"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 050 - The Green Box" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

The upper man leaned over the edge of the bunk. His face, crafty as it was hardened, formed a marked
contrast to the peaked countenance of the prisoner below.

"What is it, Ferris?" came the cautious question.

"I - I'm feeling worse." The wheezy man gasped as he spoke. "I - I can't hold out - much longer."

"You'll be all right tomorrow." Sammy's tone was encouraging. "Take it easy, old fellow. They're going to
ship you to the hospital tomorrow. You'll feel like a new man, Ferris."

"Ferris!" The man below gasped his own name. "Ferris - Ferris Legrand. That's my name, isn't it?"

"Sure it is." The man above laughed. "Ferris Legrand - that's you. Sam Fulwell - that's me."

"All right, Sammy." Legrand sighed contentedly. "If it wasn't for you, I'd be done. Done, I tell you!
Everything has been taken from me here - even my name. Ferris Legrand - that's not my name. I'm nine -
six - three - eight. That's it, Sammy. Convict nine - six - three - eight -"

"Forget it," growled the man above. "That doesn't mean anything, Ferris. It's just like a telephone number
or a street address. Forget it."

"I can't forget it! Nine - six -"

A warning hiss from above. The moaning man became silent. His cellmate had detected a sound. The
keenness of his ears was proven a second later.

Click - click - click -

The pacing footsteps of a guard sounded with approaching monotony. A bulky man appeared outside the
cell door. He shot the rays of a flashlight into the little room. He saw two prisoners lying with closed eyes.
He paced on toward another cell and stopped for a second inspection.

Click - click - click -

THE receding beats announced the guard's departure along his rounds. The wheezy voice began again
from the bunk below. Its tones were scarcely audible. The man above leaned further over the edge.

"Sammy" - Legrand's words were disjointed. "Don't forget - all that I told you. You - you know the
place. You - you'll be out of here. You'll get - what I left there -"

"I sure will, Ferris."

"It's - it's all I managed to keep, Sammy. It's - it's worth more than - than all they took from me. They
don't know about it, Sammy! You're the only person that I ever told -"

"Easy, Ferris. You can count on me."

"Even Mildred doesn't know," gasped Legrand. "My - my poor daughter. I was - was afraid to tell her. I
wouldn't have told you, Sammy - except that I'm going to die. I - I had to count on you -"
"You'll be all right." The man above was studying Ferris Legrand's pale face. Tired eyes had closed.