s; grumbling low with mournful sounds underneath like the
voice of subterranean wind, and sending up a noxious stench through
heavy whorls of vapor that rolled in a fetid atmosphere overhead. Oh,
it was a fearsome place, like nothing on God's earth but a mouldering
wreck of human body, vast and shapeless, and pierced deep with
foulest ulcers; a leper spot on earth's face; a seething vat full of
broth of hell's own brewing. And all around was the peaceful snow,
and beyond the lines of the southern hills was the tranquil sea, and
within the northern mountains was a quiet lake of water as green as
the grass of spring.

Coming upon the ghastly place, printed deep with Satan's own features
on the face of it, Adam thought that surely no human footstep was
ever meant by God to echo among bodeful noises. But there he found
two wooden sheds busy with troops of men coming and going about them,
and a third house of the same kind in an early stage of building.
Then asking questions as well as he was able he learned that the
boiling pits were the Sulphur Mines that the new Governor, the
President of the Republic, had lately turned to account as a penal
settlement, that the two completed sheds were the workshops and
sleeping places of the prisoners, and that the unfinished house was
intended for their hospital.

And it so chanced that while with his poor broken company Adam rested
on his horse, to look on at this sight with eyes of wonder and fear,
a gang of four prisoners passed on to their work in charge of as many
warders, and one of the four men was Red Jason. His long red hair was
gone, his face was thin and pale instead of full and tawny, and his
eyes, once so bright, were heavy and slow. He walked in file, and
about his neck was a collar of iron, with a bow coming over his head
and ending on the forehead in a bell that rang as he went along. The
wild vitality of his strong figure seemed lost, he bent forward as he
walked, and looked steadfastly on the ground.

Yet, changed as he was, Adam knew him at a glance, and between
surprise and terror, called on him by his name. But Jason heard
nothing, and strode on like a man who had suddenly become deaf and
blind under the shock of some evil day.

"Jason! Jason!" Adam cried again, and he dropped from the saddle to
run towards him. But the warders raised their hands to warn the old
man off, and Jason went on between them, without ever lifting his
eyes or making sign or signal.