The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-09-16
CHAPTER xxxIII.

There was a heavy town-fog that
afternoon. a smoke-mist, densest in the
sanctuary of the temple. The people
went about in it, busy and dirty.
thickening their outside and inside
Innings Of coai-tar. asphalt. sulphurous
acid, oil of vitriol, and the other famil-
lar things the men. liked to breathe and
to have upon their skins and garments
and upon their wives and babies and
sweethearts. The growth of the city
was visible in the smoke and the noise
and the rush. There was more smoke
than there had been this day of Febru-
airy year earlier; there was more
noise; and the crowds were thicker
yet quicker in spite of that. The traf-
ic policeman had a hard time. for
the people were independent-they re-
tanned some habits of the old market
town period. and would cross the
street anywhere and anyhow, which
not only got them killed more frequent
~ than if they chung to the legal cross
ings. but kept the mOtormen, the chauf-
feurs and the truck drivers in a stew
of profane nervousness. So the traf-
fic policemen led harried lives; they
I
a certain periodicity, but their main
trouble was that they could not make
the citizens realize that it was actu-
ally and MORALLY perilous to go about
their city. 1t was strange. for there
were probably no citizens of any
length of residence who had not per
sOnalIy known either someone who had
been killed or injured in an accident.
or someone who had accidentally killed
or injured others. And yet, perhaps
| it was not strange, seeing the sharp
! preoccupation of the faees-the people
had something on their minds; they
could not stop to bother about dirt and
danger
Mary Vertrees was not often down
town; she had never seen an accident
until this afternoon. She had come
/ upon errands for her mother connected
with a timoroqs REIMBURSEMENT; and as
she did these. in and out OF the depart
ment stores. she had an fnsistent con-
sciousness of the Sheridan building
From the street, anywhere. it was al
most always in sight. like some mon
strous geometrical shadow. murk-coI-
ored and rising limitlessly into the
swimming heights of the smoke-mist
1t was gaunt and grimy and repellent
it had nothing but strength and size
but In that consciousness Of Mary's
the great structure may have partaken
Of beauty. Sheridan had made some
of the things he said emphatic enough
to remain with her She went over
and over them-and they began &c
seem true: '.Only one girl he could
feel that sorry forF' Quincy says
he's got you on his brain so bad
The mans clumsy talk began to sing
in her heart. The song was begun
there when she saw the accident
She was directly opposite the Sheri
! dan building then, waiting for the traf
fc to thin before she crossed, though
other people were risking the passage
darting and hating and lodging par
: lousy. Two men came from the crow6
behind her, talking earnestly, and
: started across. Both wore black: one
} was tall and broad and thick. and the
other was taller, but noticeably slen
Z der. And Mary caught her breath. fol
( they were Bibbs and his father. TheJ
did not see her. and she caught
phrase Of Bfbbs' mellow voice, which
I had taken crisper ring: sixty eigA
thousand dollars7 Not sIxty-eight thou
} sand buttonsg It startled her Queerly