This is the true punishment--the worst punishment which man inflicts
upon his fellow--the felony of public opinion. The curse of society is
no unfit illustration of that ban which its faith holds forth as the
penal doom of the future. There is no return!"
The dialogue, mixed up thus, throughout, with the utterance of opinions
on the part of the outlaw, many of which were true or founded in truth,
yet coupled with many false deductions--was devoted, for some little
while longer, to the discussion of their various necessities and plans
for the future. The night had considerably advanced in this way, when,
of a sudden, their ears were assailed with an eldritch screech, like
that of the owl, issuing from one of the several cells around them.
The quick sense of Rivers immediately discerned the voice of the idiot,
and without hesitation he proceeded to that division of the rock which
contained the two prisoners. To each of these apartments had been
assigned a sentinel, or watch, whose own place of abode--while covered
completely and from sight, and in all respects furnishing a dwelling,
though rather a confined one for himself--enabled him to attend to the
duty assigned him without himself being seen.
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