He sent me back to my cottage with no words of reproof or smart of punishment. He thought to teach me the right road by kindness, to bring me to my senses by a little sympathy. But those virtues were too late coming into my life at the School. My nature had fallen too low to appreciate to the full such acts on the part of this official. That they made some impression on me is shown by the fact that for the following six months I surprised the boys and officials alike by my becoming deportment. It didn’t last: I was soon deep in a plot that seemed to make my freedom assured. The fear of physical suffering had no terrors for me. The day of the final attempt for liberty came, and that midnight saw a pal and me trudging a lonely country path on our way to a railroad station and the outside world. Five miles from the school is situated a small village. Its inhabitants number about three hundred, devoted almost exclusively to the manufacture of tobacco sundries. We reached this village with hearts aglow and a song on our lips. Here was the railroad, and the railroad was to carry us over the line to the joys of the outside world. Suddenly from the side of the road came an avalanche of rushing forms. We tried to run, but were swept to the ground by the onslaught. We struggled and kicked and tore in an endeavor to throw our captors off. We were husky specimens of manhood, this pal and I, and we put up a fight, the memory of which will remain in that village for some few years. They finally mastered us, and with pieces of hemp proceeded to tie us up, awaiting the arrival of school officials and monetary reward. You see, for the return of every escaped boy the State allows the captor the sum of five dollars. In the struggle between our captors and ourselves one of the former received a severe cut on the right arm, presumably done by some sharp instrument. After lying twenty-two days in the lockup for this last escapade I was arrested by the sheriff of the county for this alleged atrocious assault, as the warrant read. I can honestly say that that arrest was welcomed. I didn’t know who had cut the man, my pal or I, or whether in the scrimmage he had been cut by one of his own friends, but, anyway, it was an opportunity to get away from the school, and this certainly was welcome. CHAPTER VIII LIFE IN PRISON I was taken to the county seat wherein the assault took place, and lodged in jail. My experiences in this jail were similar to my first experiences in such a place. I found there the same indiscriminate mixing, regardless of age. Of course I was a bit more hardened in crime now, and I suppose the environment didn’t have the same influence as it had much earlier in my career.