A Son of Hagar: A Romance of Our TimeCaine, Hall, Sir
General
A Son of Hagar: A Romance of Our Time
Caine, Hall, Sir
Cumberland (England) -- Fiction; English fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
"Do?" (a loud, hollow laugh). "That was when the barracks was building,
and one day a bit of a newspaper blowed over from the officers'
quarters, and 2001 came on it, and the botcher picked it up. He'd
chucked hisself quick. 'Right about face--march.' He got seven stretch,
a month's marks, and lost his bedding."
A hearty laugh followed this account of a "screw's" revenge on a "green"
convict. Hugh Ritson listened and shuddered.
"I ain't surprised at anything from that luny," said another voice. "He
was in my gang at the moor, and I know'd 'im. They put 'im in the
soap-suds gang first, but he got hisself shifted. Then they sent 'im
botching with the tailors, but he put out his broom for the governor,
and said a big lusty man same as 'im wasn't for sitting on a board all
day. The flat didn't want to fetch a easy lagging, that's the fact."
There was a loud guffaw.
"So they put 'im in my turf gang out on the moor, and one day a old
clergyman come in gaiters and a broad-brimmer, and a face as if the
master of the house were a-shaking at his hand, and the missis flopping
down-stairs to give him a smack of the lips. Well, 2001 saw him in
Principal Warder Rennell's office, and not afore the bars. So next day I
says, 'Got anybody outside as would like to send you summat by the
Underground?' 'The what?' he says, reg'lar black in the face. 'The
underground railway,' I says, tipping him a wink. 'Get away from me, you
bloodsucker!' he says. But I pinched 'im. The old lags were laughing at
one of the grave-digger's oyster-openers, when up comes Rennell. 'Who's
laughing?' he says. 'It's 2001,' I says; 'he's always idling and
malingering.'"
"Ha, ha, ha! what did he get?"
"Three days' bread and water, a week's marks, and loss of class
privileges. He didn't mind the grub and the time, but Jack-in-the-box,
who was warder on his landing, said he took it proper bad as he
couldn't write home to the missis."
"What's his dose?"
"Three. One of the old lags would do it on his head, and fetch it easy,
too. He's a scholar, and could get to be a wardsman in the infirmary, or
medicine factotum for the croaker, or maybe book-keeper for the
governor. But he's earned no remissions, and he'll fill his time afore
he slings his hook again."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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