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Show ; VAV n:lT'iV S'CWl T;"j '',:Vr"' V' (jU author of -the silver - I Wii UJQr ' VlHiMf ll-Ul j M ' BUTTERFLY," "SALLY SALT," a rrTA v- rLj "The black pea rl" etc tr r IRS. WILsSOJH WOODROW ? 9 ? 9 o ' FOURTEENTH STORY j The Irony of Justice It wn on Halloween on tho night when Tom Morrissey finished his apprenticeship nni! received n colon card as a full-fledged Journeyman printor. Willi tho card he had received a job in the bit; shop where his apprenticeship had boon served. It was a splendid job. too, for n boy of twenty a iob ihftt would soar away tho bogey of poverty which hail haunted Tom ever since tho day, two vears earlier, when his father had (lied, leaving his only son with a widowed mother and a pretty sister to support. 1 Tom Morrissey was hurrying home right gleefully from the shop when, rounding a corner, he eamo upon a group of boys who were dancing around a Halloween honilre. The blase roared merrily. Tho tuns greeted with cheers each now member of their croup ho arrived with an armful of fresh fuel. The cheers swelled to a howl of delight, as two voting follows ran toward the fire from a side street, ' i carrying between them n big wooden gate they had I dexterously lifted from Its place In front of some unguarded house. As the two gnte stealers trotted forward and cast their burden on the lire, Tom recognized one of them as Henry Rokeson, a youth several years older than himself son of the town's foremost lawyer-politician. Tom also saw what none of the bonfire-builders nt first noted. Namely, that a policeman (who evidently evident-ly had watched the gate robbers from a distance) was running tow ard the merry-makers. Before Tom could call a warning, the policeman charged down upon the lads. One of them yelled: "Beat it!" and the group melted as if by-magic. One of them Henry Rokeson dashed across tho street toward the invitingly open entrance to an alley. As he ran past Tom. his toe caught on the edge of the curb, and he sprawled headlong. Tom stooped to lift young Rokeson to his feet. But the moment's delay had been enough for the policeman police-man to overtake him. The bluecont nabbed Henry by the collar, shaking him into submission. In the ' same gesture he seized Tom Morrissey. "In the name of the law!" sputtered the officer. "Anil if either of you resist. I'll pull my gun on you. 1 saw the two of you pinch that gate." Tod did not." denied Tom, Indignantly. 'Tm just on my way from the shop. I stopped here a second sec-ond to watch " "You didn't see me do It," declared Henry Rokeson. Roke-son. "I was on my way home from my father's office, when I noticed this fellow and another man : going toward the fire, with a gate between them, when " "You saw me doing that?" gasped Tom incredulously. incredu-lously. 1 "I did," reiterated Henry, "and I'm ready to swear - ' ' to it. I" ; "Come along, the both of you !" broke in the po liceman. "You can tell it tomorrow to the judge." At the town's single police station (under the city I hall) the two boys were arraigned before a grumpy lieutenant and then consigned to the'same celi. Henry Rokeson. by means of a five-dollar tip to the doorman, had a telephone message sent to his father. Tom Morrissey, not wanting to worry his mother and sister, made no effort to send word to tkeni. As soon as he and his cellmate were left alone together to-gether in their barred cubbyhole, Tom turned fierce-ly fierce-ly to young Rokeson : "What did you tell that lie for?" he demanded. "Why did you say you saw me steal the gate?" "What did you trip me for. as I ducked past yon?" countered Henry, with equal fierceness. "And then why did you grab me and hold me till the cop could catch up with us?" "I didn't !" cried Tom. "You stumbled on the curb, just In front of me. I was trying to help you up, when " The door of their cell swung open. The lieutenant and the doorman and a well-dressed man in civilian clothes stood in the dim-lit corridor outside. Tom recognized the civilian as Hinkle Rokeson, whom he had often seen on the street. , The erstwhile austere lieutenant was positively wriggling with embarrassment as he addressed Henry Hen-ry Rokeson. i "Mr. Rokeson," he said, "Oflicer Harding made one of his bonehead breaks when he arrested you. I ! hope you'll accept the apologies of the police depart-! depart-! ruent." i Next morning (on the testimony of Patrolman Harding) a wise and just