Tomorrow Knight by Michael Kurland

Author:Michael Kurland [Kurland, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Venture
Published: 2019-09-02T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

O’Malley slept in a bed that night for the first time in a month. The unaccustomed softness kept him awake, and he stayed up most of the night smiling softly into the darkness. When Carl woke up O’Malley was finally asleep, but he was still smiling.

Chester A. Arthur came into the barracks while Carl was standing in line, patiently waiting his turn at the basin. “Put your coveralls on,” Chester said. “I’ve got to show you something. Where’s O’Malley?”

“Still asleep,” Carl said.

“Wake him,” Chester said, “and meet me outside.”

So Carl woke O’Malley and ducked, as O’Malley reacted with a clenched fist to being pulled from his dream.

“Oh, it’s ye, lad,” O’Malley said, sitting up and scratching his hair. “What’s happening?”

“Chester wants us outside,” Carl said. “I don’t know why. It’s ten minutes to breakfast.”

“Breakfast?” O’Malley asked, rubbing his hands together. “Now, I could use some breakfast, indeed I could. What sort of provender does this miserable island supply?”

“There are two basic breakfasts for the prisoners,” Carl said. “The first is thick corn gruel, and the second is thin corn gruel. The second is more common than the first.”

“Ye know how to excite a man’s appetite,” O’Malley told him, pulling his coveralls on. “Give me a second at the tile wall and I’ll be with ye.”

When they got outside Chester led them around two buildings and to the side of the guardhouse. “Look,” he said.

In the clearing in front of the guardhouse a line of prisoners were having leg shackles put on by a very bored pair of blacksmiths.

“For this,” O’Malley said, “ye’re having us miss our gruel? I’ve seen it before.”

“Have you?” Chester asked. “Then don’t you notice anything odd about it?”

O’Malley stared. “Nope,” he said finally. “That’s the way we did it in our little squirage jail in my sector.”

“But that wasn’t how they did it when they brought us here,” Chester said. “Remember?”

“Sure it is,” O’Malley said. “They cuffed our legs.”

“Like that?”

O’Malley stared again. “No,” he said. “Come to think of it, not like that at all. They had shiny cuffs that opened with a tiny key. Very fancy.”

“And a lot easier to open and close than those great iron rings,” Chester said.

“That’s true,” O’Malley admitted. “Then why do ye suppose they’re going back to the old way?”

“See those three gentlemen sitting across the field?” Chester asked.

“Aye. Ye mean the ones in the fancy uniforms. What of them?”

“What do you think of them, Carl?”

Carl squinted across the field at the three men, who were sitting around a low wooden table sipping from glass mugs. “Two uniforms, I would say,” Carl said. “An officer and a sergeant. The third is civilian dress of some sort, although I’ve never seen the like before.”

“If I’ve got it figured out properly,” Chester said, “they’re our tickets out of here.”

“I’m all agog,” O’Malley said without enthusiasm. “Explain yourself.”

“The second day we were here,” Chester said, “I noticed another pickup like this. As soon as the preparations are complete, those prisoners are going to be led into the guardhouse.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.