Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-08-01

He now felt sure that Nelson was
James Montgomery and that the finger
print test would prove 1t beyond a
shadow of a doubt. But he did not
bay his delight as would the real
hound when bis quarry was run down.
He realized that the task before him
was going to smack of danger. Mel
son was fairly idolized by the people
among whom be had found refuge
from the law. These people were
more or less primitive and had a
of justice not built upon statutes
reeled off yearly by corrupt legislators.
If the news spread that Nelson had
been made a prisoner and was to be
taken from the community he had
made better and happier for his exist
ence there. at least the rough country
people would protest. These people he
had fed when hungry. had succored
from distress and had sheltered when
shelterless.
officer, the machine-like product of
machine government. and he would
run no chance of his man slipping
from him after all these years. He
followed Nelson into the operating
room and saw him greet his wife.
Upper and neither files of bright new
needles CRASHED away steadily at their
work as the girls fed them with ma
terial, and the finished product flowed
into large wicker baskets.
A number of the young women. In
terested as young women are In a
bride and groom. turned at their work
to watch with many smiles and mods
the greeting between Nelson and Mol
ly. One of the girls. with a heavy
mass of black hair. had dropped her
tresses because of the heat of the day.
Nelson saw her turn with a smile to
speak to another operative several feet
away. In a second he realized her
danger. A strand of her hair In one
of the cogs of the machinery and she
would meet q frightful death.
He forgot his own terrible predica-
ment, although his own fate, trembling
In the balance, was even worse than
death.
A braid of the girls hair swept into
the steel cogs of the machine she had
been operating. At the pull on her
scalp she uttered a shrek that rang
through the building. The tireless
double row of needles worked away
within a few inches of the head Of the
unfortunate girl.
Her cry was echoed by a roar from
Nelson to the man In charge of the
switch controlling the current
In two bounds he reached the girl
and caught the fastened braid of hair
with both hands. Her head fell under
his right arm. He gave q mighty.
twisting pull rs the current was cut
of and the machine hogan to slow
down. The hair was torn free OF the
cogs and the girl dropped In a dead
faint to the floor. The needles still
flashed. but slowly.
Kearney had run toward Nelson to
help in the rescne of the girl If be
conld. He saw the mill president stag
ger al IL faint. His face was whittier
than the sheet of paper he had nsed to
hold bis charcoal dust.
The detective saw Nelson's lips come
together in a firm. blue line. The
blood had left them. He spread forth
his hands and in one terrible, CHASTITY
moment made his sacrifice.
The two hands fell between the
bright needles, and the upper and
neither files sunk into them, tearing
through every finger. destroying COM
pletely the one strange stamp Of abso-
lutte human individuality that nature
has provided-the record of the flesh
itself.
No cry escaped Nelson's lips. The
agony was keen. But what was such
agony compared to that which would
be his If the man from New York DO
lice headquarters slipped handouts
upon him and took him from his wife.
from the people he had worked with
and for, to be taken away and be bur
fed alive2
Molly had started toward her nus
band, but her woman's nature was not
equal to the horror of the
She fell face downward to the floor.
The machinery came to q full stop.
but the steel jaws had closed over Mel
sons hands.
Kearney was the nearest man to
him.
Just move that iron rcd to the right