magistrate former law partner of Hinkle Rokeson solemnly imposed a fine of ten dollars upon Tom Morrissey, adding a lecture and an admonition that next time it would go - , harder with the young criminal. v The four ensuing years brought peace and simple prosperity to the Morrissey household. Tom worked hard and efficiently at his trade. As a result he was- able to buy on installments a pretty cottage on Hudson lane, where he installed r. his invalid mother and his sister, Mabel. The little household in the Hudson lane cottage '. fas ideally happy. The sickly mother, in her own home at last and with her beloved flower-beds to keep her outdoors, grew daily stronger. Mabel, studying at the normal school, grew into graceful and beautiful young womanhood. Tom. in his free hours, helped his mother with her tiny flower garden and Mabel with her lessons, or taught new tricks to his fluffy yellow mongrel puppy;, V.' 'Hutch." He was gloriously Content with life. Hudson lane backed up against Harvard fitroet, the town's most pretentious thoroughfare. Thus, Tom's back garden was separated only by a picket fr-nce and hedge from the rear grounds of n huge and showy mansion that stood on Harvard street. This mansion's grounds, indeed, ran back nil the way to Hudson lane, on both sides of Tom's little patch of land. The mansion was owned by Hinkle Rokeson. At the extreme rear of his grounds, fronting on Hudson huie, he maintained his kennel of prize-winning bulldogs. bull-dogs. (,ne Juno afternoon, a few minutes before six o clock, Tom Morrissey returned from work. In the garden Mrs. Morrissey and Mabel were heading over a flower bed, rearranging some uprooted up-rooted plants. His mother, looking up from her task at the flower '"'d, met his smile and called out a word of tender w'-l'-ome to him. "We didn't expect you home so early," she said as Tom bent down to kiss her and to run a playfully alTeetlonate hand through Mabel's curly hair. "Why are you replanting the nasturtiums?" asked her son. "They seemed to be doing so well." "They were," said Mabel, "but' today some of those prize chickens of tho Kokesons got out of their coop and (lew over the fence Into our yard and scratched up every nasturtium In the whole bed. Wasn't It horrid?" "Too bud !" sympathized Tom, "hut I'll replant the rest of them, now that I'm here. You and Mabel rest on the porch and do tho 'heavy looking on.'" "Heavy looking on, Indeed!" seolTed his mother. "Po you realize I havo tho supper to get ready? There will be only you and I to eat it tonight. Mabel is going to supper nt the l'nyntors! And afterward she and Klslo Paynter are going to a dance nt tho pavilion." As he hent to his garden work, Tom heard two men's voices In conversation on the tar side of tho picket fence that divided his lot from the end of tho Rokeson grounds in which the kennels were situated. situ-ated. He recognized the voices as those of Ilinklo Rokeson and Henry. They were evidently inspecting inspect-ing the kennels. "Bring out old Champion Oolbnrn," Tom presently hoard Henry order tho kennel man. "I want to look nt that barbed-wire scratch on his shoulder." Tom, turning his head, saw the kennel man open a heavy wire door In one of the enclosures. Out trotted a massive white bulbing, perhaps eighty pounds in weight, huge muscles hulgiug through the surface of his glossy white bide. At sight of his master, the great dog bounded forward, for-ward, wagging his stumpy tail In joyous greeting, she recognized the newcomer. He was Henry Rokeson. Roke-son. for more than a year Henry's eyes had followed Mabel's dainty figure wdlh open admiration an .sho passed li 1 1 n on the street, lie had at last, admitted to himself that he was genuinely In love with this girl whom he bad never even met. He had taken to spending much time near his own side of the boundary fence, when he saw her at work 'In tho Morrissey garden. Thus 11 was that he hnd heard this afternoon of her Intention to go with Klslo I'aynler to the pavilion dance. Henry had laid his own plans accordingly. Ho had gone to the dance, bud, wllh some dilliculty, found out that the man who escorted the two girls was Elsie's brother, and bad, by dint of a good deal of diplomacy, picked an acquaintance wdth him. The Introduction to Mabel followed. Mabel was anything but happy to meet the man who had onco done her brother such a bad turn. Rut Henry Rokeson could be extremely fascinating when he chose. In less than