Page:The Ball and the Cross.djvu/348

But he answered, after all, in his old defiant style: “Alone with God, were you? And I suppose you found his Majesty’s society rather monotonous?”

“Oh, no,” said MacIan, and his voice shuddered; “it was a great deal too exciting.”

After a very long silence the voice of MacIan said: “What do you really hate most in your place?”

“You’d think I was really mad if I told you,” answered Turnbull, bitterly.

“Then I expect it’s the same as mine,” said the other voice.

“I am sure it’s not the same as anybody’s,” said Turnbull, “for it has no rhyme or reason. Perhaps my brain really has gone, but I detest that iron spike in the left wall more than the damned desolation or the damned cocoa. Have you got one in your cell?”

“Not now,” replied MacIan with serenity. “I’ve pulled it out.”

His fellow-prisoner could only repeat the words.

“I pulled it out the other day when I was off my head,” continued the tranquil Highland voice. “It looked so unnecessary.”