course of heroic treatment; but as to-day they permit me to walk, run,
dance, and play tennis and golf, as do those who have never been
crippled, my hours of torture endured under my first attempts to walk
are almost pleasant to recall. About five months from the date of my
injury I was allowed, or rather compelled, to place my feet on the
floor and attempt to walk. My ankles were still swollen, absolutely
without action, and acutely sensitive to the slightest pressure. From
the time they were hurt until I again began to talk--two years later--I
asked not one question as to the probability of my ever regaining the
use of them. The fact was, I never expected to walk naturally again.
The desire of the doctors to have me walk I believed to be inspired by
the detectives, of whom, indeed, I supposed the doctor himself to be
one. Had there been any confession to make, I am sure it would have
been yielded under the stress of this ultimate torture. The million
needle points which, just prior to my mental collapse, seemed to goad
my brain, now centred their unwelcome attention on the soles of my
feet. Had the floor been studded with minute stilettos my sufferings
could hardly have been more intense. For several weeks assistance was
necessary with each attempt to walk, and each attempt was an ordeal.
Sweat stood in beads on either foot, wrung from my blood by agony.
Believing that it would be only a question of time when I should be
tried, condemned, and executed for some one of my countless felonies, I
thought that the attempt to prevent my continuing a cripple for the
brief remainder of my days was prompted by anything but benevolence.

The superintendent would have proved himself more humane had he not
peremptorily ordered my attendant to discontinue the use of a support
which, until the plaster bandages were removed, had enabled me to keep
my legs in a horizontal position when I sat up. His order was that I
should put my legs down and keep them down, whether it hurt or not. The
pain was of course intense when the blood again began to circulate
freely through tissues long unused to its full pressure, and so evident
was my distress that the attendant ignored the doctor's command and
secretly favored me. He would remove the forbidden support for only a
few minutes at a time, gradually lengthening the intervals until at
last I was able to do without the support entirely. Before long and
each day for several weeks I was forced at