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Show s CHAPTER XIII Continued 26 Grunt But for a few moments Id agony- He hud been condemned to life Imprisonment becuuse tbls forgotten forgot-ten and submerged Identity had masqueraded, mas-queraded, through some strange cerebral cere-bral vagary, as the real man. The news was too much to gra?p. "Didn't any friends slund by me?' Grant asked brokenly. The doctor shook his head. "A great deal of sympathy developed for Captain Sutton. I'm afraid your friends deserted you In the hour of need." "Didn't my wife help?" He trembled trem-bled with anxiety. The doctor looked at him with a half-frown on his face. "It seems incredible you ve forgotten forgot-ten that. She has divorced you. No woman is expected to stick to a lifer." Tears forced themselves through Grant's eyes. Even Nutiea, for whom be had sinned, had thrown him aside. After a paus-e the doctor weni od talk lug. "The exceptional sentence was due to your stubbornness. The Judge wanted you to confess. Yes," he added reflectively; "1 think if you had made a clean breast of it you'd have had a comparatively light sentence." Payson Grant gripped tbe edge of his cot. New hope was born. There might be a way of reducing his term jet "Doctor," he cried excitedly: "Do you suppose If 1 were willing to make ! a full confession now it would help?' The doctor considered tbe matter. "It's not eas? to suy, off-hand." "But your testimony would help." "Mine," said the doctor: "What do you mean by my testimony?" "You could say yon found me wholly whol-ly unconscious of the past. You could prove I was a different man at the trial and that I ought to have another chance." "Hold your horses," the doctor said, frowning, "1 couldn't testify to any-' any-' thing of the kind. All I could truthfully truth-fully declare was that you pretended you didn't know who you were and tried to substantiate your truth, or lie. by making up your bed like one who had nevei done it before. Now, you are an educated man and you ought to be able to see my side of It. I ask you this. How long would I last here If 1 believed the tale of all the geniuses in Sing Sing?" "My God !" Grant cried, "you can't think I'm lying?" "Why not?" the doctor retorted. "Do you suppose It would be the first plausible lie 1 have listened to? 1 suppose sup-pose we get the pick of the best criminal crim-inal brains In the country In Sing Sing and they're most of 'em )nst as nnxious to better their lot as you. I'm used to these stunts but I never lose Interest In them; that's why 1 came to see what new one you were trying out." Grant watched the doctor cross to the cell door. He felt that with him hope would step Into the corridor not again to return. "Doctor." he cnlled anxiously, "just a moment Do you know anything about the action of a drug they call bhang in the East?" The physician did not open the cell door. He turned and looked with renewed re-newed Interest at the convict. "I know all about It," he said. "1 was a ship's surgeon before I came here and I've seen all I want to of hasheesh. Why?" "I got In the habit of taking It Do. do you think It might have robbed me of my mind?" "Your mind?" said the doctor. He seemed to have a contempt for the lay form of expression. "I simply don't remember anything that has happened. I never saw you before. I never saw that guard and yet he says he has been on this cor ridor for a month." "That's very Interesting," comment ed the other. "The drug's real name Is Cannahts Indlca. or Indian Hemp It nianifpsts Itself In many very strnnge ways, perhaps, according to Its degree of purity. Is this another of your facile excuses?" "Won't anything make you believe?' Grant walled. "Not a tiling," snld the doctor brutally. "If you were sincere you would make a confession, properly witnessed, and not these sniveling ex cuses you are trying on me." "That's Just whnt I want to do." Grant cried, excitedly. "I'll tell you everything from the beginning." "I haven't the time or Inclinallon to listen. I have enough to keep me busy without that." "Isn't there any Justice or decency li the world?" the prisoner exclaimed "Justice!" commented the physl clan, "you had a perfectly fair trial." "Put you won't understand that li wasn't I who was tried. The man who was condemned had my body but that devilish green drug was talking not me. If you don't listen to me you can't think of yourself as a fair-mind ed man." He saw that the doctor was Im pressed by this. "It's nothing to do with me." he said. "I'm a physlclnn. It's up to the chief and the hoard of pardons. I'll tell you what I'll do. Ml go and see the chief right away. That lets me out." He hurried off Thp uiy guard came and 'coked at Payson Grant. But tills time he snn a more sanguine prisoner. Presently the secretary ,o the chief, who was also ootary, came In with a male By WYNDHAM MARTYN Copyright by Barse St Hopkins WNTJ Service stenographer. The doctor came back with them. Grant looked upon him as a friend, and was glad. He poured out his whole tortured soul to them. He concealed nothing; the relief he felt was amazing. Through all the devious ways by which he had set out to trap his benefactor bene-factor they followed him. They learned why Sophy McKinnon had uei farm given her; the name of the man who falsified the entries was set down : and that hired gangster who had. for a few pieces of silver, thrust a loaded revolver In Captain Sutton's pocket was written In. When the typed statement was brought back in an amazingly short space of time Payson Grant signed It eagerly. It was not a confession that be felt he was signing. It was a document which might lessen his dreadful punishment Of contrition there was no trace. He found himself him-self already relying on the promised help of the physician. "It's my firm belief," the doctor declared de-clared to the chief's secretary, "that this man does