ten minutes Mabel found her early resentment against him fading to nothingness. Ho was magnetic, brilliant, altogether delightful to her unsophisticated way of thinking. When the last dance was over he begged leave to take the girl to her home In his runabout. Reluctantly Re-luctantly and against her wiser Impulses she consented. con-sented. When the all-too-brief ride ended at the Morrissey Morris-sey gate, Henry helped Mabel from the car and walked up the path to the porch at her side. Tom hail found Mabel's latchkey on the hull table. go to Vienna, without any further kick, If you will tlnd a way, lirst, to send Morrissey to jail. Got him a prison si'iileneo for what lie's done to me, and I'll start for Vienna the day after lie's si nielloed." "I'll do It!" said the elder Rokeson eagerly. "I ought to have pull enough In this town to f.ot pretty much what I want. Hid he attack you on tho street or In?" "On his own doorstep," was the sulky admission, "and I struck him first. " "Good Lord I Were there witnesses?" "There was a witness," muttered Henry, n vision of Mabel's fear-sl rleken face rising before him. "And you want me to get him Jailed for that !" stormed his father In disgust. "Why, man, you'll be lucky if bo doesn't swear out a warrant against you !" "lie won't," raid Henry briefly, "and if I am going to Vienna, he must be sent to Jail before I go." "It's a big order," reflected his father. "We must take time to think up some way. I see none, yet." The very next afternoon both the Rokesons "saw the way." Tom, coming home from work, found six of the. Roki'son chickens busily despoiling his mother's flower garden. He chased them across the yard. Five of them flew over the hack fence, and seemed Inclined to jump back into the Morrissey yard. Tom, In exasperation, picked up a stone and flung It at the bird to hasten lis departure. The stone missed Its mark and whizzed over Into the Rokeson grounds. I!y a luckless fate, Henry Rokeson and his father chanced to he strolling sido by side toward the ken- leaping up at Henry for caress. His splay ed paws P '.,'"' V"",; ;''; ""? .................. . ' brushed against Henry's flannel trousers, leaving .';VrA;V;-Vi " . '-M ?fJ dusty marks on the white cloth. ki&t SvfV;7 'Ml Henry, with an exasperated curse nt the affection- r'"" ' '!. "iw " i','!'Ci't '' ' "''V .-; 'f 'H ' y ' "V: ' ' - ilit ate brute's awkwardness, swung back one buckskin- ij" i';':''-V? I" NT v 'ftriV' r'sjf? 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Now, hearing the motor j y ' i clad foot and delivered a tremendous kick on the stop, he looked out of an upper window. To his '.'..' dog's throat. Both father and son chuckled with amaze, he saw his sister coming toward the house i-g JVS -f J. A...: :-'5 s ' 'v; Affray laughter as Champion Colborn tumbled prone Into with the last man in the world with whom he would , ' , r V' ' ? - the dust, under the cruel impact, and theu limped have expected to see her. He ran downstnirs to the j - V x," "n- ' s ; crestfallen back into his kennel. . front o"or to let Mabel in. ' Tom went on with his planting. A minute later Meantime, she and Henry had paused at the top of I Yf;. W.iSiW Mabel emerged from the cottage. Calling out a the front steps, while the girl groped in her handbag ' , - I v ; cheery good-by to her brother, she walked down the lor the forgotten latchkey. k,1. ''.ZJT.yl. '.. .. . . .'f. .1 .-1,, -t:J 1 Her Mother's Life Might Depend on It. 2 "Keep Your Hands Off My Sister." 3 Mabel Found Her Early Resentment Against Him Fading. A The Little Household Was Ideally Happy. clad foot and delivered a tremendous kick on the dog's throat. Both father and son chuckled with laughter as Champion Colborn tumbled prone Into the dust, under the cruel impact, and thou limped crestfallen back into his kennel. Tom went on with his planting. A minute later Mabel emerged from the cottage. Calling out a cheery good-by to her brother, she walked down the short garden path to the street gate. Tom's yellow-puppy yellow-puppy had followed her from the house and now-frisked now-frisked aloiy: in front of her, gleeful in the prospect of a walk. I'Ait at the gate she sent him back, calling : "No, no, Hutchie! Go back to master. You can't walk with me this evening." Chagrined, but optimistic, the puppy obeyed. Ha trotted over to Tom. The man patted him on the head, then went on working. The puppy, finding no one had time to play with