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Show NLY a year, my dear," W he pleaded. "Twelve months to prove that I'm a new man for myself, for the world and, above all, for you." That was last New Year's Eve, the day Joe walked out of prison a free man. Margie met him at the big iron gate, a puzzled and frightened boy wearing an ill-fitting ill-fitting suit His debt was paid. Twelve worried months Margie had waited, praying each night that wherever he might be, her Joe was safe on the narrow path. And now bis year's probation was up. The clock struck eleven thirty and Margie turned on the radio. Back east in New York, it was already 1941. She should have arranged to meet Joe there; it would all be over now I At eleven forty-five her heart beat furiously. "Please, God," she prayed. "Make him come to me at midnight!" mid-night!" Suddenly she ' heard a furious clamor in the hallway. Then a knock, nervous and sharp. The knob turned, and suddenly she saw Joe, his eyes wide and his face dead white. "Margie!" he cried. "Hide me quick. The cops are after me but I didn't do anything . . . Honest!" "But Joe!" she answered. "Why should you hide, then?" "Please, honey, don't argue!" His hands were trembling. While the midnight bells tolled outside, Margie rushed him to the unused closet off the hall. Then she If tyh While the Dens toned ouisiue, she rushed him into the closet. went calmly back to the living room and sat down. A second later they came, two burly Irishmen. " A young fellow just come in here?" one asked. "Ah, er, yes," Margie began. Then, resolved: "You'll find him in the closet" "Ye'll have to come along, too, young lady!" the copper said. And a few minutes later they were driving driv-ing to the police station. Joe, beside be-side her, was silent "I'm sorry, Joe," she offered. "But I couldn't marry a dishonest man." He didn't answer. At the station they were whisked into a small room. It was'strangely quiet Margie thought In a corner two men were whispering and suddenly sud-denly one of them walked over to her chair. "Know what ye've done, young lady?" he asked ominously. "I've done nothing," she replied, thoroughly indignant "Yes ye have!" he insisted. A faint smile crept into the corners of his Irish mouth. "Ye've got yer-self yer-self a husband!" Suddenly the room was filled with laughter and the next thing Margie knew Joe was kissing her again and again. When she finally looked around they were alone. "Oh, Joe," she sighed, "then you really haven't done anything wrong?" "Of course not, dear!" he answered. an-swered. "I'm a detective now have been for the last six months since I helped the cops smash a burglar ring." "But Joe," she moaned, "to think that I refused to hide you back at the apartment I I'm not worthy, Joe." "Don't worry about that, Margie!" he replied. "I'm not a crook myself, my-self, any more, and I wouldn't want to marry one!" Out in the captain's office a faraway far-away radio brought the sound of revelry. rev-elry. Marg looked at her watch. It was one o'clock in the morning now; in the Rocky mountains they were welcoming the new year. "Honey," she said, "let's pretend we live in Denver." "And why?" asked Joe. "Because it's New Year's Eve there now, and you've just com back to me!" |