A Cool Million Read Online Free Page B

the man who had posed as a pawnbroker on the train was
in reality Hiram Glazer, alias “The Pinhead,” a notorius underworld character. This criminal turned state’s evidence and blamed the
crime on our hero in return for a small fee from the district attorney, who was
shortly coming up for re-election.
    Once the verdict of guilty had been
brought in, Lem was treated with great kindness by
everyone, even by the detectives who had been so brutal in the station house.
It was through their recommendations, based on what they called his willingness
to cooperate, that he received only fifteen years in the penitentiary.
    Our hero was immediately transferred
to prison, where he was incarcerated exactly five weeks after his departure
from Ottsville. It would be hard to say from this that justice is not swift,
although, knowing the truth, we must add that it is
not always sure.
    The warden of the state prison,
Ezekiel Purdy, was a kind man if stern. He invariably made all newcomers a
little speech of welcome and greeted Lem with the
following words:
    “My son, the way of the transgressor
is hard, but at your age it is still possible to turn from it. However, do not
squirm, for you will get no sermon from me.”
    ( Lem was
not squirming. The warden’s expression was purely rhetorical.)
    “Sit down for a moment,” added Mr.
Purdy, indicating the chair in which he wanted Lem to
sit. “Your new duties can wait yet awhile, as can the prison barber and tailor.”
    The warden leaned back in his chair
and sucked meditatively on his enormous calabash pipe. When he began to talk
again, it was with ardor and conviction.
    “The first thing to do is to draw
all your teeth,” he said. “Teeth are often a source of infection and it pays to
be on the safe side. At the same time we will begin a series of cold showers.
Cold water is an excellent cure for morbidity.”
    “But I am innocent,” cried Lem , when the full significance of what the warden had said
dawned on him. “I am not morbid and I never had a toothache in my life.”
    Mr. Purdy dismissed the poor lad’s
protests with an airy wave of his hand. “In my eyes,” he said, “the sick are
never guilty. You are merely sick, as are all criminals. And as for your other
argument; please remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
Because you have never had a toothache does not mean that you will never have
one.”
    Lem could
not help but groan.
    “Be of good cheer, my son,” said the
warden brightly, as he pressed a button on his desk to summon a guard.
    A few minutes later our hero was led
off to the prison dentist, where we will not follow him just yet.

 
8
     
    Several chapters back I left our
heroine, Betty Prail , lying naked under a bush. She
was not quite so fortunate as Lem ,
and did not regain consciousness until after he had returned home.
    When she recovered the full
possession of her faculties, she found herself in what she thought was a large
box that was being roughly shaken by some unknown agency. In a little while,
however, she realized that she was in reality lying on the bottom of a wagon.
    “Could it be that she was dead?” she
asked herself. But no, she heard voices, and besides she was still naked. “No
matter how poor a person is,” she comforted herself, “they wrap him or her up
in something before burial.”
    There were evidently two men on the
driver’s seat of the wagon. She tried to understand what they were saying, but
could not because they spoke a foreign tongue. She was able to recognize their
language as Italian, however, having had some few music lessons in the orphan
asylum.
    “ Gli diede uno scudo ,
it the lo rese subito gentile,” said one of her captors to the other in a
guttural voice.
    “Si, si ,”
affirmed the other. “Questa vita terrena e quasi un prato , che’l serpente tra fiori giace .” After this bit of homely philosophy,
they both lapsed into silence.
    But I do not want to mystify my
readers any