him, decided to go for a walk on his own account. He ran to the gate. Mabel had neglected to close It tightly. A few scientific butts of Hutch's furry nose pushed It open wide. enough for him to wriggle out. Mabel was no longer in sight on Hudson lane, having turned the corner a block above. Hutch cantered on in happy search for adventure. He was not long in finding it. Tom heard Henry Rokeson say, in amused excitement excite-ment to the kennel man: 'et Champion Colborn out again. Quick! And open the gate in the hedge that leads into Hudson lane." To his father, Rokeson explained : "That mongrel yellow mutt of Morrissey's is out on the sidewalk. Watch some fun !" Tom jumped to his feet and run to his own gate. But, fast as he ran, Champion Colborn ran faster. Tom was just in time to see the gigantic white hull-dog hull-dog dart out Into Hudson lane and fling himself upon the unsuspecting frisking little mongrel puppy. There was a deep-throated growl, followed at onco by an almost human scream of mortal agony. Then in response to his master's laughing summons, the bulldog Jogged back into the Rokeson grounds. On the sidewalk lay a pitifully moveless littlo mass of yellow fluff. Tom went out into Hudson lane, tenderly picked up the lifeless body of his loved pet, and bore it back Into his own yard, smoothing out the rumpled yellow fur as ho walked. In Tom Morrissey's heart was no rancor of venge-fulness. venge-fulness. He did not want his mother to see Hutch's twisted body, lest the sight make her cry. So, getting a spade, he buried his four-footed chum under n big rose bush In a corner of the porch. Mabel had a belter time than'slie had expected at the pavilion dance that evening.. The first cheek to her pleasure came about ten o'clock when Elsie Paynter's brother brought up a man to be Introduced to her. Elsie's white forehead fore-head puckered into a slight frown of displeasure as Knowing she had forgotten it, he had sat up to open the front door for her. Now, hearing the motor Mop. he looked out of an upper window. To his amaze, he saw his sister coming toward the house with the last man in the world with whom he would have expected to see her. He rnn downstnirs to the front door to let Mabel In. Meantime, she and Henry had paused at the top of the front steps, while the girl groped In her handbag for the forgotten latchkey. Hendy" Rokeson, scarce knowing what he did, threw his arms about her. She wrenched herself free, with an exclamation of alarm Just as Tom opened the door. Henry, blind to all except his love for her, cried out : ".Sweetheart, I love you I I want you to marry me!" He caught her again In his arms. As he did so he felt himself whirled backward and away from her with a force that sent him banging against a post of the veranda. In front of him stood Tom Morrissey, white and coldly resolute. "Keep your hands off my sister," commanded Tom, very quietly. "We do not want men of your sort around our home. Please go." "Gd?" bellowed Henry, insane rage gripping him at this Interruption to his love-making, aru,l at the humiliation to which he had just been subjected In the presence of the frightened girl. "Go, eh? I go or stay as I please. You've seen how I treat mongrel mon-grel curs. Take warning by it." He mistook Tom's calm self-control for cowardice, and enforced his angry retort by a smashing blow at Morrissey's face. ' But Tom, sidestepping the blow, landed a short-arm short-arm left-hander between his assailant's eyes. He struck too high to score a knock-out. But he broke the bridge of Henry's nose and sent him reeling reel-ing backward under the trained muscular drive of his fist. , Henry's reeling feet missed the top step. He fell sprawling into the brambly heart of the very rose bush under which poor little Hutch lay buried. Painfully Henry Rokeson crawled to his feet, holding two very badly scratched hands over his broken nose. In his heart blazed a murderously undying hatred for his conqueror. Glaring up at Tom, from between be-tween his pulling and blackened lids, Henry gasped incoherently : "I'll get you far that !" Henry Rokeson disheveled, his face distorted with swelling and with fury stamped into his father's fa-ther's study, three minutes later. "Book at me!" he gurgled, chokingly. "Look at me! That Morrissey swine did this. Ho " His father broke into amazed questioning. But Henry cut him short. "You've been wanting me to accept that chance to go to Vienna, as