atlantic guardian

A Short Story
by ART HARNETT
Nick Pirgello was
tough. He wasn't
going to weaken as
he walked that
last long mile .
IS Majesty's Penitentiary in
H the city of St. John's made a
sombre picture against the grey,
overcast sky on a cool autumn
afternoon in the year of our Lord,
nineteen hundred and forty eight.
Overlooking the shimmering surface
of Quidi Vidi Lake, the prison
was known both to the inmates,
and to the public, as the Lakeside
Hotel. Within its high stone walls
were housed the soul-sick men
and women from whom society
was exacting its retribution. It
""as a soul sickness compounded
of hate, cynicism and disillusion.
The great majority were serving
time (rom one to two years. Only
a few times had murder been listed
in the books, and fewer times
still had capital punishment been
carried Qut within its walls.
Because of this rarity there was
a hushed stillness around the
buildings. The usual raucous catcalls
exchanged between inmates
were absent. The guards, whenever
they entered the prison yard,
did so with a hurried step, not lingering
to gaze at what met their
eyes there. Squarely in the middle
of the yard was a rough wooden
platform surmounted by two posts
with a crossbeam at the top. The
structure was newly erected, the
galvanized heads of the nails still
retaining their rust-proof shine. A
very elementary structure retain-
ATLANTIC GUARDIAN