Evening star., 1921-10-09

you; ana ..H have it done with. I'm
Keep up those h.nds~
IT won't" He lowered them de-
family. Il w-wanted to m-make Part
rtdgeville to see the old lady. Shed
| n goin' back to that hell where I
been the last two years. Go on! Why
don't you shoot?
You wanted to make Partridge
Vile and see-whoT
MY mother-and my wife.
you got a-wife?"
Yes. and three kids. Why don't
! It seemed an con that they stood
| 80. The Mcbride woman was trying
| to nnd the nerve to fire. She could
not. In that instant she made a
| discovery that many luckless souls
! make too late; to kill q man Is easy
| to talk about, easy to write about.
But to stand deliberately face to face
with fellow-human-alive. pulsing.
breathing, fearing, hoping. loving,
living-point weapon at him that
would take his life. blot him from the
| earth, negate twenty or thirty years
Of childhood. youth. maturity. and
make him in an instant-nothing!-
| that is quite another matter.
| He was helpless before her now.
| Perhaps the expression on his face
had something to do with the sud-
| den revulsion that halted her finger.
| Facing certain death, some Of the
| evil in those crooked eyes seemed to
die out, and the terrible personality
| of the man to fade. Regardless of her
danger. regardless of what he would
| have done to her II luck had not
turned the tables, Cora Mcbride saw
| before her only a lone man with all
society's hand against him. realizing
| hn a " q ha o. IN
limit and lost, two big tears creep
ing down his unshaved face. waiting
Three childrenw she whispered
family.
| yes"
You're going back to see then? ?''
Yes, and my mother. Mother'd help
me get to Canada-somehow."
X * + X
CORA MCBRIDE had forgotten all
about the FIVE thousand dollars.
She was stunned by the announce
ment that this man had relatives
mother, a wife, three babies. The
human factor had not before occurred
to her. Murderers! They have no
| tears. to have wives and babies, to
1
get to Canada regardless Of what
| their earthly indiscretions may have
| been.
| AT this revelation the gun point
wavered. The sight of those tears
| on his face sapped her will power
even as wound in her breast might
have drained her life blood.
| Her great moment had been given
| her. She was letting it slip away.
She had her reward in her hand for
| the mere pulling of a trigger and no
incrimination for the result. For a
bungling the situation unpardonably
fatally.
The gun sank, sank-down out OF
the light, down out of sight
And the next instant he was upon
her.
The hash-lamp was knocked from
her hand and blinked out II struck
the stove and she heard the tinkle
of the broken lens. The woman's
hand caught at the sacking before
the window at her shoulder. Grip
ping 1t wildly to save herself from
the onslaught, she tore it away. For
the second time the revolver was
twisted from her raw fingers.
The man reared upward, over her
Where are you?" he roared again
and again. I'll show you"
| Outside the great yellow moon OF
early winter. arising late, was COM
ing up over the silhouetted line OF
purple mountains to the eastward. II
illumined the cabin with faint radi-
ance, disclosing the woman crouch
ing beneath the table.
The man saw her, pointed his
weapon point-blank at her face and
fired.
| To Cora Mcbride, PROSTATE there
in her terror, the impact of the bull
let felt like the blow of a stick upon
] the cheek bone, rocking her head
Her cheek felt warmly numb. She
pressed a quick hand involuntarily
| against it. and drew it away sticky
| with blood.
Click! Click! Click!
Three times the revolver mechan.
ism was worked to accomplish hel
destruction. But there was no fur