Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-07-19
~The Gates Of Silence
By Meta Smmfns, Anfhor Of flushed Up"

is that you be taken hence to the place
from whence you came and from thence to
place of lawful execution, and that then
and there you be banged by the neck un-
til you are dead. And that your body be
buried within the precincts of the prison
wherein you shall have been last confined
after you conviction. And may the Lord
have mercy upon your SOUL"
The prison chaplain uttered a low
Amen"
May the Lord Oh, surely God must
intervene-it couldn't be possible that a
man should suffer the supreme penalty for
| another's sin. The world grew suddenly
i dark about Betty Lumsden, and the sound
| of many waters roared in her ears.
AS the sound of the chapain's single,
softly uttered word died. the silence be7
came hum-a hum instantly subdued not
by the ushers but by unanimously con-
centra ted interest. Some one had risen
in the court-a woman
Several men rose hastily and went 10
her assistance. One man laid his hand
on her, but she shook it off with a cry-it
was Paul Sake
Let me speak"
At the sound of this appraised voice, the
prisoner showed the first sign of emotion
he had displayed during the course of the
trial His face suddenly ashen he leaned
forward, his hands grasping the bar in
front of him
But it was not at the woman's face not
at Betty Lumsdens grief-confronted face
that his eyes were fixed. 1t was at Paul
SAKE that he looked with a glance of en-
treaty
1.-THE sound was hardly audible as
the girl uttered it she fell forward heaily
! Z Loot
as he was being hurried from the dock
was the inert body of the faintng woman
he loved supported by Paul Saxes arms
face like a white flower against the
blackness of his shoulder
That was the memory that made Of
each of the long hours of the night
when he lay staring with wide eyes into
the semi darkness Of his prison cell
separate inferno for Jack Rimington
rather than the thought of the death
that was SO soon to come to him In the
half numbed. half-dazed condition to
which fatigue and nervous strain had
reduced him. this coming death seemed
all mercifuL lovely. a yelled bride whose
kiss would bring forgetfulness. After
wards would come the moment of awak-
ening the inevitable struggle when the
love of life that lies so close and deep in
the heart of every one of us had quick
ened. But in the meantime. for his tor
ture, more bitter than the lash. the mem
CRY Of this picture burned in upon his
brain-Betty in anothers arms Betty
Betty
The walls of the cell widened out and
disappeared. The hard stretch of the bed
on which he lay lessened to the seat of
a punt and he sat under the shadow
of overhanging trees and told a girl that
old story which is ever new:
"a love you, Betty! Betty, love you'll"
A sudden cry broke from him; he start
ed up and sat on the edge of the bed
his head on his hands, his body shaken
by a mans awful fearless sobs. Not for
him loves dalliancc not for him the
bright eyes of the woman he loved How
long would the same world hold them
both? They had told him, but he had
forgotten. A few hours-a few days
and then
TO be taken hence to place of law
full execution. and there to be hanged by
the neck until he was dead
1t wasn't just God knew he could
not bear it. He started up wildly and
dashed toward the door of the cell like a
man possessed by a sudden madness The
light falling through the spy-hole in the
door showed his face in that moment
to the vgilant watcher as something less
than human. Then, with a hardly con
scicus instinct Rmington flung up his
hards guardinSly before his face. as
though he realized that it was not law
full that any eyes should look down into
the utter nakedness OF. his tortured soul