I did not wait on courtesy.
"Hello," I tapped "Hello, stranger," Morrell tapped back; and, from Oppenheimer, "Welcome to our city." They were curious to know who I was, how long I was condemned to solitary, and why I had been so condemned.

But all this I put to the side in order first to learn their system of changing the code initial.
After I had this clear, we talked.

It was a great day, for the two lifers had become three, although they accepted me only on probation.

As they told me long after, they feared I might be a stool placed there to work a frame-up on them.

It had been done before, to Oppenheimer, and he had paid dearly for the confidence he reposed in Warden Atherton's tool.
To my surprise--yes, to my elation be it said--both my fellow-prisoners knew me through my record as an incorrigible.