I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!

XXIII. Preparation for a Daring Break

C H A P T E R X X I I I Preparation for a Daring Break UCH WAS my feeling when I left the camp on the morning of September 1 to go to work in the vicinity of Mountville, Georgia, about seventy-five miles from Atlanta. Right here let me explain that a part, and a very important part, of my plan to escape had already, at this point, been accomplished. Secreted in my clothes I had $150 in cash wrapped into a tight wad, the bills being in the following denominations: two fifties, four tens, and two fives. The reason for these particular denominations will become apparent to the reader a little later. As to how I secured this money and from whom—that I cannot tell. To do so would be betraying the person who helped me at a time when the obtaining of this money meant almost the difference between life and death to me. It was a very hot day, and as we passed a small country store, I requested permission to buy some cold "dopes" for myself and the guard. My request was granted and one of the guards accompanied me into the store. While making the purchase, the storekeeper discovered that I was the notorious bandit from Chicago who had made good, become wealthy and returned to the chain gang and was trying to get paroled. The storekeeper asked me 203 s 204 / Am A fugitive what chances I thought I had of obtaining freedom. I told him frankly that I did not know. This storekeeper was an exception, however, and answered me as frankly, saying that he would like to see me free, as he thought the State of Georgia was doing me a grave injustice. Sitting in a corner of the store was a man, a typical product of Georgia, dressed in overalls and cotton shirt and big straw hat, bronzed by years under the Georgia sun. I had not noticed him until he voluntarily spoke up: "Gosh darn it, I'd like to seeyou get out, even if you are a Yankee. If I had an airplane, I'd take you off this chain gang and land you up the country and I know you'd pay me well/' "Without directly looking at him, I glanced out of the corner of my eye and mentally fixed him in my mind for future identification. I realized that he did not intend to say openly that he would take me off the chain gang, but I knew that he had spoken, without thinking, the thoughts that were in his subconscious mind, and that here was a man who needed money, because,thinking I was wealthy, he mentioned the fact that I would pay him well. All of these thoughts went through my mind like aflash of lightning asI stood there in the store. I noticed that his statement went for what he meant it to be, merely a jest, by both the guard and the proprietor of the store. Late that afternoon, while working on the road from Mountville, I glanced up from my work and noticed this same individual walking down the road toward where we were working. The guards had for some time been lulled into a senseof security by the fact that I had been in prison Preparation for a Break 205 a year, and because I had always steadfastly maintained to them that I would never try to escape and would make every day of my time if Georgia demanded it. Because of the immense publicity given my case and the great number of natives who used to come to the place where we were working just to seeme, the guards would overlook the violation of their speaking to me. As he approached us, I maneuvered at my work to that side of the road on which he was walking so that he would be compelled to pass close to me as he went by us. Before he reached me, he stopped to speak to one of the guards. After a few minutes he was beside me and I looked up at him. "Hello," I said. "Hello, yourself. How are you getting along?" he replied . "Well, for a man in a chain gang, I'm getting along pretty good. But prison under any conditions is prison still. I noticed what you said in the store...