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The Ball and the Cross by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
page 253 of 309 (81%)
cell, and a brown hairy hand or two thrust in a plate of
perfectly cooked lentils and a big bowl of cocoa. He was not
underfed any more than he was underexercised or asphyxiated. He
had ample walking space, ample air, ample and even filling food.
The only objection was that he had nothing to walk towards,
nothing to feast about, and no reason whatever for drawing the
breath of life.

Even the shape of his cell especially irritated him. It was a
long, narrow parallelogram, which had a flat wall at one end and
ought to have had a flat wall at the other; but that end was
broken by a wedge or angle of space, like the prow of a ship.
After three days of silence and cocoa, this angle at the end
began to infuriate Turnbull. It maddened him to think that two
lines came together and pointed at nothing. After the fifth day
he was reckless, and poked his head into the corner. After
twenty-five days he almost broke his head against it. Then he
became quite cool and stupid again, and began to examine it like
a sort of Robinson Crusoe.

Almost unconsciously it was his instinct to examine outlets, and
he found himself paying particular attention to the row of holes
which let in the air into his last house of life. He soon
discovered that these air-holes were all the ends and mouths of
long leaden tubes which doubtless carried air from some remote
watering-place near Margate. One evening while he was engaged in
the fifth investigation he noticed something like twilight in one
of these dumb mouths, as compared with the darkness of the
others. Thrusting his finger in as far as it would go, he found a
hole and flapping edge in the tube. This he rent open and
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