"I know that there are men and men here, the same as anywhere.
If a man knows how to use these things and wants to be clean, I wouldn't be one to put anything in his way."
The new overseer with whom Cowperwood had to deal was a very different person from Elias Chapin.
His name was Walter Bonhag, and he was not more than thirty-seven years of age—a big, flabby sort of person with a crafty mind, whose principal object in life was to see that this prison situation as he found it should furnish him a better income than his normal salary provided.
A close study of Bonhag would have seemed to indicate that he was a stool-pigeon of Desmas, but this was really not true except in a limited way.
Because Bonhag was shrewd and sycophantic, quick to see a point in his or anybody else's favor, Desmas instinctively realized that he was the kind of man who could be trusted to be lenient on order or suggestion.
That is, if Desmas had the least interest in a prisoner he need scarcely say so much to Bonhag; he might merely suggest that this man was used to a different kind of life, or that, because of some past experience, it might go hard with him if he were handled roughly; and Bonhag would strain himself to be pleasant.
The trouble was that to a shrewd man of any refinement his attentions were objectionable, being obviously offered for a purpose, and to a poor or ignorant man they were brutal and contemptuous.
He had built up an extra income for himself inside the prison by selling the prisoners extra allowances of things which he secretly brought into the prison.
It was strictly against the rules, in theory at least, to bring in anything which was not sold in the store-room—tobacco, writing paper, pens, ink, whisky, cigars, or delicacies of any kind.
On the other hand, and excellently well for him, it was true that tobacco of an inferior grade was provided, as well as wretched pens, ink and paper, so that no self-respecting man, if he could help it, would endure them.
Whisky was not allowed at all, and delicacies were abhorred as indicating rank favoritism; nevertheless, they were brought in.
If a prisoner had the money and was willing to see that Bonhag secured something for his trouble, almost anything would be forthcoming.
Also the privilege of being sent into the general yard as a "trusty," or being allowed to stay in the little private yard which some cells possessed, longer than the half-hour ordinarily permitted, was sold.
One of the things curiously enough at this time, which worked in Cowperwood's favor, was the fact that Bonhag was friendly with the overseer who had Stener in charge, and Stener, because of his political friends, was being liberally treated, and Bonhag knew of this.
He was not a careful reader of newspapers, nor had he any intellectual grasp of important events; but he knew by now that both Stener and Cowperwood were, or had been, individuals of great importance in the community; also that Cowperwood had been the more important of the two.
Better yet, as Bonhag now heard, Cowperwood still had money.
Some prisoner, who was permitted to read the paper, told him so.
And so, entirely aside from Warden Desmas's recommendation, which was given in a very quiet, noncommittal way, Bonhag was interested to see what he could do for Cowperwood for a price.
The day Cowperwood was installed in his new cell, Bonhag lolled up to the door, which was open, and said, in a semi-patronizing way,
"Got all your things over yet?"
It was his business to lock the door once Cowperwood was inside it.
"Yes, sir," replied Cowperwood, who had been shrewd enough to get the new overseer's name from Chapin; "this is Mr. Bonhag, I presume?"
"That's me," replied Bonhag, not a little flattered by the recognition, but still purely interested by the practical side of this encounter.
He was anxious to study Cowperwood, to see what type of man he was.
"You'll find it a little different down here from up there," observed Bonhag.
"It ain't so stuffy.
These doors out in the yards make a difference."
"Oh, yes," said Cowperwood, observantly and shrewdly, "that is the yard Mr. Desmas spoke of."
At the mention of the magic name, if Bonhag had been a horse, his ears would have been seen to lift.
For, of course, if Cowperwood was so friendly with Desmas that the latter had described to him the type of cell he was to have beforehand, it behooved Bonhag to be especially careful.
"Yes, that's it, but it ain't much," he observed. "They only allow a half-hour a day in it.
Still it would be all right if a person could stay out there longer."
This was his first hint at graft, favoritism; and Cowperwood distinctly caught the sound of it in his voice.
"That's too bad," he said. "I don't suppose good conduct helps a person to get more."
He waited to hear a reply, but instead Bonhag continued with:
"I'd better teach you your new trade now.
You've got to learn to cane chairs, so the warden says.
If you want, we can begin right away."
But without waiting for Cowperwood to acquiesce, he went off, returning after a time with three unvarnished frames of chairs and a bundle of cane strips or withes, which he deposited on the floor.
Having so done—and with a flourish—he now continued:
"Now I'll show you if you'll watch me," and he began showing Cowperwood how the strips were to be laced through the apertures on either side, cut, and fastened with little hickory pegs.
This done, he brought a forcing awl, a small hammer, a box of pegs, and a pair of clippers.
After several brief demonstrations with different strips, as to how the geometric forms were designed, he allowed Cowperwood to take the matter in hand, watching over his shoulder.
The financier, quick at anything, manual or mental, went at it in his customary energetic fashion, and in five minutes demonstrated to Bonhag that, barring skill and speed, which could only come with practice, he could do it as well as another.
"You'll make out all right," said Bonhag.
"You're supposed to do ten of those a day.
We won't count the next few days, though, until you get your hand in.
After that I'll come around and see how you're getting along.
You understand about the towel on the door, don't you?" he inquired.