Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-11-11

the Waltons and advise them to stay
In New York when I had told him the
only thing they could do was to go
back home and forget Jim Haviland,
the crook? And Jamison knew that
would never be able to put my hand
on a dollar of that two hundred and
fifty thousand!
In the morning Jamison was on
hand early.
"The Waltons have gone." were his
first words.
THANK Heaven!" muttered.
"They have left the Waldorf and
are somewhere in New York." he add
ed, cycling me keenly.
what do you mean?" I demanded
fearfully.
"That they have probably taken
| cheap rooms somewhere, because they
haven't enough money to do anything
else"
as that helpless old man and his
daughter-"I shut my lips grimly.
Exactly" he declared, looking me
| straight in the eyes. "Mr. Haviland,"
he went on tersely, do you really be-
lieve that girl telephoned to the police
the fact that you were O'Hagen's muir
dered?"
"She did!" I averred doggedly, but
something in his tone made the breath
| catch in my throat.
"She did not!" He snapped the
three words out as he might have
| cracked the whip. "She did not leave
her room yesterday morning. Not an
outgoing telephone message came
from the Walton suite. But some one
called her at 11:49, and she hurried
| from the rooms to get a taxi"
l staggered against the stone wall
| of the cell. She had not betrayed me,
and L Good Heavens! / had let her
! suffer because l thought she had bro
ken her promise-because I was a
cur!
But the detective said" l began
! weakly, throwing sop to my crooked
self.
He thought 1t was Miss Walton
because 1t was a woman"
"But no woman could know!"
"Don't you suppose Mike Garven
needs women in his work?"
What a fool I'd been! OF course.
He probably planned her presence
at my arrest, just as he had planned
everything else.
"There are fifty detectives at work
in Richmond on Garven," said Jami.
son, kindly trying to change the sub.
ject. "a hundred more are raking
him over in New York. He knows
1t, tool"
HE hasn't taken them away!"
cried of a sudden new fear struck me-
'It won't help him any If he has,
the lawyer said grimly. HE is being
watched every minute"
Never mind Mike Garven!" I
choked. "Find the girl and her
father!"
} Your life depends on Mike Gar
ven," he reminded me.
What use is life like mine,"
blazed, when the happiness Of that
girl and her father are at stalker"
He put his hand on my shoulder.
''You are a man, Jim Haviland.' he
said. Then, almost bruskly: 1T will
take four days for your extradition
papers. won't fight that because
! have a hunch that I think I will be
stronger than all the detectives we
have on the trail. Fate can't be
wholly against a man like you"
"Find that girl-and tell her!" was
all would say.
He left me then; left me to the
thoughts that obsessed me. I imagin
ed I could see them in some uncleaI
i rooming- g-house, starving perhaps; fol
I knew that they would send every
s cent they had to the neighbors they
q could not return to face. A word from
E me would have changed it all-and
had withheld that word!
. No one but a dog would hav'
: thought of such thing. Why should
MT she betray mef Hadn't I sworl
my perjured oathi What mattered |
: II had won the fight in the hour
that came afterr
planned to rob them because
y meant the saving of my own wortt
less life; I had meant to condemn
them to q life of suffering 30 that
It might disgrace the world with m
e presence few years longer.
T The next day Jamison came an
" shook his head at my eager quer,
d No trace of them! They had pal
@ their bill at the Waldorf. sending
money-order of several hundred dc
o lars to the bank James had left. The
~ they had vanished.
y seemed to see the girl vainl
4 searching for work to keep body an
s soul together. could see her fac
pinched and wan. I was responsible
n. Nor was there news the next da,
i Nor the next. Jamison tried his bes
H. to brace me up. He failed. didn