not remember a word that passed at his trial and I will testify tes-tify to that belief before any jury of mental experts In the country. t will be a most Interesting case." As Grant looked at the signed Instrument In-strument his eye fell on the date line. He saw that It was given as September Septem-ber 28. "This Is wrong," be snld anxiously. "You'll have to correct the date." He was not going to have the statement Invalidated by such an error. He Grant Sat for a Few Moment In Agony. knew he could not be In the wrong. Sutton himself had stamped the date vividly on his mind when he had declared de-clared that the seventeenth, as written writ-ten In his threatening note, should have read the twenty-seventh. The notary looked at It and smiled "I guess that's near enough." he remarked. "Like h I It Is," Grant snapped He appealed to the doctor. "Don't worry nhout that," snld the doctor. "There's more than that to come." Amazing Incidents crowded one upon another. The little cell seemed sud denly to have ceased to be occupied by dour, hard men whose work was disciplinary. The warder, for Instance, had his arm on the shoulder of the doctor. "Boy," said the warder, whose face as he smiled was ultered as though another man was there. "1 thought I was It, but yours Is the name tha' goes In the electrics'." Grant was still too Intent upon get ring the date changed to have time to speculate cn the meaning of this. He saw himself being put In the wrong by a notarial error. "Doctor." he urged, "this Is lncor rect" He felt his fate was in thi ollicial's hands. The doctor alone could aid him. "You'll have to see the boss about this," raid the doctor. "Don't worry; you've done your bit." He whispered something to the wui der. who left the cell. He was bacl. e wlthlD the minute accompanied by Anthony Trent, suave and debonair. "You." said Grunt, astonished. "How do you come to be here?" , At a motion ol Trent's bead the others left the cell. Grant noticed that he was scanning the confession. Wheu he had glanced through it he put It Id ac Inuer pocket "What's that to do with you?" Grant demanded. "Do you remember that night before be-fore you shot Sutton 1 gave you the opportunity to confess? You wouldn't j do It Then, later, Swithln Weld asked you to confess, but you refused. You've bad to do it at last and it has cost me a great deal of trouble." "Cost you trouble," Grant cried, not wholly clear as to Trent's meaning. "What has It cost me?" Trent ignored the question. "It has cost me a great deal mori than you think. I suppose you know that you are In Ossining?" Grant's nerves were on edge. He felt tired, hungry and in no condition to listen to Trent And there was rising the feeling that there was some conspiracy In which he was Involved whose motives he could not comprehend. compre-hend. "There are some things 1 .don't get clearly yet," he snapped, "but I know where 1 am even If I don't know how I got here." "Let me phow you the secrets of your prison house," Trent said. He gripped the convict by the arm and took him to the open door of the cell so that a view might be obtained of the corridors. The cell which Grant had believed to be but one of a great block of cells was revealed as a solitary nnit standing stand-ing In what had been a flower garden. The corridors ran only a few yards either side of the cell. Just sufficient, indeed, that no end of them could be observed by the prisoner. Remorselessly, Remorseless-ly, Trent dragged him across the yard where he had seen the convicts at work. The wall on which the blue-nnl-formed " guards still walked was a thing built of beaver-board, plastered over. The river was real, and Ilaverstraw occupied her familiar site, but everything every-thing else was constructed as a moving mov-ing picture pet. The cell was more solidly built than a studio would need and the bars were steel Instead ot blackened wood. At a little distance, the convicts Grant had seen were sitting around talking. It was the first professional engagement when they had not been made-up or photographed. Carpenters were even now beginning to tear down the wall. None paid any particular attention to Payson Grant. Only a few knew for what p.urpose tbe drama was staged. , The motion picture extra Is not' a curious person; he Is engaged en-gaged for scenes "possibly in the middle mid-dle of pictures whos title and plot Is unknown. The twenty men who had earned five dollars and transportation transpor-tation bad no idea that they bad beep assisting a bit of real life. They only knew later tJiat whereas they had been engaged to come for five dollars per diem they were sent home with twice as much. Payson Grant suffered himself to be led to the upper room of the old man sion, where be found the warder and others he remembered too well. "Your warder," Trent began, "Is Mr Joseph Clarke, formerly city editor ol a metropolitan daily. This," he ludi cated the small man who had swept the passages and was still In prison livery, "is Mr. David More, who has been of great assistance In getting evi denee." Trent next Introduced Hitman Hit-man who had masqueraded as the doc tor. "This Is my friend and attorney Fleming Dearholt" "Then he'll be a disbarred attorne before be knows It," Grant snarled. "I doubt it." said Fleming Dearhoi modestly, "and even If 1 am, I sc-a sc-a great future before me on scree, and stage. Speaking as a lawyci your confession goes off to the go eruor by special messenger at once." "What about your coufessionV Grant cried. "What about the col fession Weld and Trent will have i make? If I'm to suffer for killing Sin ton they'll suffer with me." li turned to Trent with Haiuing fa., "1 accuse you of introducing Sutn. into my room that night when I w;. on the ragged edge with that crin. talk." Fleming Dearholt turned to h: client with an appearance of eoticen "CaD this he true?" he demanded (TO BE mUTiK-npn v |
