "that you hadbetter let me see Reuben first; I have not much to say to him and shallnot keep you waiting long."

  "Why do you think so?" she asked, with a shade of suspicion.

  "Well," I answered, "I think you may be a little upset by the interview,and I should like to see you into your cab as soon as possibleafterwards."

  "Yes," she said; "perhaps you are right, and it is kind of you to be sothoughtful on my account."

  A minute later, accordingly, I found myself shut into a narrow box, likeone of those which considerate pawnbrokers provide for their morediffident clients, and in a similar, but more intense, degree, pervadedby a subtle odour of uncleanness. The woodwork was polished to anunctuous smoothness by the friction of numberless dirty hands and soiledgarments, and the general appearance--taken in at a glance as Ientered--was such as to cause me to thrust my hands into my pockets andstudiously avoid contact with any part of the structure but the floor.The end of the box opposite the door was closed in by a strong gratingof wire--excepting the lower three feet, which was of wood--and lookingthrough this, I perceived, behind a second grating, Reuben Hornby,standing in a similar attitude to my own. He was dressed in his usualclothes and with his customary neatness, but his face was unshaven andhe wore, suspended from a button-hole, a circular label bearing thecharacters "B.31"; and these two changes in his exterior carried withthem a suggestiveness as subtle as it was unpleasant, making me morethan ever regretful that Miss Gibson had insisted on coming.

  "It is exceedingly good of you, Dr. Jervis, to come and see me," he saidheartily, making himself heard quite easily, to my surprise, above thehubbub of the adjoining boxes; "but I didn't expect you here. I was toldI could see my legal advisers in the solicitor's box."

  "So you could," I answered. "But I came here by choice because I havebrought Miss Gibson with me." "I am sorry for that," he rejoined, withevident disapproval; "she oughtn't to have come among these riff-raff."

  "I told her so, and that you wouldn't like it, but she insisted."

  "I know," said Reuben. "That's the worst of women--they will make abeastly fuss and sacrifice themselves when nobody wants them to. But Imustn't be ungrateful; she means it kindly, and she's a deuced goodsort, is Juliet."

  "She is indeed," I exclaimed, not a little disgusted at his cool,unappreciative tone; "a most noble-hearted girl, and her devotion to youis positively heroic."

  The faintest suspicion of a smile appeared on the face seen through thedouble grating; on which I felt that I could have pulled his nose withpleasure--only that a pair of tongs of special construction would havebeen required for the purpose.

  "Yes," he answered calmly, "we have always been very good friends."

  A rejoinder of the most extreme acidity was on my lips. Damn the fellow!What did he mean by speaking in that supercilious tone of the loveliestand sweetest woman in the world? But, after all, one cannot trample on apoor devil locked up in a jail on a false charge, no matter how greatmay be the provocation. I drew a deep breath, and, having recoveredmyself, outwardly at least, said--

  "I hope you don't find the conditions here too intolerable?" "Oh, no,"he answered. "It's beastly unpleasant, of course, but it might easily beworse. I don't mind if it's only for a week or two; and I am reallyencouraged by what Dr. Thorndyke said. I hope he wasn't being merelysoothing."

  "You may take it that he was not. What he said, I am sure he meant. Ofcourse, you know I am not in his confidence--nobody is--but I gatherthat he is satisfied with the defence he is preparing."

  "If he is satisfied, I am," said Reuben, "and, in any case, I shall owehim an immense debt of gratitude for having stood by me and believed inme when all the world--except my aunt and Juliet--had condemned me."

  He then went on to give me a few particulars of his prison life, andwhen he had chatted for a quarter of an hour or so, I took my leave tomake way for Miss Gibson.

  Her interview with him was not as long as I had expected, though, to besure, the conditions were not very favourable either for the exchange ofconfidences or for utterances of a sentimental character. Theconsciousness that one's conversation could be overheard by theoccupants of adjacent boxes destroyed all sense of privacy, to saynothing of the disturbing influence of the warder in the alley-way.

  When she rejoined me, her manner was abstracted and very depressed, acircumstance that gave me considerable food for reflection as we madeour way in silence towards the main entrance. Had she found Reuben ascool and matter-of-fact as I had? He was assuredly a very calm andself-possessed lover, and it was conceivable that his reception of thegirl, strung up, as she was, to an acute pitch of emotion, might havebeen somewhat in the nature of an anticlimax. And then, was it possiblethat the feeling was on her side only? Could it be that the pricelesspearl of her love was cast before--I was tempted to use the colloquialsingular and call him an "unappreciative swine!" The thing was almostunthinkable to me, and yet I was tempted to dwell upon it; for when aman is in love--and I could no longer disguise my condition frommyself--he is inclined to be humble and to gather up thankfully thetreasure that is rejected of another.

  I was brought up short in these reflections by the clank of the lock inthe great iron gate. We entered together the gloomy vestibule, and amoment later were let out through the wicket into the courtyard; and asthe lock clicked behind us, we gave a simultaneous sigh of relief tofind ourselves outside the precincts of the prison, beyond the domain ofbolts and bars.

  I had settled Miss Gibson in the cab and given her address to thedriver, when I noticed her looking at me, as I thought, somewhatwistfully.

  "Can't I put you down somewhere?" she said, in response to ahalf-questioning glance from me.

  I seized the opportunity with thankfulness and replied--

  "You might set me down at King's Cross if it is not delaying you;" andgiving the word to the cabman, I took my place by her side as the cabstarted and a black-painted prison van turned into the courtyard withits freight of squalid misery.

  "I don't think Reuben was very pleased to see me," Miss Gibson remarkedpresently, "but I shall come again all the same. It is a duty I owe bothto him and to myself."

  I felt that I ought to endeavour to dissuade her, but the reflectionthat her visits must almost of necessity involve my companionship,enfeebled my will. I was fast approaching a state of infatuation.

  "I was so thankful," she continued, "that you prepared me. It was ahorrible experience to see the poor fellow caged like a wild beast, withthat dreadful label hanging from his coat; but it would have beenoverwhelming if I had not known what to expect."

  As we proceeded, her spirits revived somewhat, a circumstance that shegraciously ascribed to the enlivening influence of my society; and Ithen told her of the mishap that had befallen my colleague.

  "What a terrible thing!" she exclaimed, with evidently unaffectedconcern. "It is the merest chance that he was not killed on the spot. Ishe much hurt? And would he mind, do you think, if I called to inquireafter him?"

  I said that I was sure he would be delighted (being, as a matter offact, entirely indifferent as to his sentiments on the subject in mydelight at the proposal), and when I stepped down from the cab at King'sCross to pursue my way homewards, there already opened out before me theprospect of the renewal of this bitter-sweet and all too dangerouscompanionship on the morrow.