Let me alone!" Jim, more convinced than ever, now did the wisest thing he could in leaving the cell without another word.
"Well," said the turnkey, with a half-triumphant grin, as they turned to leave the gallery, "wasn't I right?
Didn't he give you half a dozen as pretty bits of language as you ever heard ?" "Do not speak to me about it, please," replied Jim, more tartly than he had been ever known to speak to any one.
He did not return to the gaol for a week; and then the first visit he paid was to the new prisoner's cell.
He entered it anxiously, and not without misgivings.

Tom Drift was sitting on his little bench with his head in his hands.
"May I come in ?" said Jim, nervously.
Tom neither spoke nor raised his head; and Jim quietly stepped in.

It was evident the interview of a week ago had had its effect on Tom Drift.
He seemed as he sat there like a man who would fain lose himself if he only knew how.

He never once raised his head from his hands or uttered a syllable while Jim sat and talked to him.

The latter knew better than to return to the topic which had so startled the prisoner a week ago, and contented himself with mere kindly talk and the reading of a short passage of Scripture.