Show PA n A by evel evelyn am campbell i i service i by evelyn campbell CHAPTER XII continued 19 she startled him by saying gudde denly you dont bellee believe I 1 meant to cheat people do youl you an and I 1 he hastened has teneil to assure her that he did not it was because somebody once told ne ine a wrong law of living and I 1 be lieven it and here I 1 aal she glanced around as if 1 her surroundings had just begun to 0 o matter A small note of terror crept into tier lier voice it was like walking the narrowest path be tween two precipices one slip and youre gone that Is what happened I 1 slipped and now nothing can ever put me back again I 1 allara ouara looked out of the cab aib win dow ile eie knew where they were t to 0 the fraction of an inch two blocks south and three enst east and around the corner corne sleet had bad changed to a steady rain more miserable and dan berous than the first turning the side walks and street into a sheet of tee ice on a night like this the place would bo be full what would they aliey do with tier a fine soft creature whose perfume filled the musty cab like a bunch of little spring flowers and nothing could ever put her back again she was right about that for there was tf it lot he told tier her there were the other women As it if his thought had called into a action c lion one of the sordid epochs of such a night at this moment from tile the S treet street on the right arose a hubbub of confusing sounds i the uproar of n motor pushed beyond its will thes the scream crenin of brakes jammed at a dangerous angle and two headlights streaming in the rain the alie two cars veered d dangerously together A huge lilack black bulk beside the smaller tavi elbowed it violently and for a second the min man find woman were given eh en n glimpse of one of the etchings of hell the inside inide of a patrol wagon jammed to Us its doors with women where had they been found and wily why had god made then them races faces without age and without soul bodies wrapped in sordid finery evil as the nosh flesh it concealed desperate eyes sodden eyes eyes that laughed ribald lv and eyes that did not care they huddled in the long black box bos will its iron BeTe screened ened sides flung there anyhow from rom god knows what beginning anil and simmy allara ailara saw with the life chills chilli down ills his back and the sweat under his bis collar what it wits was going to mean to the waman woman beside him when she was locked in a cell that ue lie had time to think all of them in there together 11 and to get ft a vision of white hands binds trying to hold the away the two cars careened together almost touching the tail driver swear ing loud and plaintively impossible to put on the brakes with tile street a skating rink the clank of slipping chains tile the ceaseless vibration of his wheel whee confused him film and the ugly merla clung there like a beetle I 1 no 0 o night for racing the taxi tail driver glanced almost pleadingly at the rush er cr trying to crowd him film into the curb and then lie he tried tiled to run for it two ghastly cargoes bound for the same port never to reach there sirens I 1 ro no time little to turn nowhere to go hurtling through emptiness tile the long red shining truck track dotted will flinging clinging figures of men was upon them one moment tile the terrible truck wheels were against the opposite curb land and then the front ant ones plumed plowed their way through a splinter of wood and ganss and bodies that hint tumbled like rag nig dolls here and there upon the bitter paiement pm ement two wrecked cars and a hook and ladder equipment slowly righting itself under the impatient guidance of men anxious to 0 be on their way to the work of saving a few floors and walks waits from a threatened blaze A policeman taking charge nodded the permission to go on Noli Nob odys fault of course historical women were crying some of them cursing bit terly between their sobs A curious crowd retrieved ved from pool halls and abird loss eines restaurants pressed enger eager ly forward the accident was bad enough to draw them from their warm shelters tile the patrol wagon rested grotesquely on two wheels and ft a bent axle but the taxi was a complete disaster somebody was wiping blood from tile the drivers head fiend and declaring over and over again that lie he dead as if lie was the only one that mattered this I 1 the policeman bent down to look at two figures that lay side bide by side the mans cont fallen open d ds played fl a badat hadn t shining on his breast tile the discoverer was lm relied polled to a more vital interest A roan man from central oll of icel fleet he cried celini detective jimmy ahira opened ills his eyes slowly ills mind was perfectly clear because his liend liml had not been injured fit at all the rest of lit him in was bulte alte stend land and he had bad seen elou enough h of death to Q know till athla for or aich self elf lie knew what had happened too tile the crash of impact faill lingered in his mentality ills brain was BBS clear ani and as re resonant s anant as aa a bell which lias has ju just st b been el n rung but tits ills numb body wa con conscious clous of a heavy wel weight ot putting pulling against one shoulder lie he man macagni agNI to t turn urn his eyes down downward ard and saw a face there a dead face with dead yellow hair and spots spot of red paint on the cheek check bones A horrible thing to be dragging a in mm in down who 0 was with you officer do nia banded ded the ilie policeman with will ills his notebook I 1 under rider ills his nose did you iou have a pr prisoner idoner jimmy hollarn remembered ile he remembered perfume white hands and soft slenderness tine fine as silk lying a against tits ills shoulder for a second as the crash came ile he remembered duty lie Is lifted tits his heavy eyes again and saw her like a dream standing over him pitying like a person too horrified to move and lie he remembered vernom berd duty again but what is a mans d duty y 7 Is it the thing lie has promised other men to do or the pron irit of f that intimate stranger who r sits 1 in judgment when the body sleeps jimmy allara Ol 0 llara lara who all tits his life hod had done the right thing as right Is 11 nc copied behold now a sort of will white light a highway opening beside his narrow path nearly everything w ang a s dead as the world calls lead dead hour him but this was the clearest clea iest vision lie lind ever known here she Is he said with a weak nean motion toward the heavy thing upon its his arm and shut its his eyes ees fur for good and all CHAPTER XIII because I 1 love her brian anstey ansley malting making tits his way through tile the long rooms evaded evade successfully cess fully tile the inveigling efforts of if people eo plebe he knew abood A good looking thap the right sponsors may not at such x m time reath reach a plen given point in a given time without encountering ull till the op position that soft eyes eves softer smiles detaining murmurs may throw in his hh way bay spond a bulwark of black shoulders deis daisy fentress Pen sent seat a w wistful glance site she alone might have called to him film but she would not lie ile saw simon apart and taut less than other men in stature yet towering aloe above them a personality on stilts ue lie saw a dozen doyen men whose names and words were malting making history and saw raw them for the first time as individuals who nho annoyed him by getting in hl hi vi vilay nay lay ant and at last lie ile got a glimpse of the man it he was looking for converse was paying paving poll dlo 1 11 compliments to a lady 11 lie seemed to admire tier lier olle olive shoulders frankly pasted with snowy sh shellac ellae more moie than anything in the world ills ilia high color was undimmed ills his small eyes were nere bland bluml and avlo as ever yet brian spoke to him film without hesitation come with me he said in a low voice olce converse looked around in surprise ile he was amazed to be spoken to in that ni manner anner hut flat when lie saw brians face he excused himself to his companion and nd followed they went to tile the room that brian had left a few minutes before the atmosphere of linda iloth floth still lingered fingered there in some strange fasl fashion itol ns s it if over the thousand perfumes of tile the crowded rooms beyond tier her own on clung intangibly to the drooping fern fronds or trembled somewhere in tile the golden haze haye of shaded lamps 11 II forced them to admit her presence presen ce but they were alone there and brian could endure to see tile groat great bulk of converse sprawled upon abo fruit frail settee where she had rested the faint shattering of one of the file imitation pearls as 03 it perished did not move inove him film ns as it might have done so far was ns lie removed from the sentiment of little things TO BE CONTINUED |