attache to the United Slates embassy there. I didn't want to go, in spite of your saying it meant a big career for me. I don't want to, even yet. But I'll make a bargain with you: I'll nels. The random-flying stone struck the elder Rokeson Roke-son sharply in the face, cutting the skin slightly and bruising the surrounding flesh. "Oh, I'm so sorry !" called Tom, in quick contrl-tum. contrl-tum. "It was an accident. It " "It was an accident," interrupted Rokeson, turning in grim triumph to his son, and stnuchlng the few drops of blood on his cut cheeks, "that will send you to Vienna." - An hour later, Tom Morrissey was arrested on a warrant charging him with "assault with Intent to kill." As a result, Tom found himself railroaded to state's prison on a two-year sentence. Nor, thanks to the Rokeson influence, did he go to prison unreconmiended. The warden another Rokeson appointee was informed that Tom was an tmwontedly brutal and hardened criminal and that Rokeson would like to see him well disciplined. That was Tom Morrissey's introduction to a living deatli-to extra "hard labor" to extra penalties, to a course of treatment warranted to crush the hardest spirit, to the mercy of the merciless, Tom was released from prison at the end of his term, and w:ts sent back to his native town with tho knowledge that the Rokeson-ruled police had instructions in-structions to watch him as a dangerous character. His once buoyant step had taken on the "prison drag." His formerly square shoulders were bent. His tanned and ruddy complexion was sallow. His eyes were lack-luster and as hopeless as those of a beaten dog. His heart was dead within him. On his flesh were scars that bore witness to nameless cruelties. Thus marred, body and soul, ho was turned out upon a world that had been forewarned to shun or punish him. In short, he was an ex-convict. And hundreds, just like him, are sent forth from prisons every day to take up again the burden of life wllh just the same hideous handicap. Another event of local importance occurred on tile day of Tom's release. Henry Rokeson came home from Vienna, nis term of service as attache there had expired. His father had died six months earlier. And Henry had come back to take into his hands the reins of civic and financial power that had slipped from Hinkle Rokeson's dead lingers. In the multiplicity of his interests in Vienna the memory of Mabel Morrissey had half faded from Henry's mind. But as the sight of his surroundings surround-ings revived ancient recollections, so the thought of Mabel now flashed back upon him with an Irresistible Irre-sistible power. Willi It. awoke the former yearning for her love; tho resolve he hail once made that she should bo his wife. He matUi Inquiries at once, through a detective de-tective agency. And, within two hours, be had learned the uninspiring history of the girl's life during dur-ing the past two years. Tom's trial fruitless as his defense had proved had eaten deep Into his savings. On his departure to prison the little cottage had been given up by his mother and sister; since they could no longer continue con-tinue paying the loan association's Installments upon It. They had moved to a cheap three-room suite In a poorer quarter of the town. And Mabel had sought work In a neighboring box factory. Oa her wages she nnd her mother had barely managed to keep body and soul together. And now a new complication bad arisen. Mrs. Morrissey, always delicate, had fallen seriously 111. The doctor had said that nothing but a year in the Adirondack's could save her. And "a year in the Adirondacks" Is not paid for out of the wages of a - box-factory operative. All this Henry Rokeson learned, nnd smiled contentedly con-tentedly as he heard the report. Then he wrote a note and olispatched it to Mabel at the box factory by his own valet. Mabel was starling for home at the end of a hard day's work, when the note was handed to her. Rha read it as she walked homeward. Half aloud, and In crass wonder, she read : "Dear Miss Morrissey: I have Just returned from Europe, and chanced to hear, this noon, of your financial plight. If you will do me the honor to call at my house at 8:fi0 this evening, I should like to talk over with you a position that I have fn mind a position that will bring you in more than enough money to send your mother to the Adirondacks. "I trust you will avail yourself of this opportunity, opportuni-ty, as It will permit me to