Some days later Paul entered on another phase of his reclamation. When he came into the prison‑square for his afternoon exercise he found that his companion's place had been taken by a burly man of formidable aspect. He had red hair and beard, and red‑rimmed eyes, and vast red hands which twirled convulsively at his sides. He turned his ox‑like eyes on Paul and gave a slight snarl of welcome.
'Your new pal, said the warder. 'Get on with it.
'How do you do? said Paul politely. 'Are you here for long?
'Life, said the other. 'But it doesn't matter much. I look daily for the Second Coming.
They marched on in silence.
'Do you think that this a good plan of the Governor's? asked Paul.
'Yes, said his companion. They walked on in silence, once round, twice round, three times round.
'Talk, you two, shouted the warder. 'That's your instructions. Talk.
'It makes a change, said the big man.
'What are you here for? asked Paul. 'You don't mind my asking, do you?
'It's all in the Bible, said the big man. 'You should read about it there. Figuratively, you know, he added. 'It wouldn't be plain to you, I don't suppose, not like it is to me.
'It's not an easy book to understand, is it?
'It's not understanding that's needed. It's vision. Do you ever have visions?
'No, I'm afraid I don't.
'Nor does the Chaplain. He's no Christian. It was a vision brought me here, an angel clothed in flame, with a crown of flame on his head, crying "Kill and spare not. The Kingdom is at hand." Would you like to hear about it? I'll tell you. I'm a carpenter by profession, or at least I was, you understand. He spoke with a curious blend of cockney and Biblical English. 'Not a joiner ‑ a cabinet-maker. Well, one day I was just sweeping out the shop before shutting up when the angel of the Lord came in. I didn't know who it was at first. "Just in time," I said. "What can I do for you?" Then I noticed that all about him there was a red flame and a circle of flame over his head, same as I've been telling you. Then he told me how the Lord had numbered His elect and the day of tribulation was at hand. "Kill and spare not," he says. I'd not been sleeping well for some time before this. I'd been worrying about my soul and whether I was saved. Well, all that night I thought of what the angel had told me. I didn't see his meaning, not at first, same as you wouldn't. Then it all came to me in a flash. Unworthy that I am, I am the Lord's appointed, said the carpenter. 'I am the sword of Israel; I am the lion of the Lord's elect.
'And did you kill anybody? asked Paul.
'Unworthy that I am, I smote the Philistine; in the name of the Lord of hosts, I struck off his head. It was for a sign of Israel. And now I am gone into captivity, and the mirth is turned into weeping, but the Lord shall deliver me in His appointed time. Woe unto the Philistine in that day! woe unto the uncircumcised! It were better that a stone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the depths of the sea.
The warder rang his bell. 'Inside, you two! he shouted.
'Any complaints? asked the Governor on his rounds.
'Yes, sir, said Paul.
The Governor looked at him intently. 'Are you the man I put under special treatment?
'Yes, sir.
'Then it's ridiculous to complain. What is it?
'I have reason to believe that the man I have to take exercise with is a dangerous lunatic.
'Complaints by one prisoner about another can only be considered when substantiated by the evidence of a warder or of two other prisoners, said the Chief Warder.
'Quite right, said the Governor. 'I never heard a more ridiculous complaint. All crime is a form of insanity. I myself chose the prisoner with whom you exercise. I chose him for his peculiar suitability. Let me hear no more on this subject, please.
That afternoon Paul spent another disquieting half-hour on the square.
'I've had another vision, said the mystical homicide. 'But I don't yet know quite what it portends. No doubt I shall be told.
'Was it a very beautiful vision? asked Paul.
'No words can describe the splendour of it. It was all crimson and wet like blood. I saw the whole prison as if it were carved of ruby, hard and glittering, and the warders and the prisoners creeping in and out like little red ladybirds. And then as I watched all the ruby became soft and wet, like a great sponge soaked in wine, and it was dripping and melting into a great lake of scarlet. Then I woke up. I don't know the meaning of it yet, but I feel that the hand of the Lord is hanging over this prison. D'you ever feel like that, as though it were built in the jaws of a beast? I sometimes dream of a great red tunnel like the throat of a beast and men running down it, sometimes one by one and sometimes in great crowds, running town the throat of the beast, and the breath of the beast is like the blast of a furnace. D'you ever feel like that?
