The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-12-11


you are going to pay for every minute
of them. Mr.. Glider. There won't be
a day or an hour that / won't remem
Der that at the last it was your word
sen me to prison. And you are going
to pay me for that. You are going to
pay me for the five years l have starv-
ed making money for you-that too!
You are going to pay me for all the
things l am losing today, and
The girl thrust forth her left hand.
So vigorous was her movement that
Cassidy's clasp was thrown off the
wrist. But the bond between the two
was not broken, for from wrist to
wrist showed taut the steel chain of
the manacles. The girl shook the links
of the handouts in a gesture stronger
than words.
"You are going to pay me for this!'
she said. Her voice was little more
than a whisper, but it was loud in the
listeners heart. Eyes, you are going
to pay-for this!
They were grim years, those three
years during which Mary Turner serv-
ed her sentence In Burnsing. There
was no time off for good behavior. The
girl learned soon that the favor of those
set in authority over her could only be
won at a cost against which her every
maidenly instinct revolted. So she
went through the inferno Of days and
nights in a dreariness of suffering that
was deadly. Naturally the life there
was altogether an evil thing. There
was the material iii ever present In the
round Of wearisome physical toil-the
coarse distasteful food; the hard mar
row couch: the constant, gina wing irk-
someness Of Imprisonment, away from
light and air. away from all tina
makes life worth while.
The best evidence Of the fact that
Mary Turner's soul was not fatally
soiled must be found in the fact that
still at the expiration Of her sentence
she was fully resolved to live straight.
as the saying is which she had quoted
to Glider. This, too, in the face Of
sure knowledge as to the difficulties
that would beset the effort and In the
face OF the temptations offered to fol-
low an easier path.
There was, for example, Aggie
Lynch, a fellow convict. with whom
she had a slight degree Of acquaintance.
nothing more. This young woman, a
ovsiv.inoI hu fpaininD nffnrnh olIfIrn-
ments Of Legitimate employment in
the outer world when they should be
free. Mary endured the companion
ship with this prisoner because a sixth
sense proclaimed the fact that here
was one immoral rather than immoral.
and the difference is mighty.
For that reason Aggie Lynch was
not actively offensive, Is were most of
the others. She was a dainty little
blond, with a baby face. in which were
set two light blue eyes Of a sort to
widen often in demure wonder over
most things in a surprising and naugh-
ty world. She had been convicted Of
blackmail, and she made no pretense
even Of innocence. Instead, she was
inclined to boast v her ability to
bamboozle men at her will. She was
a natural actress Of the ingenue role,
and in that pose she could unfailingly
beguile the heart Of the wisest Of
worldly men.
She had been reared in a criminal
family. which must excuse much.
Long ago she had lost track Of her
father. Her mother she had never
known. Her one relation was a broth.
er Of high standing as a pickpocket.
One principal reason Of her success In
leading on men to make fools Of them
selves over her. to their everlasting re-
gret afterYard. lay In the fact that In