atone, in part, for the past, and to prove my regret' for my father's unjust persecution of your unhappy brother. I am anxious to make amends. Won't you give me the chance? If not for your own sake, for your sick mother's? Faithfully yours, "HENRY ROKESON." Mabel thrust the letter Into the front of her blouse. She was desperate over her mother's illness. ill-ness. Much as she loathed the idea of accepting help from Henry Rokeson, or of aiding him to lessen his very just remorse, she felt she had no right to decline the olfer. Her mother's life might depend on it. Up the long stairs to their tenement home she hurried, forcing herself to smile cheerily as she entered en-tered her mother's room. As "soon as supper was eaten and cleared away, she made an excuse to go out. ! Two minutes later Tom came home. Opeping the door of the suite he looked about him in horror at the squalid poverty of the rooms. Then with a cry of "Mother ! Mother !" he flung himself upon his knees at Mrs. Morrissey's bedside. With his mother's arms about his neck and his mother's dear voice whispering love words in his ear, he was for the moment, almost happy; for the first time In two fearful years. Presently he asked: "Where is Mabel?" "She had to go out to see about a position," said - his mother. "She will be back in a little while. Go to the kitchen and get. yourself some supper, dear. Y'ou look famished. I wish mamma were strong enough to get up and wait on her darling boy. Oh, Tom, It's so wonderful to have you at home again !" As he crossed the kitchen Tom's eye fell upon a crumpled letter that lay on the floor where it had dropped from Mabel's blouse. He picked It up its envelope was gone and his eye fell on Henry Rokeson's Roke-son's signature. In unbelieving dismay he read the missive. Then, snatching up his hat he rushed from the house. Mabel, arriving at the Rokeson mansion, was conducted con-ducted by a man servant to the library where Henry v sat awaiting her. He rose eagerly to greet her. She ignored his outstretched hand and said coldly In reply to his fervid greeting: "You said you had a position to offer me. If it is within my power to accept It, I must do so. My mother's life depends on it. What is the position?" "I want you to be my wife," he answered, abruptly. abrupt-ly. "I love you. I have always loved you. As my wife you will have enough money to " "You wrote about a 'position,' " she Interrupted, unheeding. "Please tell me what It Is." "The position of my wife. I " "I would rather starve," she retorted, turning to leave the room. "Good night." She made as though to pass through the doorway. door-way. ButTio clasped her In his arms, imploring her to reconsider, nnd declaring over and over his admiration ad-miration for her. She struggled vainly to free herself. her-self. Their swaying and interlocked figures were silhouetted for an instant against a lowered window shade. At the same moment a step sounded on the veranda ve-randa outside. A hand tugged at the fastenings of the window. Henry switched off the lights, dragged Mabel from the room and thrust her out of the house by the front doorway. Then, calling his valet, he ran back into the library and turned on the light again just as Tom Morrissey burst in through the window. "Whore is my sister, you hound?" yelled Tom. springing at him. "What have you done with her?" He grappled fiercely with Henry, seizing him by the throat as though seeking to tear the truth from him. The valet .snatched up a chair and brought It crashing down upon Tom's head. Tom, stunned and helpless, collapsed to the floor. His first thought, when he came to his senses, an hour later, In a police station cell, was: "I can't tell the truth about It without bringing Mabel's name into the story. For her sake I musf keep silent." Six weeks later Tom Morrissey tried and convicted con-victed on charge of housebreaking and assault -faced a judge; for the third time in his twenty-five years of life. "Thomas Morrissey," said the judge, solemnly, "a jury of your peers has found you guilty. This is your third conviction in six years. You are a hardened hard-ened and confirmed criminal. It is my painful duty to sentence you to a minimum of twenty years' imprisonment im-prisonment nt hard labor." And not only the Rokeson's and their kind are to blame in similar situations, but many more must share the burden when it really is determined "Who's Guilty?" (END OF "WHO'S GUILTY?" SERIES. |