The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-23
SYNOPSIS

SYNOPSIS Lamar escapes death at the hands ot | the fanatical Borden by the timely ar
 rival of the police. Borden kills himself
 The gas has aXphyXiated the son. Think
 ing that the circle branded family is ex-
 tinct, Lamar is surprised to see the Red Circle on the hands of woman in a
 swiftly passing automobile. He manages 1 to get the license number. 1 Grant, a notorious loan shark, is locked
 in his vault and batch of valuable notes are stolen.
 l Fastening to notify the police, he finds i his chauffeur and car to be missing. He | reaches the police headquarters in a taxi 1 cab and tells Chief of Police Allen of his
 loss. Lamar is present.
 l AS they speak, the missing car is seen passing, the same one that Lamar is in i terested in They overtake the car, but ! occupant has gone The chauffeur shows a forged order for the car. The woman
 in black sinks into a nearby park and ] turns her coat inside out, exposing a 1 dress and hat of white
 | The woman in black is no other than
 June Travis. At home she writes let l ters anonymously informing Grant clien- l tele of the destruction of the notes. Mary, the notes.
 Grants clients storm the office and show him the letters they have received thus freeing them from all obligation to him. Mary confronts June with the note and June confesses
 The years had slipped away. Once more the grown woman was a peni- tent little child at the knee of the
 nurse who idolized her and whose | chief joy in life was to soothe away
 tha Uttie ones woes. June felt this strangely sweet influence of the pro- tecting love. And 1t was like balm to 1 her wrecked spirit. She knew now that she could tell her story to this woman who understood-who always ! understood. And, bravely she begun her confession.
 q think I've gone mad" said June. I can't understand it any other way. l can't account, any other way, for the fearful power that has taken hold of me, from time to time, this past day or two. I don't understand my self. I can't believe it's really I, who
 am swayed by these horrible impulses.
 Tiff we lived in olden times. Mary, I'd honestly believe I was a victim or Witchcraft or-or possessed of a devil like people in Bible days A demon seems to have entered into me to make me want to do things-Id never dreamed of doing a few days ago. You're-youre sure you won't hate me if I tell you?"
 A reassuring pressure of the arms that held her so closely was the only reply
 June received-or desired. The girl slipped to the floor and kneeling there, her face against Marys breast, she told her story. Tt began just the other day. she whis- pered. All in fash You remember, told you about my going to the prison
 with mother, the day Circle Jim Borden was relea sed-and the way he repulsed
 me when I spoke to him?@ "Yes. Yes" assented Mary, her lined face palng and an unaccountable shud- der convulsing her slender old body. "I
 remember
 why do you quiYer like that, Mary?' asked the girl. And when I first told you about meeting Borden at the prison your face went ghastly. I asked you why, and you wouldn't tell me. Did you ever know him or-?''
 No. No, indeed;" disclamed the nurse, "Of course, I didn't. What foolish idea v "Then, why-?"
 "Oh, I don't know, dearie. Perhaps be-
 cause I hate to think of folks being sent
 to jail, like he was Go on with your
 story. I want to know all about it.
 Well" resumed June, just few hours
 after I left the prison, all at once I had
 the strangest sensation. It seemed to
 start in my brain and go all over me. It
 was as if something had snapped, in my
 soul. I can't explain it. And the strangest
 impulses came surging through my mind. IT felt like a crminaln
 "Dearie."
 q did. I felt as a criminal must feel.
 felt a craving to commit crime; a love
 for it's perils, hideous crafty wit at es- capying the laws puishment It was
 it was"
 Little girl Little grill" soothed Mary,
 as sob choked June's hushed voice. That's nothing. It's just bad nerves,
 most likely Instead of going to dances
 and all such gay doings, the way other pretty girls do, you've been spending too much time visiting poor folks and read ing those nasty prison reports and help ing jail birds and such like It's gotten
 on your mind till you're all run down: and you've begun to feel like a criminal yourself. It's the same way with me, every time l read a patent medicine ad- vertisement; l begin thinking I've got all the symptoms the advertisement tells | about. And yet all the time I'm no more an invalid than you're-than you're criminal!"
 T am crminal!"
 ' June spoke the words very quietly and with no trace of emotion. But her sweet
 voice was dead and in her big, dark eyes
 was an utter hopelessness that it wrung Marys soft old heart to see "A criminal" repeated the nurse in fine scorn. You? You're one of the salt of
 the earth, Baby. That's what you are Your souls white enough to stand before the Judgment seat. this very minute. You shan't say such things about Mary's baby girl. It's all along of spending your time
 working over the poor and at jails and" Its true' persisted June, misera bly, l am a criminal Listen: I had heard from so many poor people about George Grant and the way he bled them. that had always hated the man. I had longed to rescue some of his miserable victims the people he kept poor by wringng out rageous interest money But never had thought it would be in my power to 1 do it."
 1 Mary's eyes strayed unconsciously to ! the newspaper as it lay sprawled on the | f1oor-the newspaper on whose front page