'I'm afraid not, said Paul. 'Have they given you an interesting library book?
'Lady Almina's Secret, said the lion of the Lord's elect. 'Pretty soft stuff, old‑fashioned, too. But I keep reading the Bible. There's a lot of killing in that.
'Dear me, you seem to think about killing a great deal.
'I do. It's my mission, you see, said the big man simply.
* * *
Sir Wilfred Lucas-Dockery felt very much like Solomon at ten o'clock every morning of the week except Sunday. It was then that he sat in judgement upon the cases of misconduct among the prisoners that were brought to his notice. From his chair Colonel MacAdder had delivered sentence in undeviating accordance with the spirit and the letter of the Standing Orders Concerning the Government of Her Majesty's Prisons, dispensing automatic justice like a slot machine; in went the offence; out came the punishment. Not so Wilfred Lucas‑Dockery. Never, he felt, was his mind more alert or resourceful or his vast accumulation of knowledge more available than at his little court of summary justice. 'No one knows what to expect, complained warders and prisoners alike.
'Justice, said Sir Wilfred, 'is the capacity for regarding each case as an entirely new problem. After a few months of his administration, Sir Wilfred was able to point with some pride to a marked diminution in the number of cases brought before him.
One morning, soon after Paul began on his special régime of reclamation, his companion was called up before the Governor.
'God bless my soul! said Sir Wilfred; 'that's the man I put on special treatment. What is he here for?
'I was on night duty last night between the hours of 8 p.m. and 4 a.m., testified the warder in a sing‑song voice, 'when my attention was attracted by sounds of agitation coming from the prisoner's cell. Upon going to the observation hole I observed the prisoner pacing up and down his cell in a state of high excitement. In one hand he held his Bible, and in the other a piece of wood which he had broken from his stool. His eyes were staring; he was breathing heavily, and at times muttering verses of the Bible. I remonstrated with the prisoner when he addressed me in terms prejudicial to good discipline.
'What are the words complained of? asked the Chief Warder.
'He called me a Moabite, an abomination of Moab, a wash‑pot, an unclean thing, an uncircumcised Moabite, an idolater, and a whore of Babylon, sir.
'I see. What do you advise, officer?
'A clear case of insubordination, sir, said the Chief Warder. 'Try him on No. 1 diet for a bit.
But when he asked the Chief Warder's opinion, Sir Wilfred was not really seeking advice. He liked to emphasize in his own mind, and perhaps that of the prisoner's, the difference between the official view and his own. 'What would you say was the most significant part of the evidence? he asked.
The Chief Warder considered. 'I think whore of Babylon, on the whole, sir.
Sir Wilfred smiled as a conjurer may who has forced the right card.
'Now I, he said, 'am of different opinion. It may surprise you, but I should say that the significant thing about this case was the fact that the prisoner held a piece of the stool.
'Destruction of prison property, said the Chief Warder. 'Yes, that's pretty bad.
'Now what was your profession before conviction? asked the Governor, turning to the prisoner.
'Carpenter, sir.
'I knew it, said the Governor triumphantly. 'We have another case of the frustrated creative urge. Now listen, my man. It is very wrong of you to insult the officer, who is clearly none of the things you mentioned. He symbolizes the just disapproval of society and is, like all the prison staff, a member of the Church of England. But I understand your difficulty. You have been used to creative craftsmanship, have you not, and you find prison life deprives you of the means of self‑expression, and your energies find vent in these foolish outbursts? I will see to it that a bench and a set of carpenter's tools are provided for you. The first thing you shall do is to mend the piece of furniture you so wantonly destroyed. After that we will find other work for you in your old trade. You may go. Get to the cause of the trouble, Sir Wilfred added when the prisoner was led away; 'your Standing Orders may repress the symptoms; they do not probe to the underlying cause.
