“He is instructed to avail himself of your zeal and knowledge.
“Be pleased to follow this course. Select for him the plainer facts of your case. If on the face of the business he sees ground for deeper inquiry, a commission will sit upon the jail, and meanwhile all suspected officers will be suspended. You will consider yourself still in direct correspondence with this office, but it is requested, on account of the mass of matter daily submitted to us, that your communications may be confined to facts, and those stated as concisely as possible.”
On reading this Mr. Eden colored with shame as well as pleasure. “How gentleman-like all this is!” thought he. “How calm and superior to me, who, since I had the jaundice, am always lowering my office by getting into a heat! And I to threaten this noble, dignified creature with the _Times_. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself. Yet what could I do? I had tried everything short of bullying and failed. But I now suspect ---- never saw my two first letters. Doubtless the rotten system of our public offices is more to blame than this noble fellow.”
Thus accusing himself Mr. Eden returned with somewhat feeble steps to the jail. One of the first prisoners he visited was Thomas Robinson. He found that prisoner in the attitude of which he thought he had cured him, coiled up like a snake, moody and wretched. The man turned round with a very bad expression on his face, which soon gave way to a look of joy. He uttered a loud exclamation, and springing unguardedly up, dropped a brickbat which rolled toward Mr. Eden and nearly hit him.
Robinson looked confused, and his eyes rose and fell from Mr. Eden's face to the brickbat.
“Not so well as before you fell ill, sir. It has been hard times with us poor fellows since we lost you.”
“You have just come back in time to save a life or two. There is a boy called Josephs. I hope the day won't go over without your visiting him, for they are killing him by inches.”
“I shall be better now,” replied the thief, looking at him affectionately.
“Oh! I wasn't going to do any ill with it.”
“Then why that guilty look when you dropped it. Come, now--I am in no humor to be hard upon you. Were you going to make some more cards?”