Evening star., 1921-09-26
FROM NOW ON
BY FRANK L. PACKARD.
Copyright. 1891, BY Public Ledger Go.
Copyright, 1891. by Z. H. Davis Corp.

In that respect he was satisfied ne
was now ready to leave the prison
and make the most OF tnat hunule GU
thousand dollars-not as &
skate" blowing it TO the wlnus' ~
as one who would make 1T pay olvi-
dends on those five years OF sers..uue .;os
that represented it's purchase price
1t was enough, that amount 1or tne
rest of his life, if he took care OF IL.
1t meant comfort. independence lux
ury. He didn't want any more. ina,
was the amount he had ALREADY iiAeu
and decided upon even before the op
portunity had come to take IT. II
was his first job-but it was equally
his last. And 1t was his last because
he had waited until, at the nfst at
tempt he had got all he wanted. ne
wasn't coming back to the penlteh.
tiary any more. He was going out
! for good-in sixty-three days.
piker, low-brow' life at the end OF
those sixty three days when he got
out. He had had enough OF tnat;
That was one reason why ne nao
taken the money-to pitch that one
seamy room at Tooler's and the rot
card, and he was ready now, equipped
to play the part he meant to play.
He had spent the years here learning
not to eat with his knife, either lit
orally or metaphorically. But there
were only sixty-three days left, and
there was still one thing he hadn't
done, one problem still left unsolved,
which of late had been growing into
nightmare proportions. In the earlier
years of his sentence he had put 1t
aside-until the time came. That
time was here now-and the prob
lem was still aside.
He had made all other preparations.
q ha1
by means of a fellow convict who
was going out. discharged, with
Square John Kelly of the Pacific Coral
Saloon in San Francisco, with whom
he had invested his savings-that
three thousand dollars at 6 per cent.
And he had had foresight enough to
do this months ago in order to give
Kelly time to pull the money out of
his business and have it ready in
cash: for he wasn't quite sure where
the law stood on this point. Failing
to recover the proceeds of the Tyde-
man robbery, the law might conf1s-
cate those saving@if the LAW knew
anything about them. But the law
didn't-and wouldn't. Square John
had sent back word that everything
was all right.
But there was still one problem left
man again and outside these walls.
of getting that hundred thousand dol
lars away from under the noses Of
the police and then giving the police
the slip. And this. grown to monu-
mental proportions in the last few
some evil familiar that had taken
possession of both his waking and
sleeping hours. And there came upon
him now, as 1T had come again and
again in these last months, that scene
in the hospital when he had first
opened his eyes to consciousness and
they had rested on the face of the
man who had run him to earth-Bar-
jan, Lieut.. Joe Barjan. Of the Frisco
plain-clothes squad. And Joe Bar
JAMS words were ringing In his ears
now; ringing, somehow, with cursed
knell in them:
Don't fool yourself! It's a hell of
a long time in the pen. And If you
think you could get away with the
wad when you get out again, you've
got another think coming, too! Take
it from me!
An acute sense of the realization
of the tangibility of his surroundings
seized upon him and brought a chill
to his heart. That hard. unyielding
cot; these walls, that Gagged him with
in their few scanty feet of space: his
keepers voices, that lashed out their
commands; the animals, of which he
was one, that toiled upon the eternal
VI uds "hOoC ChA Ool AoA
told another of like horror and 1oath-
ing to come. Barjan had told the
truth; more Of the truth than Barjan
ever knew, or could know that he
had told. 1t had been hell of a
long time. Long! His face, as he
still paced the cell, grayed under the
prison pallor. God, it had been long!
Years of damnable torment that had
shut him out from the freedom that
he loved! 1t had been price beyond
all reck oning that he had paid for
that hundred thousand dollars. But
he had paid. it! He had paid it-paid
it, He had gone all the way-gone
the limit. Was Barian, right in one
thing, right in that other thing as
well-that at the end they would beat
him?
CONTINUED in Tomorrows Star.)