Adam's Escape and Robbery

Adam Trask's escape from a Florida road gang and his subsequent robbery of a a store in Valdosta, Georgia, mark a decisive turning point in his life, transforming him from a passive victim of the justice system into a fugitive who takes calculated, desperate action to reclaim his freedom and reconnect with his brother Charles.

Background and Imprisonment

After years of wandering as a bindlestiff, Adam was picked up by sheriff's men near Tallahassee, judged a vagrant, and sentenced to six months on a road gang. The roads were built by such men, and Adam learned how guards could consider other men as beasts. A clean face or an open eye raised to meet an eye drew attention, and attention brought punishment. He learned that a man doing an ugly or brutal thing has hurt himself and must punish someone for the hurt. The savage whippings for the least stir of will or the smallest shred of dignity indicated that the guards were afraid of prisoners, and Adam knew from his years in the army that a man afraid is a dangerous animal. He drew a curtain around himself, removing expression from his face, light from his eyes, and silencing his speech. He reduced his personality to a minus, causing no stir and putting out no vibration, becoming as nearly invisible as possible. When the guards could not feel him, they were not afraid of him, and they gave him the jobs of cleaning the camps, handing out slops to the prisoners, and filling the water buckets.

The Escape

Adam waited until three days before his second release. Right after noon on that day, he filled the water buckets and went back to the little river for more. He filled his buckets with stones and sank them, then eased himself into the water and swam a long way downstream, rested, and swam farther down. He kept moving in the water until at dusk he found a place under a bank with bushes for cover. He did not get out of the water. Late in the night he heard the hounds go by, covering both sides of the river. He had rubbed his hair hard with green leaves to cover human odor. He sat in the water with his nose and eyes clear. In the morning the hounds came back, disinterested, and the men were too tired to beat the banks properly. When they were gone, Adam dug a piece of water-logged fried sowbelly out of his pocket and ate it. He had schooled himself against hurry, knowing that most men were caught bolting. It took Adam five days to cross the short distance into Georgia. He took no chances, holding back his impatience with an iron control, and was astonished at his own ability.

The Robbery

On the edge of Valdosta, Georgia, Adam lay hidden until long after midnight. He entered the town like a shadow, crept to the rear of a cheap store, and forced a window slowly so that the screws of the lock were pulled from the sun-rotted wood. He then replaced the lock but left the window open. He had to work by moonlight drifting through dirty windows. He stole a pair of cheap trousers, a white shirt, black shoes, black hat, and an oilskin raincoat, trying on each article for fit. He forced himself to make sure nothing looked disturbed before he climbed out the window. He had taken nothing which was not heavily stocked and had not even looked for the cash drawer. He lowered the window carefully and slipped from shadow to shadow in the moonlight. He lay hidden during the day and went in search of food at night—turnips, a few ears of corn from a crib, a few windfall apples—nothing that would be missed. He broke the newness of the shoes with rubbed sand and kneaded the raincoat to destroy its newness. It was three days before he got the rain he needed, or in his extreme caution felt he needed.

The Telegram and Reunion

The rain started late in the afternoon. Adam huddled under his oilskin, waiting for the dark to come, and when it did he walked through the dripping night into the town of Valdosta. His black hat was pulled down over his eyes and his yellow oilskin was strapped tight against his throat. He made his way to the station and peered through a rain-blurred window. The station agent, in green eyeshade and black alpaca worksleeves, leaned through the ticket window, talking to a friend. It was twenty minutes before the friend went away. Adam watched him off the platform, took a deep breath to calm himself, and went inside. He sent a telegram to Charles, collect, reading: "Urgent need you telegraph me one hundred dollars. Coming home. Adam." Charles, delighted with the game, devised a security question: "What did you give Father on his birthday just before you went in the army?" The answer was "A pup." Charles wondered if Adam would forget, but he did not. Adam came walking out from the village, his shirt dirty and the stolen clothes wrinkled and soiled from having been slept in for a week. Charles inspected him from head to foot, noting that he was thin and did not look prosperous. Adam admitted he had been wandering like a hobo. The escape and robbery, which Adam later confessed to Charles, revealed a side of him that Charles had never seen, and Charles felt a kind of pride in having a jailbird for a brother. Adam explained that he had waited until three days before his release because he figured he owed the state six months—that was the sentence—and he didn't feel right about cheating. He only cheated three days. He also sent the money he stole back with ten per cent interest.