h his eye the distance
between the prisoner and himself, as one might measure the chain of some
ferocious dog. "How are you this morning, Dawes?"

Dawes, scowling in a parenthesis between the cracking of two stones, was
understood to say that he was very well.

"I am afraid, Dawes," said Mr. Meekin reproachfully, "that you have done
yourself no good by your outburst in court on Monday. I understand that
public opinion is quite incensed against you."

Dawes, slowly arranging one large fragment of bluestone in a comfortable
basin of smaller fragments, made no reply.

"I am afraid you lack patience, Dawes. You do not repent of your
offences against the law, I fear."

The only answer vouchsafed by the ironed man--if answer it could be
called--was a savage blow, which split the stone into sudden fragments,
and made the clergyman skip a step backward.

"You are a hardened ruffian, sir! Do you not hear me speak to you?"

"I hear you," said Dawes, picking up another stone.

"Then listen respectfully, sir," said Meekin, roseate with celestial
anger. "You have all day to break those stones."

"Yes, I have all day," returned Rufus Dawes, with a dogged look
upward, "and all next day, for that matter. Ugh!" and again the hammer
descended.

"I came to console you, man--to console you," says Meekin, indignant at
the contempt with which his well-meant overtures had been received. "I
wanted to give you some good advice!"

The self-important annoyance of the tone seemed to appeal to whatever
vestige of appreciation for the humorous, chains and degradation had
suffered to linger in the convict's brain, for a faint smile crossed his
features.

"I beg your pardon, sir," he said. "Pray, go on."

"I was going to say, my good fellow, that you have done yourself a great
deal of injury by your ill-advised accusation of Captain Frere, and the
use you made of Miss Vickers's name."

A frown, as of pain, contracted the prisoner's brows, and he seemed
with difficulty to put a restraint upon his speech. "Is there to be
no inquiry, Mr. Meekin?" he asked, at length. "What I stated was the
truth--the truth, so help me God!"

"No blasphemy, sir," said Meekin, solemnly. "No blasphemy, wretched man.
Do not add to the sin of lying the greater sin of taking the name of the
Lord thy God in vain. He will not hold him guiltless, Dawes. He will not
hold him guiltless, remember. No, there is to be no inquiry."

"Are they not going to ask her fo