three years left.
And, sir, I worked faithfully to make those years good. I knew that if I
did anything against the rules I should lose my credits and have to stay
nearly ten years longer. I knew all about that, sir: I never forgot it.
I wanted to be a free man again, and I planned to go away somewhere and
make the fight all over--to be a man in the world once more."

"We know all about your record in the prison. Proceed."

"Well, it was this way. You know they were doing some heavy work in the
quarries and on the grades, and they wanted the strongest men in the
prison. There weren't very many: there never are very many strong men in
prison. And I was one of 'em that they put on the heavy work, and I
did it faithfully. They used to pay the men for extra work--not pay 'em
money, but the value of the money in candles, tobacco, extra clothes,
and things like that. I loved to work, and I loved to work extra, and so
did some of the other men. On Saturdays the men who had done extra work
would fall in and go up to the captain of the guard and he would give to
each man what was coming to him. He had it all down in a book, and when
a man would come up and call for what was due him the captain would give
it to him, whatever he wanted that the rules allowed.

"One Saturday I fell in with the others. A good many were ahead of me in
the line, and when they got what they wanted they fell into a new line,
waiting to be marched to the cells. When my turn in the line came I went
up to the captain and said I would take mine in tobacco. He looked at
me pretty sharply, and said, 'How did you get back in that line?' I told
him I belonged there--that I had come to get my extra. He looked at his
book, and he said, 'You've had your extra: you got tobacco.' And he told
me to fall into the new line, I told him I hadn't received any tobacco;
I said I hadn't got my extra, and hadn't been up before. He said, 'Don't
spoil your record by trying to steal a little tobacco. Fall in.'... It
hurt me, sir. I hadn't been up; I hadn't got my extra; and I wasn't a
thief, and I never had been a thief, and no living man had a right to
call me a thief. I said to him, straight, 'I won't fall in till I get my
extra, and I'm not a thief, and no man can call me one, and no man can
rob me of my just dues.' He turned pale, and said, 'Fall in, there.' I
said, 'I won't fall in till I get my dues.'

"With that he raised his hand as a signal, and the two guards behind