Project Gutenberg's Two Days' Solitary Imprisonment, by Edward Bellamy

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Title: Two Days' Solitary Imprisonment
1898

Author: Edward Bellamy

Release Date: September 21, 2007 [EBook #22706]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by David Widger

TWO DAYS' SOLITARY IMPRISONMENT

By Edward Bellamy

1898

Mr. Joseph Kilgore was suffering from one of those spring influenzas
which make a man feel as if he were his own grandfather. His nose had
acquired the shape of a turnip and the complexion of a beet. All his
bones ached as if he had been soundly thrashed, and his eyes were weak
and watery. Your deadly disease is oftener than not a gentleman who
takes your life without mauling you, but the minor diseases are
mere bruisers who just go in for making one as uncomfortable and
unpresentable as possible. Mr. Kilgore's influenza had been coming on
for several days, and when he woke up this particular morning and heard
the rain dripping on the piazza-roof just under his bedroom-window, he
concluded, like a sensible man, that he would stay at home and nurse
himself over the fire that day, instead of going to the office. So he
turned over and snoozed for an hour or two, luxuriating in a sense of
aches and pains just pronounced enough to make the warmth and softness
of the bed delightful.

Toward noon, the edge of this enjoyment becoming dulled, he got up,
dressed, and came downstairs to the parlor, where his brother's wife (he
was a bachelor, living with a married brother) had considerately kindled
up a coal-fire in the grate for his benefit.

After lying off in the rocking-chair till past dinner-time, he began to
feel better and consequently restless. Concluding that he would like to
read, he went rummaging about the bookcases for a likely-looking novel.
At length he found in the upper shelf of a closet a book called "Roles
of a Detective," containing various thrilling accounts of crimes and the
entanglement of criminals in the meshes of law and evidence.

One story in particular made a strong impression on his mind. It was a
tale of circumstant