Books › The Red Book 1913-04: Vol 20 Iss 6, 1913 › scan 35
Scan 35
The Red Book 1913-04: Vol 20 Iss 6, 1913
38 lines. Read by computer on 14 September 2026. Printed page 998. See the scan on archive.org.
1That evening, after the last candidate had finished, Jimmy Riley walked across the yard to his cell. Under the glaring arcs, clustered on their lofty masts, he walked. In his ears rang a phrase. He had heard it as he passed the committee on his way to his seat:
3"A headliner! The best on the bill!"
5Down there in the blue-white glare, Jimmy Riley trod—not the beaten earth of the prison yard—but on the lightest air.
7A week later, while the band was playing outside the walls, and the prison orchestra was furnishing the music in the upper yard, three convicts drifted together at a little distance from the Sunday afternoon crowd. They stood talking briefly; and before anyone observing them could have decided whether they had assembled purposely or by accident, they separated. During that interval Jonah Sheedy and his bullet-headed confederate settled two things.
9"Wot about Red Shirt?" Shang Murphy demanded as soon as he came. "Red Shirt" was Jimmy Riley's nickname, earned during that previous servitude.
11"I give him the office twice, this week, and he kept in the clear; he wont talk wit' me," Jonah Sheedy explained swiftly. The two others uttered a furious oath together.
13"Leave him be. He knows wot he wants." Sheedy's glinting eyes belied his pacific words. "We're strong without him."
15"He'll spill it, and—" Pat, the Gun, began; his face was covered with wrinkles of deadly fear.
17Sheedy cut in on him. "Stow that. He'll never stool in a thousand years. And I got me eyes on him. If he makes a crooked move, I'll cut his head off."
19"Riley's right," Shang Murphy said surely. "But what's got into him? It aint—"
21"Listen," Sheedy interrupted again. "The stuff is planted; and in t'ree days it comes in. Ye got to take care of it then. I done my end. We aint got time to gas our heads off now. Ferget Red Shirt and get busy."
23From the other end of the upper yard Jimmy Riley watched the trio gather and then separate. He scanned their faces. "Talkin' about me," he said to himself. "And dey got de plant outside. I kin see Sheedy tell ut as well as if I heard him."
25A few minutes later the line-up for dinner came. After the meal Jimmy Riley went to Number 3 Room. For the prisoners whose names were on the con-show program occupied that compartment together.
27The room was crowded. Many lay in their bunks conning their lines aloud. Several of Jimmy Riley's fellow-thespians were rehearsing. A pair of young burglars stood in the middle of the floor, hurling Weber and Fields repartee at each other. At intervals they stopped their slap-stick comedy and argued over the adaptability of lines for local hits. As Jimmy Riley entered, "I make a hit mit the womens," shrieked the short comedian.
29His tall, striped partner raised one hand. "Say. We c'n change that. Let's see. I got it! 'Make a hit mit the board.' We'll slip in some stuff about a parole and get a big laugh."
31A grey-haired old forger was practicing on a 'cello over in one corner. The contortionist, who in private life had picked pockets, was tying himself into a striped knot on the floor.
33Jimmy Riley sat on the edge of his bunk. The German comedians rattled on; the 'cello droned; in the next room the orchestra was rehearsing the big overture; the air was full of incongruous sounds: discords, brief harmonies, and German gutturals; on the floor the contortionist squirmed. Jimmy Riley neither heard nor saw. He put his square chin on the palms of his two hands and he pondered. He was weighing one end of a dilemma against the other.
35If that trio who had conferred in the upper yard could have seen him now and read his thoughts, their faith in human nature would have been shattered. For Jimmy Riley was debating over the violation of the first and greatest commandment in the crooks' decalogue: the commandment which says, "Thou shalt not stool."
37To him who recognizes no compromise, solution of ethical problems is indeed hard. Jimmy Riley had never known
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