"All right, Sammy." Legrand sighed contentedly. "If it wasn't for you, I'd
be done. Done, I tell you! Everything has been taken from me here - even my
name. Ferris Legrand - that's not my name. I'm nine - six - three - eight.
That's it, Sammy. Convict nine - six - three - eight -"
"Forget it," growled the man above. "That doesn't mean anything, Ferris.
It's just like a telephone number or a street address. Forget it."
"I can't forget it! Nine - six -"
A warning hiss from above. The moaning man became silent. His cellmate had
detected a sound. The keenness of his ears was proven a second later.
Click - click - click -
The pacing footsteps of a guard sounded with approaching monotony. A bulky
man appeared outside the cell door. He shot the rays of a flashlight into the
little room. He saw two prisoners lying with closed eyes. He paced on toward
another cell and stopped for a second inspection.
Click - click - click -
THE receding beats announced the guard's departure along his rounds. The
wheezy voice began again from the bunk below. Its tones were scarcely audible.
The man above leaned further over the edge.
"Sammy" - Legrand's words were disjointed. "Don't forget - all that I told
you. You - you know the place. You - you'll be out of here. You'll get - what I
left there -"
"I sure will, Ferris."
"It's - it's all I managed to keep, Sammy. It's - it's worth more than -
than all they took from me. They don't know about it, Sammy! You're the only
person that I ever told -"
"Easy, Ferris. You can count on me."
"Even Mildred doesn't know," gasped Legrand. "My - my poor daughter. I was
- was afraid to tell her. I wouldn't have told you, Sammy - except that I'm
going to die. I - I had to count on you -"
"You'll be all right." The man above was studying Ferris Legrand's pale
face. Tired eyes had closed. Legrand could scarcely mumble. "It won't be long
before you're out. I'll have what you want -"
The man who called himself Sam Fulwell stopped him abruptly. Again he
assumed a listening attitude. His face was grim and tense. His eyes centered on
the moonlight that showed the outline of the cell window. They remained focused
there, staring.
The square of light had changed. Across a corner near the cell door lay a
shrouding edge of blackness that broke the luminous space. The firm-faced man
stared toward the door. Seeing nothing, he gazed at the window. The moonlight
showed in full intensity. There was nothing there to block its path.
Again the keen eyes wandered to the floor. The blackness that obscured a
portion of the moonlight was still in evidence. To the startled gaze that
viewed it, the patch of darkness seemed grotesquely like a human silhouette!
Yet there was no one at the door of the cell - no one that the observant
prisoner could see.
"Sammy!" Legrand's wheezy whisper bore an anxious note. "Sammy! Are you
sure I told - I told you all that you need to know? If you're not sure about -"
"Sh-h!" The whisper was fervent from above.
