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Show TURMING POINT M jC &9 Mary Imlay Taylor fJA EsfeWfH W.N. U. RELEASE 4 The old man looked away, swallowing swal-lowing hard. He had known Jane when she was Ave years old; he hated to see her face now. "Quick, Mac, I've only got a little while they may call me back they think Stenhart's very bad!" Her hands, on his arm, shook, and he felt them. Reluctantly, he led the way into the long low building; Jane caught a glimpse of the vac-queros vac-queros at supper and, with them, some men who belonged to Cutler's posse. But Mac got her past them to a door in the end of the room. There was a moment of delay and then it was opened. Mac had spoken to Cutler and the guard came out and sat down outside the door as Jane went in alone. The li tile room, with its one tiny window-slit, too small for a man's body to pass through, was dim with the coming of dusk, but she saw the tall man who sat at the little table, a tray of untasted food before him, his head upon his hands. Expecting no one whom he cared to see, he did not M f fcy$U He raised his head and their eyes met. even look up and the despair in hia attitude went to her heart She thought of him, as she had seen him, brave and free, going down on that thin rope over the abyss to save his enemyl A proud light shone suddenly sud-denly in her blue eyes, and she came close to him. "John!" she said softly. He raised his head and their eyes met. For an instant he seemed dazed, then he rose to his feet. "You've come to me a prisoner?" prison-er?" "I saw you," she said; "I'm so proud of you!" He drew a long breath. "Jane, you did It! I'd vowed to kill him I'd tracked him like a murderer I had nothing in my heart but hate. I was waiting to kill him when you came up there, but when I found you cared, your touch drove out the poison I couldn't do it!" She looked up proudly. "You didn't know yourself, John, even I didn't know you, for when I saw you there, waiting for him, I thought you'd kill him. But it was never really in your heart, John Sherwin, for you're a brave man no brave man is a murderer! You've made good." He smiled bitterly. "You forget what I am!" "No, I remember! Some day it will come right; the truth can't be always hidden. I'll believe In you always!" Emotion" choked him, then, in a broken voice: "It means only misery mis-ery for you to care; I'm as good as a dead man. Forget me, Jane, be happy!" "Never," she answered softly. "Always I'll remember until we meet again!" He held her hands in a grip that almost hurt them, looking down into her brave eyes. "You gave up your chance for him and he's dying, John. Jordan's shot will kill him." Sherwin was dumb, his head bowed in utter despair. "Oh, If I could only get you out!" she murmured brokenly, then with sudden hope. "I've thought of a way there used to be a shuttered window win-dow back here " she ran to the wall, feeling it "it's here you're strong come!" she whispered. His heart leaped. Liberty! It would not give her to him, but free, he might carve out a destiny, retrieve re-trieve something yet. His hands actually ac-tually shook as he followed her guidance. guid-ance. In the darkening room he could just see the fastenings, old and covered with dust, half papered over. It resisted and he drew his table fork they had not allowed him a knife along the crevices. At last he released the shutter, turned it softly and looked out. He faced an open slope and the light from another window streamed across it. Sherwin drew back with a grim smile. "They've beaten us, Jane!" A man was sitting there, with his rifle across his knees. The sheriff, having caught a jail-breaker, was taking no chances. Jane was crying bitterly now, but Sherwin tried to comfort her. "At best, I'd have been only a hunted fugitive, dear girl; we must part " He could not go on. Her sobs shook him with an even deeper deep-er emotion. There came a soft knock at the door and old Mac's voice, a bit husky. "Time's up, Jane, an' the doc's here; he says Stenhart's dyin' they want you!" "God keep you!" Sherwin said hoarsely; all other words failed. The girl, blind with tears, stumbled stum-bled out, old Mac holding her up. "They're callin' for you, Jane," the old man explained. "I had to come all fired quick. Jim's got th" sheriff an' two others, two that come with th' posse. Teresa's sayin' prayers with two candles in th' kitchen an' Ah Ling's outside, chatterin' something some-thing awful in Chinee." As he spoke he guided the faltering falter-ing girl on to the veranda and opened the door. A flood of light streamed out. Jim was sitting supinely at his desk, sagged in his chair. Beside Be-side him towered the big sheriff, and a deputy was writing something on a paper at the table. Jane, coming In, half dazzled and blind with weeping, weep-ing, felt Fanny's arms go around her. "He's dead, Jane; it's over Jim, tell her!" Jim, speechless, made a sign to Cutler. "You do It!" But the big sheriff had lost his nerve; he only made motions with his lips like chewing. It was Fanny who drew Jane down beside her on a bench by the door. "He told us before he died, Jane," she said, "and the deposition was taken he confessed to the murder of his uncle. It was done In the garden; gar-den; the man who swore that Max was with him at the time was a perjurer, paid by Max. His uncle quarreled with him and told him that he was going to change his will and leave every cent he had to Sherwin. Max broke out, they quarreled quar-reled violently, and the old man struck him with his cane, as he would a little boy. Infuriated, Max snatched the pruning - knife and struck back without thinking. He killed him! He ran out and hid, saw Sherwin come, and the scheme to save himself and get the money leaped Ifito his crazed brain. He swore to a lie to save himself; he framed