The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16


 You are quite right" she said. "sc l far as Jack Ashton is concerned, have ! no interest whatsoever. whether he is I taken or escapes. To avoid the added scandal and distress which your arr ! rest and trial would bring to your fa- ther, wish you to get away That I is all"
 But Ashton could not be denied so easily His heart had leaped at pos- sibility which hope held out to him. Helen he pleaded, will you let me explain? Let mo tell you. am not what they say I am I did not steal intentionally. I used the money, but l did not know. I have wanted to tell T do not care to hear" she replied coldly, and Ashton, with a gesture of despair, again fell back upon the cushions.
 It was strange ride Jack Ashton and Helen Norman took that night. Swiftly past block after block of flat | buildings. through streets dimly light ed by flaring gas lamps, Helen Nor- man, educated, refined heiress to more ] than halfva million, drove her car. Be- hind hor, abjectly crouching, disheart- ened. sat the former friend and lover, now criminal for whom every pollce- man in the city had watched for months. A recollection of her step ] mind and she smiled grimly. A man had leld pistol at her head as Mrs. l Norman had suggested, and she had 1 done as he had ordered, without hesi- 1 tation, even as she had said she would. True, he had not asked for her purse, but lie had threatened her fife if she refused to obey.
 1 ly come to shooting when she would not stop. Would he have--7 She 1 started as she realised the meaning l of the question that came to her. Giv- ] ing her, attention wholly to the ma | chine, she tried to put the thought aside. She turned suddenly to the right and a few blocks brought them l to the shore drive. Here she turned north again. The waves softly Tapped 1 the gravel beach. The night was still. l But she was not conscious of the things l which surrounded her. The question would not down. The wheels seemed to repeat 1t in ceaseless monotone. When she had told Ashton her req son for aiding his escape, she believed she was speaking the truth, but as the 1 question came back to her again and again. she knew she had been wrong. l She did care, she did want him to es- cape for his own sake, after all. Would he have cared when he dis. covered whom he had kiIled?" was the question she asked herself. and she grew hot and cold as she had not done when she felt the cold steel against her neck. Would he have caredT' Why should she ask herself that ques- tion unless she cared? Did she? And though she blushed at the thought, her heart told her she did. But per- haps-and she caught at the hope-per- haps, he was not guilty, after all. He wanted to explain something just now, | -Ir An 1Ak hNw.m HyaIT he had anything to tell, she would hear him.
 To Ashton that ride was never clear. Silently he sat through it, while his fair chauffeur carried him on and on l toward safety. Bitterness at the per- fdy of one he had trusted. mingled with despair, as the months of his rowing, the constant flight and evasion of police in a dozen cities, passed be- fore him like a horrible panorama. En a day the hopes of his careless youth had been dlssipated. Name and for tune were gone Without hope for the future, bent only on avoiding the law, he had wandered. It was bad enough to be banlshed thus, an outcast, he thought. He would not stand the add ed misery of Imprisonment. A chance paragraph in Canadian newspaper notified him of his fathers return. He was reported broken An health, and the son had risked all to see him once again, to tell him what he had not been able to tell him before. How the police had learned of his presence in tine city, he could not guess, but he had not been with his father half an hour when he discovered the house was surrounded An exit through the study window, a stealthy retreat in the shadow of the trees. the impending cer- tainty of discovery by the watchers, and the desperate expedient to escape. And then, as If Fate had not yet had its laugh, this meeting with the one person in all the world whom he would have avoided,
 Wei, he knew how she regarded him, at any rate. Sleepless nights he had wondered If she. too, believed with the world in his guilt. He had turned her ring on his finger, kissed it. and, fancy taking him back, had lived over again the night when she gave 1t to him. Tonight she had recognized him by the ring before she saw his face.
 So they drove, each deep in thought while the miles were left behind. The city blocks had long disappeared. and now they were out in the open. Dim forms rose to right or left ahead, ap- preached, enyeloped them in shadow, and fell behind. With eyes straight ahead and hand firm on the steering gear, Miss Norman sat erect, alert and watchful against possible accident of the road, Th@1eool wind on her fore head, and thsrthrob and culver of the car filled her with a great exultation. Now and then she stopped to the levers. as where a dangerous crossing or sharp curve made slower going neces- sary, or again, where the course stretched straight before, permitting another rush ahead, Now they were approaching Lake Shore, and in six or seven minutes the ride would be at an end.
 Miss Norman bent ever so little, and gave a sudden pull. There was cracking sound underneath the car, harsh, grinding sreech, and a shock which threw Ashton violently forward as the machine came suddenly to standstill. In an instant, Helen had sprung to the ground, and was fumh- ling with one hand under the car. Ash. ton alighted and stood beside her.
 What is the matter?" he asked.
 Miss Norman continued her search lamps and let me have little light" she demanded. Ashton did as he was told.
 A momentary examination seemed to satisfy her. She rose, carelessly brushed the, dust from her skirt and sat down calmly on large stone on one side of the road.
 We can go no farther" she said.
 Something in the tone of her voice gave him sudden thrill. As though by accident, he turned the light upon her face. but the lamps ray surprised no look he had hoped to find Her expression was calm. self-containAd, natural. He crossed the road and si- Ienflv seated himself on the turf at