Branded

earin

heart-mellowing recollection. In the morning it was old John Runnels himself who brought me my cell breakfast, and he did it to spare me th

night, but I told 'em nary," he confided. "I wasn't allowin' to have 'em jerk you out of your ho

l bitter enough to say. And then: "Tell me, if you c

"but I can tell you what I heard. They say you've been takin' the bank's

the warrant f

With

n my childhood, before my father had got upon his feet, Withers had planned to foreclose a mortgage on the home farm, making the hampering of my father so th

lroad me out of town last night: I supp

ch up with the procession. I don't know what in Sam Hill you wanted to go and bu'st yourself up for, this way, but I'm owin' it to

was altogether unlikely that they would see any of the home newspapers, for some time, at least, and any anxiety on that score might be dismissed, or at all events postponed. The most pressing

nail. At one stroke Abel Geddis had cancelled all my obligations to him. At the very moment when I was promis

e the first and worst of a long series of wretched mistakes.

ason. Whitredge was known throughout our end of the State as a criminal lawyer, shrewd, unscrupulous, and with a reputation built up entirely upon his singular s

and with an eye like that of a fish. To my consternation and keen disheartenment he assumed my guilt from the moment the cell do

one else; and his use of the bare surname, when he had known me from boyhood, cut me like a knife. "You can't expect me to do anything for you unless

ocence while Whitredge used every trick and wile known to his craft to entr

n the way of business, and that you knew all about the capitalization scheme they were trying to put over," was Whitredge's summing up of the situation. "You'll

r the turnkey, and then wheele

e ready money hid away somewh

ded that my savings were all in

er-always providing your account hasn't already been attached to apply on the shortag

of my friends would rally to my support in the time of trouble. They came, possibly a half-dozen of

iah. One and all, they had already tried and condemned me unheard, and though there were clammy-handed offers of assistance they were purely perfunctory, as I could see, and there was never a man of them all to say heartily, "Bert Weybur

erienced to make allowances for that deathless trait in human nature-in all animate nature-which

was standing at the little grated window when I heard footsteps in the corridor. I thought it was Whitredge coming back, and was morose enough not to

ith that she dropped upon the co

e have the chance to hold a mirror up to Agatha Geddis; a mirror that would reflect her soul and show her what a mean and shriveled t

d that I should be arrested and prosecuted; and, thus far, her father had not been able to make him listen to reason. But it would come out all right in the end, if I would only be patient and wait. Mr. Whitredge had been up t

of the Glendale police station. As she talked, my heart grew putty-soft again. As before, she dwelt upon the terrible consequences, the awful disgrace, the wreck of her happiness, and all

may be said that, at this earlier period, she was merely a loosely bound fagot of evil potentialities. Doubtless the threatened cataclysm appeared sufficiently terrifying to her, and she was willing to use any means that might o

second visit to my cell, and this time his attitude was ent

the responsibility to Mr. Geddis. I won't say that something couldn't be done along that line; not to do you any good, you understand, but to do other folks a lot of harm. You could probably roil the water and stir up the mud pretty badly for all conc

advise me to plea

ely advising you not to make the fight vindictive. If you don't, I'm in

o be tried and condemned for a crime of which I was innocent. Then the distorted sense of honor got in i

it in some way," I returned. "

of yours in the past, Bert," the lawyer s

can't blame me for thinking a little of my mother and sister, and myself. You know

chin and looked past me out

-"without any real criminal intention, and if we can prove that you didn't reap any monetary benefit from the transfer of the mining st

e to do," I said, half-doubtfully; and as he w

erely to save you the humiliation of appearing in a

ion I shan't have a chanc

here now, prepared to refuse the company's consent in the matter of ball. That is another reason why, acting for you, I have waived the preliminary. Without the guaranty

t am I to

ou, the cause will probably be tried at the present term of court. There need be nothing humiliating or embarrassing for you here in Glend

ould never again want to see anybody that I knew. And thus I made t

ill go with me up to Mrs. Thompson's so tha

e train, and it can drive around by your boarding-house. But you mustn't try to run away

n him as qui

ng to give me a hint that I'd

that he was listening to determine whether or not there was any one

stiffly. "If you knew the first letter of the legal alphab

Cy Whitredge; and I'm another man and in trouble. Can't you d

shook his

ldn't get very far without it. I shouldn't even think of it, if I were you. Dwelling on a thing like that sometimes gives it a chance to get hold of you. But this is all foolishness, of course. You are going to Jefferson, and you'll take yo

rice was now the most desirable thing on earth-in the universe, for that matter. It was facilely easy to picture a future in some far distant corner of the country where I might begin all over again and make good. Other men ha

h one carrying me a little nearer to the brink of decision. As I have said, I had money of my own in the bank vault; much more than enough to bribe easy-going Sam Jorkins, the constable who, as Whitredge had said, was to take me to Jefferson. I weighed and measured all the chance

that the best I could hope for in a court trial would be a light sentence. As train-time drew near, the obsession pushed

shly that it would be of no use for me to try to bribe honest Sam Jorkins; that this was the fatal weakness in my plan of escape. Hence, I could have shouted for joy when Run

over to the county ja-to the sheriff's office," said Runnels. "I've told

, I ain't takin' no chances-not me!" and with that he whipped

go along with Bertie, myself, if only to see to it that he gets a fair show

wanted to go around by way of my boa

his thumb toward a suitcase in the seat beside the driver of the hac

ing along on our way to the railroad station. Then, without warning, he

d alive. There was a fierce grapple in the interior of the darkened carriage-fierce but silent-and the blood sang in my veins when I found that I was more than a match for the scar-faced depu

I warned him; and then I got speech with the driver, a squat,

or-and be quick about it!" I called

Who's payin' me for the side-

"There's money in it for

hack ground its wheels against the curb at the side door of the bank building. With the pistol at his ribs I pushed the deputy out ahead of me

ing stirring in the town, and in the midnight silence the ticking of the clock on the wall over Abel Geddis's desk crashed into the stillness like the blows of

lectric-lighted and large enough to serve the double purpose of a bank strong-room and a safety deposit. Shoving the deputy into a corner I opene

y was sayin' over at Jefferson that you was a Sunday-school sup'rin

defeat pretty easily, but there was no time

light, darted out, slammed the vault door and shot the bolts. For a few hours at least, during the

nk of on the spur of the moment. In the next county, at a distance of thirty-odd miles, there was another railroad. If I coul

ville, saying that he could set me down in the village before daylight. Oddly enough, he made no comment on the absence of the deputy, and seemed quite as willing to haul on

k-clack of the horses' hoofs on the limestone pike and the steady rumbling of the wheels quieted me. Reflecting that I had had little sleep the night before, and

iage was stopped in a town street and in front of a brick building with barred windows. While I was blinking and rubbing my eyes i

Ab Withers seems to know you better than most of us do, Bert. He told me I'd better not risk you on the train with just one Glendale con

him b

imb down out o' that and

his seat in the hack, that I realized fully what had happened. Instead of taking me to Vilasville, the driver, who