Many hours later he was awakened by the sound of voices, and found
on rising, that the men who had captured him on the previous
evening were standing by the bed. The sergeant’s face beamed with
joy. He was dressed only in his trousers and shirt. His hair was
sticking up in some places and sticking out in others which gave
a certain wild look to him, and his feet were bare. He took the
Philosopher’s two hands in his own and swore if ever there was
anything he could do to comfort him he would do that and more.
Shawn, in a similar state of unclothedness, greeted the Philosopher
and proclaimed himself his friend and follower for ever. Shawn
further announced that he did not believe the Philosopher had
killed the two people, that if he had killed them they must have
richly deserved it, and that if he was hung he would plant flowers
on his grave; for a decenter, quieter, and wiser man he had never
met and never would meet in the world.
These professions of esteem comforted the Philosopher, and he
replied to them in terms which made the red-haired policeman gape
in astonishment and approval.
He was given a breakfast of bread and cocoa which he ate with his
guardians, and then, as they had to take up their outdoor duties,
he was conducted to the backyard and informed he could walk about
there and that he might smoke until he was black in the face. The
policemen severally presented him with a pipe, a tin of tobacco,
two boxes of matches and a dictionary, and then they withdrew,
leaving him to his own devices.
The garden was about twelve feet square, having high, smooth walls
on every side, and into it there came neither sun nor wind. In
one corner a clump of rusty-looking sweet-pea was climbing up
the wall—every leaf of this plant was riddled with holes, and
there were no flowers on it. Another corner was occupied by dwarf
nasturtiums, and on this plant, in despite of every discouragement,
two flowers were blooming, but its leaves also were tattered and
dejected. A mass of ivy clung to the third corner, its leaves were
big and glossy at the top, but near the ground there was only grey,
naked stalks laced together by cobwebs. The fourth wall was clothed
in a loose Virginia creeper every leaf of which looked like an
insect that could crawl if it wanted to. The centre of this small
plot had used every possible artifice to cover itself with grass,
and in some places it had wonderfully succeeded, but the pieces of
broken bottles, shattered jampots, and sections of crockery were so
numerous that no attempt at growth could be other than tentative
and unpassioned.
Here, for a long time, the Philosopher marched up and down. At one
moment he examined the sweet-pea and mourned with it on a wretched
existence. Again he congratulated the nasturtium on its two
bright children; but he thought of the gardens wherein they might
have bloomed and the remembrance of that spacious, sunny freedom
saddened him.
“Indeed, poor creatures!” said he, “ye also are in gaol.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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