it ell up Sherwin was utterly utter-ly innocent!" For a moment Jane neither moved nor spoke. She hid her face in her hands. "Oh, Fanny, think of all those years!" she gasped at last. Fanny nodded. "I knowl Max used to tell us in his delirium; Teresa heard It. too. I thought It was the worry of the trial delirium, fever dreams but old Teresa always al-ways believed it!" Jim, who hod not spoken at nil, rose suddenly and went out. With him went the sheriff and his deputies. depu-ties. The two girls were alone. Fanny, trying to still jBne's broken sobs, put her arms about her again. "He's suffered so much!" Jane said, "and he gave up his chance to escape today to save Max! Think of it, to save the man who had ruined him!" Fanny touched her softly on the 1 shoulder. "Look up, Jane!" ' The girl lifted her head. The door stood open and on the threshold, erect and radiant, stood Sherwin. (THE END) 1 THE STORY THUS FARi Sherwin reached the unconscious Stenhart, and painfully regained the ledge. He looked down to tee the tree which had held his cousin fall Into the stream below. The sheriff waited for the two men, then put the handcuffs on Sherwin. Stenhart regained re-gained consciousness, and supported by Jim becan the descent. "I can't under tand It," Stenhart said; "he was going to kill me." Jim reminded him that Sherwin Sher-win had saved his life. A sharp report came from the thicket and Stenhart crumpled. He had been shot. The posse fired into the bushes and killed the man who fired. It was Jordan! Stenhart was taken to the ranch house and a doctor summoned. The nurse said he was dying. CHAPTER. XI Shockad and dismayed, Jim hustled hus-tled his sister into the old halL Unconsciously Un-consciously he dropped Into the chair at his desk. "I wish to heaven the doctor would get herel" he exclaimed ex-claimed roughly. "He started at once as soon as I 'phoned," Jane replied absently, touching the old desk affectionately; she remembered Sherwin there. Jim, huddled In the chair, ruminated. rumi-nated. "Jordan must have got us confused in the storm he was a crack shot. Poor Max it was for me and he got it!" Jane said nothing; her hands were clasped on the desk. The wind swept the door open and drove the rain across the hall. Her brother rose and forced it shut, bolting it Then he turned on her, at the limit of his patience. "Good Lord, Jane, haven't you a heart? Max is dying he loves yout You're you're a perfect stick, standing there and staring in front of you!" She looked up and her white face twitched with pain. "I'm sorry for Max, hut I'm thinking of the man he sent to a living death!" Jim bit his lip. "Look here, Jane, he's a brave man, I acknowledge it but he's been convicted of a cruel crime; you've got to let him drop!" "He's not guilty," she said firmly; "I'll never believe him guilty. No guilty man would have done that splendid thing he saved his accuser!" ac-cuser!" "Fine, I grant It Nevertheless, he goes back to Jail for life you understand that, Jane? For life!" "Not if there's any way on earth that I can save him!" she cried passionately. "You!" Jim spoke with brotherly scorn. "You can help too, Jim," she went on, not heeding his derision. "Delay them, keep him here and give him a chance to escape!" "To what purpose?" Jim asked her dryly. "To be a fugitive always, to hide away somewhere. In South America, perhaps, under a false name, hunted, advertised for, never to know a moment's peace a condemned con-demned murdererl Bah, I'd rather rath-er go to jail! There's no capital punishment pun-ishment in his state." "You've never been In Jail!" Jane retorted. "And you you 'phoned for Cutler, you know you didl" "Stenhart " Jim began, and stopped. "Oh, I knowl" Jane's gesture was eloquent. Jim, remembering the man suspended sus-pended between the ledge and eternity, eter-nity, to save his enemy, began to walk up and down the hall. Jane dropped into his vacant chair and laid her head on the desk. She could hear the fury of the wind outside. out-side. It grew dusky, too, in the old hail, for the day was passing swiftly; swift-ly; tomorrow "I'm sorry, but I can't do a thing:" said Jim hoarsely. She made no reply. A shiver ran through her; tomorrow he would be on his way east! There Is so little in a day and so much. Then, suddenly, sud-denly, she heard Fanny's voice calling call-ing to Jim. Her brother answered hurriedly, went into the sickroom and the door closed behind him. For the first time Jane was alone. She straightened herself in the old worn chair and looked about her. In the daygloom of the old hall she saw only shadows here and there. A clock ticked loudiy over the desk, and It beemed to remind her of the brevity of the span of life. The rain no longer beat with such fury on the window-panes, but the wind shrieked and howled In the distant canyons. Sherwin was In the other building still. The men were there; she could see Jose and Pete Rooney rubbbing down their horses in the open door of the stables. sta-bles. She rose cautiously and fled softly down the hall, past Stenhart's closed door; It seemed to her that she heard voices but she did not stop to listen. She opened a little side-door that led pa3t the kitchen and ran into the rain. It was falling lightly now; the gray clouds had broken on the distant ranges and the high peaks shone in clear we;ithe-. It seemed almost like a prornis , this lifting of the clouds, and she called Mac softly. The old man emerged from his quarters with a long f ;ir:e. "You mustn't g,-t wet, Jane, better run back," he varn'd. Hut she caught nt his Kl'-ove with shaking h.-iri'Js. "Mac, I've got to j g' e him!" j MnclJovell hesitated. "He's got 1 guards alorigfikJft of him, Jane; It ain't no p;iee for you" She lifted her blue eyes aU-ndlly ift his. "M;ic, I rniir-t see him It's " she choked "it's the last time!" |