The Argosy, Vol. 82 No. 2 — page 93: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

GETTING I was just going to offer it to the Turner woman this afternoon, when—when things began to happen. Maybe he—” “Yes, and I have another idea!” Mr. Farnham said. “Hey, there!” ‘What on earth do you want now?” the law demanded. “Just another minute’s talk with you, old man,” the prisoner answered, in quite honeyed tones. “Come over here. I don’t want to shout this. Where are you now?” “Right here,’ Thornton Hill said briefly, flashing his light for a moment. “T have a little scheme that will do no harm to anybody and a great deal of good to some of us,” the prisoner went on. “You see, officer, this whole thing is a mistake, and one for which | alone am to blame. Just what happened I'll tell you later on, when everything is settled happily, and you'll laugh with me; but for the present it is a terrible thing for a girl like my sister to be locked in a cell.” “Too bad she didn’t think of it sooner,” was the law’s comment on this. ‘““That’s your view, of course, because you don’t understand,” Mr. Farnham went on, “but neither view alters the main facet. Id like to have you let Miss Fenwick out of here!” “TI don’t doubt it, young feller!” the con- stable guffawed suddenly. ‘And it can be managed in just this way,” Farnham continued, patiently and persua- sively. ‘She has rings with about—er— five hundred dollars’ worth of stones in them, I believe. I have two hundred dol- lars’ worth of watch. We'll give you that seven hundred dollars’ worth of jewelry, my friend, and the story you'll tell to account for her escape is just this: I attacked you, and while you were fighting me _ she escaped! See?” concluded Mr. Farnham, brightly, almost hopefully. “T see, but—” “And ‘you can take a club or something and bruise me up wherever it shows,” the prisoner added. ‘“‘I don’t mind a particle if you knock me senseless and split my skull, only—let her out!” There was naught but ominous silence from the constable’s quarter. Then Jane felt called upon-to do her little best. “T will not permit that,” said she, “but I can promise you something even better, con- stable. Set us both free and—” “Do what?” exploded Thornton Hill. “Set us both free and I will send you ten AWAY FROM THOMPSON. 275 thousand dollars before to-morrow .night— ten thousand dollars in actual money, placed in your_hand as privately as you like by a messenger from my bank!” ‘Or take the jewelry and let her go alone and that promise still holds good!”- Mr. Farnham cried desperately. Still there was only heavy silence for a long, long time. “Will you—do that?” Jane asked thinly. The voice of the law echoed coldly: “Ts they anything more either of you wanter say to me before I lock you up for the night?” “Will you—” ‘Because if they is, you better not say it!”’ the constable informed them furiously. ‘“T dunno what kind o’ crooked police they have in the towns you usually work, but this time you’ve hit an officer that can’t be bribed.” } “But ten thousand dollars!” Mr. Farn- ham choked. “Ten thou—” ‘““No, and ten million wouldn’t be no temptation to me, even if I stood a chance of getting it,’ the grim voice concluded. ‘““And they ain’t just ten charges against you two now—they’s eleven! Attempting to bribe an officer of the law, that’s the eleventh! Good night!” This time the door slammed violently! To their stricken ears came the angry scrape of the key and the outraged mutter- ings of an honest man sore affronted. Then Mr. Hill’s heavy step thumped methodically down the path—and if anything Batesford’s night was really a little stiller thap when they had-studied it first. Wilbur Farnham, having dropped to the edge of a pallet sufficiently hard to meas- ure up to the reputation of similar pallets, stared unseeingly into the gloom for a little, stunned, yet with brain racing about wildly, like a rat in a cage, comprehending fully, yet wholly unable to realize the thing that had overtaken them! Except for the construction a prejudiced and unfriendly mind might have put upon that burglary, they were innocent of any intent at wrong-doing; they were normal, usually sane, well-bred and well-educated young people of the better sort; neither of them had ever so much as gazed upon @ real, live criminal at close range. And yet they were locked up here in Batesford with eleven assorted charges against them; and even though he tried to force his native optimism up to the pitch of Go NOOKS AMUG (E@