Trooper Tales — page 206: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

192 The Last -Cell to the Right. that by-his moans. I observed all these things during the first day. It tended to create within me an aversion for government straits. A woman walked slowly through the iron gate at the prison entrance. She was smileless, hungry-eyed and silent. A large tin can was balanced upon her head. Her fleshless figure was marked with none of the curves of a woman. Her feet were bare; her movements slow and painful. Tad approached her. From a pocket in her dress the woman produced a green orange—natives eat oranges while they are green in Porto Rico. Still silent and smileless she handed it to Tad. Over by the entrance to the last cell, the mother crouched and stared. There was madness in her eyes, but she did not move. The man moaned inside. At the well the other woman slowly and painfully filled the can. The descending chain made a weird, cavernous rumble, as it beat against the slimy stone wall of the black water vault. Kneeling upon the flaggings, she placed the can upon her head and was gone. Tad poked his hand through the rind of the orange and crept toward his mother. Her eyes stared at him with an intensity I shall never forget. I see those eyes to this day. They seemed to bring the child to her. Suddenly her black skeleton hands shot for- ward toward the orange, but Tad eluded her. Still she crouched motionless, but her mad eyes followed every movement of the child. “Cannot these people speak?” I almost cried. My terror was unaccountable, You will see life rank and naked in COMMIG DOO KS EOL