The Warden begins with an apology. "I'm very sorry," he says, "but I forgot your newspaper to-night." Then he adds the usual remark, "I don't know how I came to forget it." "Don't worry," I say, "it doesn't make any difference. I've read it." The Warden stares at me incredulously. "You've read it! To-night's paper?" "Certainly," I answer, "from beginning to end. Don't you believe it?" And in proof of my statement I produce the paper. The Warden gasps. "Well, how in the devil did you get that?" "Oh, come now! Don't you understand that I'm a convict?" I say jeeringly. "You mustn't expect me to answer such a question." The Warden takes it all in good part. "Well, Dan," he says, turning to Grant, "this man seems to be on to the game all right. What shall we do to him for violating the rules and smashing our system?" "Don't you know," I remark with a serious air, "that so long as you hold me a prisoner I don't care a pin for your rules, and even less for your damn'd system. What do you say to that?" "I say you're a dangerous man, and the sooner we get you off on parole the better," laughs the Warden. "But you will have to promise you won't make more trouble for us after you get outside." "Oh, you're in for trouble, all right; whether I'm inside or out." I say it in jest, but we know there is many a true word spoken in that way. The Warden will have many new problems to handle while he is in office; for the old way is worn out and the new way is surely coming. Fortunately he is a genuine progressive and the new has no terrors for him. Taking up the serious part of our business, the Warden says he must go out of town again to-morrow; and be gone over Sunday. "What about that poor fellow they dragged down to the jail night before last?" I ask. "Oh, you're all wrong about that matter," the Warden answers. "He was insolent and violent, flung his bucket at the keeper's head, and there was nothing to do but punish him. I've inquired into it and the officers were all right." "You are being deceived," is my comment. "These men realize they are in bad. They're afraid of the truth; and they're steering you wrong. Take my word for it, Warden, there is more in that affair than they are permitting you to know. And you are up against the System as well as the prisoners themselves." The Warden is troubled, no man has a heartier dislike of being made the victim of dishonesty or hypocrisy than he. "Well, what had better be done?" he asks. "I shall be very busy to-morrow before I go." "Suppose we wait then," I suggest. "The man is probably not being abused now, wherever he is; and after I get out of here you can have a thorough examination made. I can guarantee plenty of material to enable you to get to the bottom of it." "I am more than ever sorry I have to go away," says the Warden. "Now how about the jail? Are you still determined to go there? And, if so, how do you propose to be sent?"