* * *
Two days later the prison was in a state of intense excitement. Something had happened. Paul woke as the bell rang at the usual time, but it was nearly half an hour before the doors were unlocked. He heard the warder's 'Slops outside! getting nearer and nearer, interjected with an occasional 'Don't ask questions, 'Mind your own business, or a sinister 'You'll know soon enough, in reply to the prisoner's questions. They, too, had sensed something unusual. Perhaps it was an outbreak of some disease ‑ spotted fever, Paul thought, or a national disaster in the world outside ‑ a war or revolution. In their enforced silence the nerves of all the men were tightened to an acuteness of perception. Paul read wholesale massacres in the warder's face.
'Anything wrong? he asked.
'I should bleeding well say there was, said the warder, 'and the next man as asks me a question is going to cop it hot.
Paul began scrubbing out his cell. Dissatisfied curiosity contended in his thoughts with irritation at this interruption of routine. Two warders passed his door talking.
'I don't say I'm not sorry for the poor bird. All I says is, it was time the Governor had a lesson.
'It might have been one of us, said the other warder in a hushed voice.
Breakfast arrived. As the hand appeared at his door Paul whispered: 'What's happened?
'Why, ain't you 'eard? There's been a murder, shocking bloodthirsty.
'Get on there, roared the warder in charge of the landing.
So the Governor had been murdered, thought Paul; he had been a rnischievous old bore. Still, it was very disturbing, for the news of a murder which was barely noticed in the gay world of trams and tubes and boxing-matches caused an electric terror in this community of silent men. The interval between breakfast and chapel seemed interminable. At last the bell went. The doors were opened again. They marched in silence to the chapel. As it happened, Philbrick was in the next seat to Paul. The warders sat on raised seats, watchful for any attempt at conversation. The hymn was the recognized time for the exchange of gossip. Paul waited for it impatiently. Clearly it was not the Governor who had been murdered. He stood on the chancel steps, Prayerbook in hand. Mr Prendergast was nowhere to be seen. The Governor conducted the service. The Medical Officer read the lessons, stumbling heavily over the longer words. Where was Mr Prendergast?
At last the hymn was announced. The organ struck up, played with great feeling by a prisoner who until his conviction had been assistant organist at a Welsh cathedral. All over the chapel the men filled their chests for a burst of conversation.
'O God, our help in ages past, sang Paul.
'Where's Prendergast to‑day?
'What, ain't you 'eard? 'e's been done in.
'And our eternal home.
'Old Prendy went to see a chap
What said he'd seen a ghost;
Well, he was dippy, and he'd got
A mallet and a saw.
'Who let the madman have the things?
'The Governor; who d'you think?
He asked to be a carpenter,
He sawed off Prendy's head.
'A pal of mine what lives next door,
'E 'eard it 'appening;
The warder must 'ave 'eard it too,
'E didn't interfere.
'Time, like an ever‑rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away.
'Poor Prendy 'ollered fit to kill
For nearly 'alf an hour.
'Damned lucky it was Prendergast,
Might 'ave been you or me!
The warder says ‑ and I agree -
It serves the Governor right.
' Amen.
From all points of view it was lucky that the madman had chosen Mr Prendergast for attack. Some people even suggested that the choice had been made in a more responsible quarter. The death of a prisoner or warder would have called for a Home Office inquiry which might seriously have discouraged the Lucas‑Dockery reforms and also reflected some discredit upon the administration of the Chief Warder. Mr Prendergast's death passed almost unnoticed. His assassin was removed to Broadmoor, and the life of the prison went on smoothly. It was observed, however, that the Chief Warder seemed to have more influence with his superior than he had had before. Sir Wilfred concentrated his attention upon the statistics, and the life of the prison was equitably conducted under the Standing Orders. It was quite like it had been in old MacAdder's day, the warders observed. But Paul did not reap the benefits of this happy reversion to tradition, because some few days later he was removed with a band of others to the Convict Settlement at Egdon Heath.