Page:9009 (1908).djvu/126

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9009

by with its side-to-side swinging retarded of rhythm; one by one the white faces passed, glancing slantingly, deep-lined, heavy. Sometimes nostrils quivered slightly; sometimes prison pallor grayed. They passed in silence; in the warm still air there was no sound excepting the shuffling of feet, the low growl of the captain’s voice bidding look, and the buzzing undertone. They passed, slit-eyed, stone-faced, sullen, and silent—9009 saw them all. He saw his little cell-mate looking at him out of his inflamed eyes with that same shocked expression with which he had looked at him from his cell during the struggle in the corridor; he saw Hayes—and fantastically the shock-headed safe-cracker was still laughing the soundless sneering laugh he had laughed while looking out of his cell at 9009 during the break——

They passed, by the four living men with dead faces, by the three dead men gazing vitriously at the sky—and one by one they sank into the door of the dining-hall till the yard was desert again—except for the flanked tables, and the buzzing.

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