Show 1 4 45 4 5 t 2 r by CHARLES BELMONT DAVIS continued from last issue but suppose im caught asked the pupil what then to which question the only answer was a chorus of laughter then ab always the young men seemed to regard the law as an all impotent thing a negligible quantity not to be reckoned with it was a week later hen david found himself at the corner of broad way and thirty fourth street he had gone to the neighborhood on a commission tor for Alea meaghers Meag ghers hors and it was ills his intention to walk back to the restaurant it was nias about 1 and he noticed that tile the eastbound east cast bound cars were filled with race goers and that there was a small crowd waiting on oil the corner to board the next nest car suddenly he decided that instead of walking he would take the car as far as third avenue mingling with mith the waiting crowd lie he clambered aboard the first car that came and was pushed as tar far as the door but could get no further next to him was a stout m man in with beads of perspiration running don donnia over a good natured face tho the man was facing him and it occurred to david that iti was an ideal situation for him to lea lean hard against the stout mans stomach and then insert his hand into the left trousers pocket As well as he could lie he followed the demonstration he had witnessed a week eek before in reg ins back room and then suddenly someone in a shrill voice cried thief thief the car jolted and stopped and david was half thrown halt half dragged to the sidewalk the fat man gripped him by the wrist and a crowd formed a dense circle closely about them to the sergeant behind the desk at the station house david gave his assumed name he had almost forgotten his real name and stolidly asserted to the blue coated official that he had neither family friends nor money for the first time he realized that he was entirely alone he could not conjure up that would vouchsafe him a smile he was a thing apart discredited a name on the police blotter to be summarily dealt with and then put away anay at the trial the prisoner appeared as indifferent to his fate as did the judge or the young lawyer whom the judge had appointed to defend him or the men who lounged on the benches of the sunlit sun lit courtroom the I 1 fact that david said it was his first d offense and there was no police record to the contrary was in his favor and reduced the term of his imprisonment not that it mattered very much to david a few weeks more or less or months or even years it was quite the same the men lounging about the benches were there to testify in behall behalf of their friends but david had no friends lie he was quite alone just as much alone as he be was when the prison gates closed on him and his useless name was changed to a useless number As a prisoner david gave no trouble but this was through no desire that his bis sentence should be commuted or that he should be pardoned he went hent through his daily routine as a matter of course because ho he had bad always worked and worked hard of the past he gave no thought at all and to the future but very little one of oe these days he would be turned loose again a little crippled by his prison record but still able to do the work of a laboring man tn in the only world lie he knew and where physical strength counted more than records late one afternoon lie he was wab told that he had earned the usual reward fo for good behavior and would be dismissed on oil the following morning it I 1 was early september and in a lull dull ay lie wondered liow low it would feel to find himself on oil the other side of the high stone wall nall and the big iron gates that for so long had stood between freedom and slavery tomorrow he would find himself on the street outside a free man again but what then he glanced up at the sky and predicted that it would be a clear hot day but what hat then during the night heslett he slept heavily but at sunnie he awoke and through drowsy c ces es looked out of the N window 1 which I 1 tell opened on the corridor directly opposite P his cell from ahei c he lay lie he could see a small patch of blue sky and he heard the drone of a bee buzzing against the closed window and then tile the thought came to him that he would soon be N where here lie he could see all of tile the blue sky at one time and the buzzing of the bee brought back half defined memories of his old home with a smile on his face he closed his eyes and tailing falling into a light sleep dreamed a dream that took him back to the lay day of his arrest every incident had been scaled on oil his brain and as his mind flashed hack back lie he saw himself once more in file he brov crowded ded car his face close to the hot perspiring face of the tat fat man to 10 follow the instructions he had learned in back room seemed tile the only logical thing to do first tile the pressure then the hand slowly but deftly inserted into the pocket it was ab absurdly ordly easy his fingers clasped the roll of bills and then fingers of steel gripped his own wrist and held it in a vise the fat mans face was now almost touching his own and was no longer smiling but scarlet with rage 1 I got you the fat nian man kept on repeating over arid and over or again david turned restlessly dovw on his narrow cot and once more he jaw a himself standing on the sidewalk surrounded by the wall of grim low cring faces A film seemed to form over his eyes and as he gazed helplessly about him the circle of faces appeared to him only as a blurred mass forming a barrier through which there was no escape the only definite thought he bo had was vas that it was all a horrible mistake that he was the son of 0 david bradish a reputable farmer that his hia place was among the circle of tree free men that crowded about him it was incredible that he was the miserable culprit the outcast on which all the curious leering eyes were bent once more the form of the sleeping prisoner moved and uttered a low thankful sigh tor for now there came to ills his dulled brain the first flash of hope alope he still stood on the sidewalk the fat man with the bends beads of perspiration running down his face still held him tightly by the wrist and then as a ray of sunshine breaks through the mist a young girl pushed her way through the circle that surrounded him and bound him in and with a world or 0 sympathy and love in her eyes put her arm about him as if to protect him from the monace menace of the crowd the girl wore vore a calico frock and a broad straw hat bat adorned with gay flowers such as a girl like his sister used to wear in the country indeed in many ways the stranger with the fresh rosy cheeks checks and the eager friendly eyes reminded him grea greatly y 0 of ruth u and nd although the girls costume should have seemed strangely out of place in tho the streets of a city in davids dream it appeared quite appropriate when he was nas roughly led along great stretches of baked pavements filled with lines of gaping men and half grown boys on his way to tile the police station the iamo good samaritan in the form of the girl as if to protect him from the jeering throng followed closely at his side slowly step by step the dream followed those days or of misery but they no longer appeared to david as days of misery because now the girl with the calico dress and the gayly flowered hat was always with him always smiling always ready with a word ot of cheer the long hours in jail awaiting his trial were shared by her and from her great love he be found the strength to go on in her presence he forgot the ugly years the squalor of his life since he had left his homo home and her infinite faith even gave him hope tor for the future during the brief trial she was with him her soft hand in his and her tear stained eyes fishing defiance at the judge and prosecutor to tho the very doors of 0 the prison she was at his side and then just before he left her she had thrown her arms about him and with her fresh young lips had kissed him again and again and begged him to have faith and to bo be of good cheer until they should meet again that the girl not await the lay day bof of Ms his oming coming he had no fear 4 A few hours later david bradish stood in the square before the prison but there was nothing in his bearing of the uncertainty and of the hopelessness that lie he had pictured to himself on the evening previous ito he I to hesitated only long enough to make sure of the way which would lead him to his him chosen destination it was late that same afternoon when ho turned the bend of the yellow dusty road that gave him his first glimpse ot of the rambling white farmhouse farm house he saw himself again a hatless barefoot boy it willow branch in ills his hand driving half a dozen unwilling cows before him A few minutes more and his aister ruth in a slip of a dross dress half concealing bronzed logs legs and her hair waving would hear his cries and rush to the center of the road head off the unruly animals and help him tur turn n them into the barnyard but no chil child d with bare bronzed legs and waving hair appeared in the roadway only a middle aged woman who had long been patiently waiting for this hour arose from her chair on tho the porch and hurried down the garden path to the gate tho the woman had prematurely gray hair arid and her narrow flat breasted figure was slightly bent as if from many weary years of hard labor to shield her in weak eak eyes from the last rays of the fading sunlight she raised her hand and from under its shade gazed long and steadily at the carefully dressed figure of the young old man mail slowly shuffling his way along lie he road at his near approach the woman threw wide tho the gate and with a great croy of joy stumbled forward into davids trembling arnis arms metropolitan ro |